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Thoughts on a Rega Vs a Gyro SE?

Scotchegg

pfm Member
Hi everyone, I appreciate this is probably going to be a "go demo and see for yourself" thing, but just wanted to throw out some questions and see if anyone had any feedback as to the comparison above?

Basically, I have a pretty decent vinyl collection, but my turntable has always been something of an afterthought as I tended to steer towards digital. I want to change that now and upgrade from what I currently have, which is an old NAD 533, basically a rebadged Rega RP2 (I think). I've enjoyed dabbling with it a bit over the years, changed the platter, changed the counterweight etc. but realistically I have no clue about turntables really and so I planned to stick with what I know and just upgrade to a Rega P8. That was until I saw someone selling a Michell Gyro SE on here a few months back and I suddenly realised that there were alternatives out there to be looked at!

There's currently a Gyro SE going on ebay with a technoarm 2 and an Ortofon MM Black cart. The cart is good and I'd probably keep it, to be honest, but is the arm up to snuff? How does it compare with the Rega P8 and the RB880 that comes with that? Factoring in the cart, the gyro is about the same cost as a new P8,

I'm not really asking for which deck is best or anything, more just wondering along what lines the decks differ and anything I should be on the lookout for when demoing both? Also anything I need to watch for with a second hand Gyro SE? I don't think I want to spring for the cost of one that is brand new.

For the record (ha, get it...) I had the Ortofon Black shortlisted for carts I wanted to try when I upgrade anyway, as I will be running whatever turntable through the Supernait 3's built-in MM phono stage for the short to medium term.
 
As long as the motor side of things are okay the Gyro is bulletproof. I have an older SE with the old ac motor and Qi power supply and it runs perfectly.
 
Yep, really isn’t much that can go wrong with them. Cosmetically the gold plating on the weights can tarnish or react with the base metal, happened to mine. But it’s not like you can miss it.
 
I went from a Gyro SE/SME M2 to a P9, did not regret it one bit. The P9 was plug and play, fuss free setup, no suspension to worry about and I though it sounded better too. I eventually moved down to a P7 (after a Mycro and Tecnodec), still happy that I'm not missing anything.
 
I would not walk past an LP12 to get to any of them.

Giro nice but a bit soft and unexciting. The big Regas are kinda the opposite, fast and tight but short on body and fullness.

The old Linn is the Goldilocks deck. Warm and full bodied but tight rythmicaly and involving. It's legendary for a reason.
 
I would not walk past an LP12 to get to any of them.

Giro nice but a bit soft and unexciting. The big Regas are kinda the opposite, fast and tight but short on body and fullness.

The old Linn is the Goldilocks deck. Warm and full bodied but tight rythmicaly and involving. It's legendary for a reason.

You do realize that the "body and fullness" you're referring to is an artifact of the LP12 that is not on the master tape, it's an inherent flaw of the deck you have become accustomed to like mom's apple pie and a warm glass of milk..
 
IME the Gyro sounds like the arm and cartridge sitting on it, more or less. Soft, warm etc. certainly aren’t intrinsic characteristics. If there were any constants across the 4 arms I tried with mine when I had it, it was a certain airiness.
 
You'll hate me for saying this, but I think you'll find that the Gyro and the P8 are different, but it will be down to your personal taste as to which one you prefer. I own a Gyro, but I rather like the higher end Rega decks too. Ultimately I went for the Gyro over a Rega (and a low spec LP12) due to a slight preference for the sound, but also in part due to the aesthetics, materials used and the engineering quality of the Michell. I've owned it for4 years now and never had any issues with the suspension or otherwise. Once set up it just works very nicely and looks lovely too (or as lovely as a tt can look).
 
Both the P8 (which I own), and the Gyro (which I've heard many times) are fantastic decks. The Gyro is a classic, and I suspect the Rega is destined to be one.

As Sean says, one of the defining characteristics of the Gyro - alongside the sheer objet d'art thing - is that it's very good at air and what I guess reviewers call "imaging" - especially left to right. The Rega is faster, drier, and for my money the more neutral and analytical of the two. The Rega two-belt drive system also sounds a bit more assured and SME-like. It's not quite DD, obviously, but it does that trick of making you forget that what you're listening to is a belt-drive turntable.

The P8 will get into the timbre of a recording and show you a lot of things that you didn't know were there, without that detracting from the ebb and flow of the music. As source components go, it's pretty much the best vfm in town at the moment.

On the arms, it's a huge mistake to think that the modern Rega arms are like 90s RB300s. They're much sweeter and less "grey" than their forebear, building on Rega's experience with the RB1000 I suspect.

I would take either over a low=spec LP12 tbh (and hugely preferred a P9 to my LP12 15 years ago, as did many). If you want "warm and full bodied", you buy a cart that does that - not a deck that imposes it on everything.
 
I've had my Gyro for over twenty years now and aside for a couple of belts still looks and sounds great. I never heard it compared with an LP12 but was up against a Xerxes for the demo - the Gyro had almost a CD quality but without the fingers in ears and teeth gnashing reaction a real CD player would have produced at the time. The Xerxes, by contrast, was impressive with loads of bass, but it was all muddy and not really accurate. And even after all that time, watching it go round is still a joy. It is a thing of beauty and is going nowhere from this house.
 
I would not walk past an LP12 to get to any of them.

Giro nice but a bit soft and unexciting. The big Regas are kinda the opposite, fast and tight but short on body and fullness.

The old Linn is the Goldilocks deck. Warm and full bodied but tight rythmicaly and involving. It's legendary for a reason.

LP12 is a great deck but (new or 2nd hand) it is overpriced.

