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Rega Naia

Aspro

pfm Member
Roy Gandy has hinted at a more affordable Naiad. I guess the price wil match the Osiris at £7/8K as the P10 equates to an Aethos. What of the Naiad features will be incorporated in the Naia?

  • Ultra-lightweight carbon fibre plinth with Rohacell foam core and ceramic braces
  • RB Titanium tonearm
  • Aphelion 2 MC cartridge
  • Advanced power supply housed in our reference electronics casework
  • Automatic calibration for speed and inbuilt test facility
  • New ceramic flywheel effect platter
  • Zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA) spindle and bearing assembly
  • Precision machined aluminium hub
  • Custom made carbon fibre cantilever designed wall bracket to provide the ultimate support
As it's Rega the simple answer is whatever gives the best sound quality for the cost. From a marketing/desirability aspect surely the carbon plinth will be essential. If I was in the market for a turntable at this price the plastic/foam construction would be a deal breaker irrespective of how good it sounds. The titanium arm would be a major selling point. Technics manage it on their G models at £3.5K. I'm assuming cartridges and wall brackets will be optional. Add an Aphelion at you would be at LP12 Selekt territory, not that anyone would want to compare them of course.
 
Am I right in saying the Technics 1200G and 1000R tone-arms are magnesium, not titanium? Neither magnesium nor titanium has the strength-to-weight ratio of carbon fibre as far as I'm aware, but please correct me if I'm wrong.
 
Roy Gandy has hinted at a more affordable Naiad. I guess the price wil match the Osiris at £7/8K as the P10 equates to an Aethos. What of the Naiad features will be incorporated in the Naia?

  • Ultra-lightweight carbon fibre plinth with Rohacell foam core and ceramic braces
  • RB Titanium tonearm
  • Aphelion 2 MC cartridge
  • Advanced power supply housed in our reference electronics casework
  • Automatic calibration for speed and inbuilt test facility
  • New ceramic flywheel effect platter
  • Zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA) spindle and bearing assembly
  • Precision machined aluminium hub
  • Custom made carbon fibre cantilever designed wall bracket to provide the ultimate support
As it's Rega the simple answer is whatever gives the best sound quality for the cost. From a marketing/desirability aspect surely the carbon plinth will be essential. If I was in the market for a turntable at this price the plastic/foam construction would be a deal breaker irrespective of how good it sounds. The titanium arm would be a major selling point. Technics manage it on their G models at £3.5K. I'm assuming cartridges and wall brackets will be optional. Add an Aphelion at you would be at LP12 Selekt territory, not that anyone would want to compare them of course.

Thanks for the update and I can't wait to audition one. Unlike you though, I have zero issue about what modern materials Rega chooses to use as tools to accurately extract as much music as possible from vinyl. I'm 2 years in now with a P10, I drop the stylus to the record, sit back and relax and I'm still amazed at how I can enjoy so much vinyl that I used to think were unplayable records on past decks, and besides, I actually like the way it looks, no issues with it's build quality or looks what so ever and the fit and finish is fantastic, 1st quality..
 
If I was in the market for a turntable at this price the plastic/foam construction would be a deal breaker irrespective of how good it sounds

I think the only plastic bit will be the arm retaining clip (which wouldn't be a deal breaker for me).
 
Curious whether this is bona fide inside info you got the jump on - or - speculation that might be accurate or …. not.

Given Rega will want to do a world launch for this (Bristol hifi show?) why would they leak the info to ‘some bloke on the internet’? Or was it obtained in clandestine way?

Anyhow - facts to back it up or it’s just unsubstantiated chatter.
 
Curious whether this is bona fide inside info you got the jump on - or - speculation that might be accurate or …. not.

Given Rega will want to do a world launch for this (Bristol hifi show?) why would they leak the info to ‘some bloke on the internet’? Or was it obtained in clandestine way?

Anyhow - facts to back it up or it’s just unsubstantiated chatter.
I don’t think I implied I had any inside info I was just asking the question.
 
Yes I know - I’ve seen it - but “the man himself” doesn’t give all that specific info does he !
 
Has anyone ever heard a Naiad? I know it's a highly limited edition but they have sold a number at this stage, but I don't think I've ever heard comments on how it performs?
 
Am I right in saying the Technics 1200G and 1000R tone-arms are magnesium, not titanium? Neither magnesium nor titanium has the strength-to-weight ratio of carbon fibre as far as I'm aware, but please correct me if I'm wrong.
Quite right, Sir. My mistake. Perhaps the Naia arm will be magnesium but titanium is hardly exotic these days. You can get a whole titanium bike frame for £1000. My £200 Seiko watch has a titanium case and bracklet. The titanium Audio Origami only adds £350 to the cost compared with alloy. I'm glad you rate carbon fibre as I'm a very happy owner of an Audiomods arm gracing my Technics GR. Sorry to talk up the opposition.

Perhaps Roy has decided that if you can't beat them join them and has ordered a large quantity of Supatracs. No doubt you are sworn to secrecy.
 
There are different kinds of titanium (3/2, 6/4 spring to mind, the latter being much lighter, but much harder to machine), just as there are different kinds of CF (high vs low modulus etc). Aluminium's stiffness to weight (again depending on type, but eg scandium alloy or 7005) incidentally, is very, very high - possibly higher than 3/2 titanium.

There are also different kinds of "strength" - resistance to torsion, impulse resistance, etc.

Much of this depends on the implementation and construction. Tellingly, the more complex the shape - thinking armtubes and housings - the more expensive everything becomes.
 
I’d be interested if any of these upgraded components would be available separately to upgrade my P10?

I wonder too if the Ceramic bearing & sub platter spindle technology used in the Naiad would one day trickle down and become available as an upgrade replacement for the P10?

But realistically speaking this hasn't been Regas thinking as they usually take a complete overall approach to turntable design & manufacture, Roy mentions that it's Regas aim to designing complete balanced units, designed as a whole where all the parts work in harmony with each other within a pricepoint all the way up to their little expense spared Naiad.
Other manufacturers with their endless upgrades and no real direction as to how all their upgrade parts -past & present- mix & match with each other for a best balanced musical result has never really been Regas business model.
 
Has anyone ever heard a Naiad? I know it's a highly limited edition but they have sold a number at this stage, but I don't think I've ever heard comments on how it performs?

I suspect those in the market for one are about the last people you'd find on a hi-fi forum. Also, if you dropped £30k on a TT I don't think you're likely to ever say anything other than amazing things about it. It's just one of those products.
 
Has anyone ever heard a Naiad? I know it's a highly limited edition but they have sold a number at this stage, but I don't think I've ever heard comments on how it performs?

A few weeks ago I was privileged to spend an afternoon at an old friend’s place listening to his Naiad along with a Naim Statement/500 series/Ovator S-800 combo. Needless to say it was a superb listening experience (along with some excellent red wine) but the problem for me was identifying what component was influencing the music most at any given time. The engineering of the Naiad is very, very impressive. Ultimately though it was a beautifully balanced system, fabulously revealing and engaging. My audio review language skills aren’t sufficiently honed to describe the pleasure of the session but safe to say that music, whatever type we played, flowed in the most deeply satisfying manner. What a treat!
 


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