Planet Upgrades For Punters
Posted by: garth on 08 January 2003
I am wondering if any of you have been succesful with easy, cheap, improvements to the Rega Planet. In particular, I am wondering if the squishy sorbothane feet are best or if replacing them with something like Soundcare Superspikes etc. might improve, open up, etc., the sound? Maybe Rega knows best and things should just be left as they are.
cheers,
garth
cheers,
garth
Posted on: 08 January 2003 by ET
The biggest improvements I had to my planet (original not new 2000) was putting it on home made "roller blocks" these were basically half circle drawer pulls that were mounted in blocks. Three on the bottom with 3/4" ball bearings in them and then 3 on top of that. It made for a somewhat wobbly set up when changing discs, but was safe, as the blocks were all blu-tacked in place. The sound change was significant, even the wife noticed. The other change was adding a ADCOM DAC and jitter reducer. The gain appeared to go up some and I feel things got a little brighter and possibly clearer, I hope this helps, I am not blessed with a golden ear, the blocks are a cheap try at a good improvement.
Tim E. - Seattl
Tim E. - Seattl
Posted on: 08 January 2003 by Craig B
Seriously Garth, I am not following you around, nor do I wish to become your personal audio consultant (at least not for free). BTW, shouldn't you be incessantly tweaking your turntables VTF and AS?
By coincidence, I have just recently purchased a used Planet for my spare room system which is now Planar2/Elys/Planet/Radio/Elex/Kytes.
Your statement "Maybe Rega knows best and things should just be left as they are" says it all wrt substituting hard feet for the compliant ones provided as Rega mount the transport mechanism directly to the players aluminum chassis (hence the higher level of mechanical noise that one hears transmitted via the chassis). As such the Planet absolutely requires compliant feet in order to isolate the mech/chassis from external resonance. Substituting spikes, alloy or ceramic cones will only serve to worsen the sound as the mech/chassis needs wider bandwidth decoupling than such devices can provide. IMO, those that claim an improvement are compensating for system problems elsewhere with some serious fault masking.
There is some method in Rega's apparent design madness as the usual polymer/sprung suspensions can degrade/go out of alignment over time. Rega claim that their aluminum chassis also acts as a enery sink, dissisapating unwanted resonance generated by the mech. Other designers may well disagree with this approach but Rega do have a knack of keeping things simple whilst delivering the goods. Rege would also likely argue that their system is the best compromise at the price.
A valid alternative approach to substitute feet would be to place the Planet on top of a sub-platform that in turn has hard feet beneath it such as spikes, machined alloy cones or captured ball bearings (I assume that Tim E. was referring to a variation on this theme above). This type of sub-platform de-couples the cdp from the resonant mass of your cabinets in the same way that light, rigid floor stands alter the resonant spectra 'seen' by the components placed upon their shelves (I believe that you did mention that your gear is not on purpose built audio stands).
As to worthwhile tweaks, if you haven't done so already, I would suggest that you first start with better interconnects that those provide with the player.
Also consider terminating the SP/DIF (digital) output with a 75 Ohm resistor across the live and neutral (one can solder a resistor into a spare RCA plug or purchase from Radio Shack a male F (cable) connector to RCA adaptor and a 75 Ohm F connector screw on terminator). In many cases a correctly terminated SP/DIF output provides a subtle but noticable improvement particularly in the area of high frequency grain.
Another area worth considering is the thorny subject of dedicated equipment supports. Something light and rigid like your Lack table would be ideal assuming you have room to fit another in. BTW, have you added floor spikes to your Lack yet? A spiked Lack takes some beating. A decent spare set of speaker stand spikes and some press fit T-nuts (available from any fastener shop) into the bottom end of the Lack's legs and you're away).
Lastly, an absolutely free tweak to try is to simply reverse the polarity of the power plug. The Planet's two pin plug has same width pins and can be easily switched round after first turning off the player. You may find that one particular way round consistently sounds better but, beware the onset of AOCD (Audiophile Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) as this hobby can surely drive one to distraction if one lets it.
Until next time enjoy the music,
Craig
By coincidence, I have just recently purchased a used Planet for my spare room system which is now Planar2/Elys/Planet/Radio/Elex/Kytes.
Your statement "Maybe Rega knows best and things should just be left as they are" says it all wrt substituting hard feet for the compliant ones provided as Rega mount the transport mechanism directly to the players aluminum chassis (hence the higher level of mechanical noise that one hears transmitted via the chassis). As such the Planet absolutely requires compliant feet in order to isolate the mech/chassis from external resonance. Substituting spikes, alloy or ceramic cones will only serve to worsen the sound as the mech/chassis needs wider bandwidth decoupling than such devices can provide. IMO, those that claim an improvement are compensating for system problems elsewhere with some serious fault masking.
There is some method in Rega's apparent design madness as the usual polymer/sprung suspensions can degrade/go out of alignment over time. Rega claim that their aluminum chassis also acts as a enery sink, dissisapating unwanted resonance generated by the mech. Other designers may well disagree with this approach but Rega do have a knack of keeping things simple whilst delivering the goods. Rege would also likely argue that their system is the best compromise at the price.
A valid alternative approach to substitute feet would be to place the Planet on top of a sub-platform that in turn has hard feet beneath it such as spikes, machined alloy cones or captured ball bearings (I assume that Tim E. was referring to a variation on this theme above). This type of sub-platform de-couples the cdp from the resonant mass of your cabinets in the same way that light, rigid floor stands alter the resonant spectra 'seen' by the components placed upon their shelves (I believe that you did mention that your gear is not on purpose built audio stands).
As to worthwhile tweaks, if you haven't done so already, I would suggest that you first start with better interconnects that those provide with the player.
Also consider terminating the SP/DIF (digital) output with a 75 Ohm resistor across the live and neutral (one can solder a resistor into a spare RCA plug or purchase from Radio Shack a male F (cable) connector to RCA adaptor and a 75 Ohm F connector screw on terminator). In many cases a correctly terminated SP/DIF output provides a subtle but noticable improvement particularly in the area of high frequency grain.
Another area worth considering is the thorny subject of dedicated equipment supports. Something light and rigid like your Lack table would be ideal assuming you have room to fit another in. BTW, have you added floor spikes to your Lack yet? A spiked Lack takes some beating. A decent spare set of speaker stand spikes and some press fit T-nuts (available from any fastener shop) into the bottom end of the Lack's legs and you're away).
Lastly, an absolutely free tweak to try is to simply reverse the polarity of the power plug. The Planet's two pin plug has same width pins and can be easily switched round after first turning off the player. You may find that one particular way round consistently sounds better but, beware the onset of AOCD (Audiophile Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) as this hobby can surely drive one to distraction if one lets it.
Until next time enjoy the music,
Craig