![]() ![]() Gandy said that the end result was “so startling” that it did indeed give Rega the confidence it had sought back in 2009. With plenty of determination and, by the sounds of it, even more diamond grinding (“people were rubbing away with diamond file for weeks!” says Gandy), one turntable was produced – the best record player Rega could make – five years after the project had begun. So Rega had all these separate parts, but they were very difficult to machine and fit together. It took us five minutes to explain the concepts, and it was a lovely collaborative process.” And at the end of it? A couple of cutting-edge plinths. It was not like talking to hi-fi people he understood everything that we were talking about immediately. “So when we were begging and pleading, they told him, ‘Oh go on, go away and do what Rega wants.’ He worked with us for about eighteen months to produce the plinth, and it was wonderful. “The company had a junior engineer that loved vinyl,” says Gandy. To give one more example, the chassis was made by a company that made steering wheels and gearbox cases for the Formula 1 industry, it too having suddenly found itself with time to take on such a project due to Formula 1 having capped its budgets back then. We'll invoice you for £1000 pounds.” And that happened in pretty much every part. ![]() “But don't worry, we've learned a huge amount from it – it's enabled us to start making parts for other people where we can make larger profits. “It's probably cost us in the region of about half a mill to a million pounds in time, energy and machinery,” Gandy recalls the company telling him. Only the best materials and engineering solutions were chosen and, as it was never intended to reach production, there was also little consideration for manufacturing practicalities. We had to make a huge philosophical change within ourselves to achieve it.”Īnd so, there were zero cost restrictions for this no-compromise deck. “When we design something, one of the first questions is ‘how much is it going to cost?’ With this, we couldn't do that. “It was a big step for us because our philosophy is based on value,” Gandy says. “We had a lot of belief as engineers that they were valid, but as they were contrary to everyone else in our industry, we had to do something to give us the confidence that what we were thinking was correct.” The goal was to create the ultimate turntable – just the one – and so Rega threw all rules and restrictions out of the window, somewhat at odds with its approach to all other products. “All of our ideas were almost contrary to every other turntable manufacturer,” Gandy tells us. Have a look at Rega turntables, cartridges and more.In 2009, the Naiad began as purely a research and development engineering exercise a proving ground to show how Rega's ideas on low mass and high rigidity were the correct approach to turntables. Rega continues to grow and develop new products, all of which strictly follow those early Rega virtues of excellent build quality, long life and amazing value for money all backed up by a lifetime warranty against manufacture defects. Listening to the atmospheric sound of vinyl played on a Rega turntable is truly special experience. Now selling to more than 40 export markets and producing on average 2000 turntables alone every month.An example of their dedication to achieving engineering excellence in manufacture is the fact that the bearings for the Rega tonearms are hand picked by trained Rega staff to ensure optimal tracking of the record groove.Every Rega turntable is now bench tested for a minimum of 12 hours in the Rega factory in England prior to packing and shipping to ensure quality control. The company philosophy of not spending one penny on marketing but spending those funds on research and development has resulted in their award-winning turntable and electronics designs. ![]() ![]() Rega has been making turntables in the UK since 1973.Rega has come a very long way in the past 40 years. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |