advertisement


Thoughts on a Rega Vs a Gyro SE?

This about sums up my feelings on the sound. Looks and engineering you'll have to decide for yourself, but the Rega has a more modern sound, digging detail in a way the Gyro won't do. The Rega is one of those leather Scandinavian reclining chairs, the Gyro is an English leather armchair left over from a London club and smelling faintly of Cigar smoke.

I agree about Rega having more forward-drive, but I think if your Gyro sounded wooly or warm, something wasn't right. Either in the setup or arm/cart. The Gyro has great resolution (certainly much more than my previous rega that I've described in previous post) and is nowhere near wooly-sounding.
 
This about sums up my feelings on the sound. Looks and engineering you'll have to decide for yourself, but the Rega has a more modern sound, digging detail in a way the Gyro won't do. The Rega is one of those leather Scandinavian reclining chairs, the Gyro is an English leather armchair left over from a London club and smelling faintly of Cigar smoke.

the comparison with the armchair is amazing....
 
Another Gyro fan here. I upgraded from a Rega P3 ten years ago. I which i really liked, to an SE which I love. It's probably the only part of my kit that will never change. I've not compared it to a more recent Rega tt though - or felt the need to.

In my view the Gyro is the best looking turntable I've seen, a real design classic, and i enjoy telling friends it was designed by the guy who helped design the Discovery spaceship in 2001.

I run it with the technoarm and a DV cart ( 20X2) and a perspex lid because the cat sometimes mistakes the brass weights for toys.

I've listened to quite a few LP12s over the years and enjoyed them but found them warm with a oddly over upholstered sound ( to keep the chair metaphor going). The Gyro feels leaner and more neutral - not at all soft and woolly.

I do like everything about Rega though, having had turntables, amps, CD players and speakers over the years and could happily live with their kit if I up-sized or downsized. In fact my current system is my first to have no Rega components for 30+ years.

btw Audio Counsel have some pre loved Rega on their website. I've bought pre loved from them before and the service and packaging are excellent.

pre-loved (audiocounsel.co.uk)

Note to self: That Thorens would look perfect next to my Leben amp. Anyway, moving on....
 
Another Gyro fan here. I upgraded from a Rega P3, which i really liked, to an SE which I love. It's probably the only part of my kit that will never change. I've not compared it to a more recent Rega tt though - or felt the need to.

In my view it is the best looking turntable I've seen and i enjoy telling friends it was designed by the guy who helped designed the Discovery spaceship in 2001.

I run it with the technoarm and a DV cart ( 20X2) and a perspex lid because the cat sometimes mistakes the brass weights for toys.

I've listened to quite a few LP12s over the years and enjoyed them but found them warm with a oddly over upholstered sound ( to keep the chair metaphor going). The Gyro feels leaner and more neutral.

I do like everything about Rega though, having had turntables, amps, CD players and speakers over the years and could happily live with their kit if I up-sized or downsized. In fact my current system is my first to have no Rega components for 30+ years.

btw Audio Counsel have some pre loved Rega on their website. I've bought pre loved from them before and the service and packaging are excellent.

pre-loved (audiocounsel.co.uk)

You cannot compare a P3 with a Gyro....

You need at least an RP6/P6 or RP8/P8/P9.

PS: The Well Tempered from Audio Counsel is AMAZING!
 
Turntables are inherently flawed devices. There isn't such a thing as the best one, only the one you personally prefer. Most good turntables have strengths and most of the ones I've owned or heard do some things better than the LP12. But it's easy to lose track of why you started playing this game in the first place.

I love music. I want to hear all different kinds of music and hear new artists. I want to understand why they are making their music and feel their passion. For me, the LP12 serves that end better than any other turntable I've tried.

Some might be a bit more detailed, neutral or better in some other way but a well sorted Linn let's you understand why the artist bothered making the music. It connects you with them.

"Some might be a bit more detailed, neutral or better in some other way".
Yea, so you just said that, your words, not mine.

You appear to be concurring that the LP12 is inherently not "In Tune" and that it's the fundamental design artifacts of the LP12 deck itself which adds some sort of artificial mystical hue enhancement over the playback performance -therefor over all playback performances- that you have grown to enjoy or got used to even though it's an incorrect and flawed rendition. ...You seem to be making my point/argument about the faults of the LP12 for me.
 
I must admit I've never heard a Gyro that engaged me, an Orbe yes, but the Gyro no, they were 'nice' but not for me.
I've had several modded and standard Technics, a Heybrook TT2, Linn Basik, several Regas modded and standard upto P3, several Pro-jects, and others I can't remember.....

I currently own a REGA P9 and can say hand on heart its easily the best TT I've owned.
 
Yes, the 9 was what really got Rega going I think - especially when they upgraded the arm to the RB1000. Nothing but fond memories of mine.
Yeah, mine has the RB1000 on.
This one was owned by the late great Dudywoxer Colin, who was a friend of mine.
 
I have £50 which says......lol...any taker

I wouldn't make that bet if I were you ;0) While I can't guarantee it, I think the chances of me switching turntables again are slim. If I did buy another turntable I'd keep the LP12 as well. In fact I'm about to build a second LP12 and I have a Thorens TD160 here and I'm keeping all three.

You appear to be concurring that the LP12 is inherently not "In Tune"..

You seem quite determined to twist what I said so I'll try to make my actual opinion clear.

All turntables are flawed. It's surprising that vinyl works at all and perfection simply isn't on the cards. While audiophiles wet themselves over lower colouration they never question whether zero colouration is even desirable let alone achievable. For zero added colour to work, not only would all the desired information for a realistic representation of the recorded event need to be on the recording but the replay system would have to be capable of reproducing it all. Neither of these thing are possible, they never have been and music systems have been making up the shortfall since the beginning.

Not only is added colour more or less inevitable, it is desirable.

My RP10 was arguably 'less coloured' than an LP12 and was much less realistic for it. Instead of a P-bass sounding...like a P-bass it sounded like a carboard cutout of one. The same was true of all instruments and voices. You never forgot you were listening to a recording, which is thing that allows you to become fully immersed in the music. By contrast the LP12 presents music with realistic tonality and depth which lets you 'float' into the music and totally forget the system.

While I owned the RP10 I could look back and remember all of the hundreds, thousands of times I fell in love with particular songs or albums on the LP12. The huge variety of music that I thought was wonderful, I'm playing Joy Division right now and it was Dire Straits before that. But on the RP10 that never happened. Music might be impressive, interesting but it didn't stir the soul.

The Linn might be technically more coloured but it is true to the heart and soul of the music. It's a turntable for music lovers, not audiophiles. I do not consider this a fault as that is exactly what I think a hi-fi system should be for. Connecting the listener with the heart of the artists. Before asking whether or not something is 'in tune' you first have to define what you want it to be in tune with?
 
Didn't people used to be able to upgrade to near-Orbe levels?

Brand me a heretic by all means, and it is far from a scientific blind test, but I’m pretty sure I prefer the Gyro to the Orbe! I think the extra mass and damping of the Orbe sucks some of the fun out. The Gyro is a nice funky deck when it’s working well, I like it a lot. If I had one and wanted to upgrade I’d go way upwards on the arm and cart before considering the heavy platter and chassis damping thing. A SME V, Graham etc isn’t out of place on a Gyro IMO. It’s a good enough deck.
 
Brand me a heretic by all means, and it is far from a scientific blind test, but I’m pretty sure I prefer the Gyro to the Orbe! I think the extra mass and damping of the Orbe sucks some of the fun out. The Gyro is a nice funky deck when it’s working well, I like it a lot. If I had one and wanted to upgrade I’d go way upwards on the arm and cart before considering the heavy platter and chassis damping thing. A SME V, Graham etc isn’t out of place on a Gyro IMO. It’s a good enough deck.

I agree with this, adding extra damping to a Gyrodec, ruins its magic. There are other turntables that do what the Orbe does, and probably better, but not many that do what the Gyro does.
 
I didn’t feel like I lost anything going from Gyro to Orbe. It is a deeper, darker, richer sound though, so I can see how some might miss the airiness of the Gyro.
 
You seem quite determined to twist what I said so I'll try to make my actual opinion clear.

All turntables are flawed. It's surprising that vinyl works at all and perfection simply isn't on the cards. While audiophiles wet themselves over lower colouration they never question whether zero colouration is even desirable let alone achievable. For zero added colour to work, not only would all the desired information for a realistic representation of the recorded event need to be on the recording but the replay system would have to be capable of reproducing it all. Neither of these thing are possible, they never have been and music systems have been making up the shortfall since the beginning.



Not only is added colour more or less inevitable, it is desirable.

My RP10 was arguably 'less coloured' than an LP12 and was much less realistic for it. Instead of a P-bass sounding...like a P-bass it sounded like a carboard cutout of one. The same was true of all instruments and voices. You never forgot you were listening to a recording, which is thing that allows you to become fully immersed in the music. By contrast the LP12 presents music with realistic tonality and depth which lets you 'float' into the music and totally forget the system.

While I owned the RP10 I could look back and remember all of the hundreds, thousands of times I fell in love with particular songs or albums on the LP12. The huge variety of music that I thought was wonderful, I'm playing Joy Division right now and it was Dire Straits before that. But on the RP10 that never happened. Music might be impressive, interesting but it didn't stir the soul.

The Linn might be technically more coloured but it is true to the heart and soul of the music. It's a turntable for music lovers, not audiophiles. I do not consider this a fault as that is exactly what I think a hi-fi system should be for. Connecting the listener with the heart of the artists. Before asking whether or not something is 'in tune' you first have to define what you want it to be in tune with?

You keep going on about your experience with the "RP"10. ...I'm not comparing the "RP"10 -which was introduced almost 10 years ago- to the LP12. What I am comparing is the relatively newly introduced "P"10 to the LP12 and a few of my friends LP12's comprised of different, and some very expensive levels of Linn "update" Bandaids. And IMO the LP12 does zero things better than the "P"10 besides acting as a paperweight in storage in another room before I sold it on.

And those same warm, fat and bloated LP12 turntable "Colorations" which you've become so fond of which are artificially introduced into each and every track of each and every album you play is never a good thing long term. ...Don't you ever wonder why everything you play on your LP12 has this "sameness", "feel" & "air" about it? Well, that's not natural, it's not on the master tape and it becomes fatiguing over time, it makes you want to get up and do something else.
 
I wouldn't make that bet if I were you ;0) While I can't guarantee it, I think the chances of me switching turntables again are slim. If I did buy another turntable I'd keep the LP12 as well. In fact I'm about to build a second LP12 and I have a Thorens TD160 here and I'm keeping all three.



You seem quite determined to twist what I said so I'll try to make my actual opinion clear.

All turntables are flawed. It's surprising that vinyl works at all and perfection simply isn't on the cards. While audiophiles wet themselves over lower colouration they never question whether zero colouration is even desirable let alone achievable. For zero added colour to work, not only would all the desired information for a realistic representation of the recorded event need to be on the recording but the replay system would have to be capable of reproducing it all. Neither of these thing are possible, they never have been and music systems have been making up the shortfall since the beginning.

Not only is added colour more or less inevitable, it is desirable.

My RP10 was arguably 'less coloured' than an LP12 and was much less realistic for it. Instead of a P-bass sounding...like a P-bass it sounded like a carboard cutout of one. The same was true of all instruments and voices. You never forgot you were listening to a recording, which is thing that allows you to become fully immersed in the music. By contrast the LP12 presents music with realistic tonality and depth which lets you 'float' into the music and totally forget the system.

While I owned the RP10 I could look back and remember all of the hundreds, thousands of times I fell in love with particular songs or albums on the LP12. The huge variety of music that I thought was wonderful, I'm playing Joy Division right now and it was Dire Straits before that. But on the RP10 that never happened. Music might be impressive, interesting but it didn't stir the soul.

The Linn might be technically more coloured but it is true to the heart and soul of the music. It's a turntable for music lovers, not audiophiles. I do not consider this a fault as that is exactly what I think a hi-fi system should be for. Connecting the listener with the heart of the artists. Before asking whether or not something is 'in tune' you first have to define what you want it to be in tune with?

You almost make it sound like LP12 is making music and not reproducing music. Even if that was possible, it would be terrible. TBH, I find this ridiculous. Also, the less coloured component is a better component. Easy.
 
Upgrading to the Orbe platter is the one of the best upgrades you can do to the Gyro along with the power supply and motor.
 
Turntables are always going to divide opinion, being things of highly individual taste. Probably your best bet is to decide what sort of sound you want first, use that to narrow down the options and choose an arm/cartridge that will work well with it while also being sympathetic to your system and your aesthetic preferences. There are so many more decks than are being discussed here and if you want to prevent a 20 year upgrade cycle, spending a decent amount of time researching other brands will pay dividends.

I've currently got about 10 decks, including a massive plinth Lenco with an Ortofon arm and an SPU and a Spacedeck with a Kuzma arm and a Benz MC. These are the 2 currently set up. In storage are a number of other high end delights including an LP12 with an Ittok, an STD 305S with a Hadcock arm and a vintage Braun. All of them bring something different to the party and as an enthusiast of the vinyl medium I don't tend to prefer one over another as a general rule, rather enjoying each one for it's individual abilities.

OFC, most (sensible) people just have the one deck. This is why it's so important to take your time and pick right the first time :)
 
I'm not comparing the "RP"10 -which was introduced almost 10 years ago- to the LP12. What I am comparing is the relatively newly introduced "P"10 to the LP12...

Which LP12?

I'm afraid we're just going to have to disagree. You don't like the LP12, I do. This is allowed.
 
Which LP12?

I'm afraid we're just going to have to disagree. You don't like the LP12, I do. This is allowed.

I think the point being made was that the later Planar 10 is a significantly better deck than its predecessor, the RP10, and that it is this newer deck that compares very favourably with the LP12. Your point about "which LP12" is very valid, I had one for 30 years. Like trigger's broom, there wasn't much of the original left when I sold it. It also sounded very different at the end of its time with me than it did at the beginning but the Planar 10, which has replaced it, just does a better job of reproducing music than my LP12 ever did. At least to my ears. You should try one, you might be pleasantly surprised.
 


advertisement


Back
Top