Another great deck is The Well Tempered Simplex.
 
Hi everyone, I appreciate this is probably going to be a "go demo and see for yourself" thing, but just wanted to throw out some questions and see if anyone had any feedback as to the comparison above?

Basically, I have a pretty decent vinyl collection, but my turntable has always been something of an afterthought as I tended to steer towards digital. I want to change that now and upgrade from what I currently have, which is an old NAD 533, basically a rebadged Rega RP2 (I think). I've enjoyed dabbling with it a bit over the years, changed the platter, changed the counterweight etc. but realistically I have no clue about turntables really and so I planned to stick with what I know and just upgrade to a Rega P8. That was until I saw someone selling a Michell Gyro SE on here a few months back and I suddenly realised that there were alternatives out there to be looked at!

There's currently a Gyro SE going on ebay with a technoarm 2 and an Ortofon MM Black cart. The cart is good and I'd probably keep it, to be honest, but is the arm up to snuff? How does it compare with the Rega P8 and the RB880 that comes with that? Factoring in the cart, the gyro is about the same cost as a new P8,

I'm not really asking for which deck is best or anything, more just wondering along what lines the decks differ and anything I should be on the lookout for when demoing both? Also anything I need to watch for with a second hand Gyro SE? I don't think I want to spring for the cost of one that is brand new.

For the record (ha, get it...) I had the Ortofon Black shortlisted for carts I wanted to try when I upgrade anyway, as I will be running whatever turntable through the Supernait 3's built-in MM phono stage for the short to medium term.

A P8 is a superb player but somehow I believe a 2M Black might not be optimised there.
Maybe add one of the Technics SL1200 variant to your list.?

When I went out of the LP12 threadmill, i was happy with various Rega's.
Just later to be surpriced how well a 1200G performed.
At least put them on your list.
 
You do realize that the "body and fullness" you're referring to is an artifact of the LP12 that is not on the master tape..

Yes. Why do you assume that every sound was captured on that tape and relaying only that will result in life-like music?
 
As well as many other turntables I have had several iterations of Rega 3, a Rega 25 and a Gyro SE.

I like Regas because they are practical, simple, easy to service, fairly robust and intheir own way innovative. Yet when I tried a Thorens TD150II I heard a more developed complete fleshed out musical picture that gave more emphasis to timbre. I then tried an LP12 and various other suspended decks, found they shared much of what the Thorens had.

I then had an urge to try a Gyro SE, a thing of beauty that made the Regas seem spartan. Yet I could never find love for it even with upgraded power supply, I think this was because I found it to sound too polite and also found the visual interest it created distracting. So I stuck with it for about a year before selling it on and finding that the Garrard 401 had most of what I was looking for.

So I would say try both and other decks, there are massive variations in presentation with decks, arms and cartridges, only you can tell what you will find musically the most rewarding.
 
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Hi everyone, I appreciate this is probably going to be a "go demo and see for yourself" thing, but just wanted to throw out some questions and see if anyone had any feedback as to the comparison above?

Basically, I have a pretty decent vinyl collection, but my turntable has always been something of an afterthought as I tended to steer towards digital. I want to change that now and upgrade from what I currently have, which is an old NAD 533, basically a rebadged Rega RP2 (I think). I've enjoyed dabbling with it a bit over the years, changed the platter, changed the counterweight etc. but realistically I have no clue about turntables really and so I planned to stick with what I know and just upgrade to a Rega P8. That was until I saw someone selling a Michell Gyro SE on here a few months back and I suddenly realised that there were alternatives out there to be looked at!

There's currently a Gyro SE going on ebay with a technoarm 2 and an Ortofon MM Black cart. The cart is good and I'd probably keep it, to be honest, but is the arm up to snuff? How does it compare with the Rega P8 and the RB880 that comes with that? Factoring in the cart, the gyro is about the same cost as a new P8,

I'm not really asking for which deck is best or anything, more just wondering along what lines the decks differ and anything I should be on the lookout for when demoing both? Also anything I need to watch for with a second hand Gyro SE? I don't think I want to spring for the cost of one that is brand new.

For the record (ha, get it...) I had the Ortofon Black shortlisted for carts I wanted to try when I upgrade anyway, as I will be running whatever turntable through the Supernait 3's built-in MM phono stage for the short to medium term.
Something you don’t see much mention of is how a deck/arm feels to use, the build quality, arm lift/lower, ease of adjustment and swapping/aligning carts, “knob feel”, are the buttons nice to operate, smooth lid raise/lower etc.

Have owned/borrowed many decks since the ‘70s including the Gyro SE which is still here after almost 20 years - I still highly rate its SQ and really enjoy using it.

The Technoarm is a breathed on Rega and excellent vfm, Michell like Rega are very good companies to deal with and give above average customer service, especially with Regas own Paul Darwin being a member on here and helping people out - you don’t see that level of service often. The Gyro benefits from their HR PSU a noticeable amount and would be the 1st upgrade I’d budget for if you buy that eBay Gyro, not cheap at £525 rarely come up used but they do occasionally, you can get the cover swapped to match if needed - silver/black.

If you buy used wisely at a sensible price used then moving a deck on shouldn’t be financially damaging and is one way to try out a few types/makes - belt/idler/direct drives all have their fans.

As mentioned up thread a Technics 1200G or GR would be worth investigating, if I had to choose between my 1200G and Gyro SE I’d go 1200G by a very very small margin, last year I’d have gone Gyro but the more I use the G the more I like it. Compared a newish LP12 Majik level and a Rega deck (also have had a mates RP8 here a couple times) recently to my Gyro and G, neither makes floated my boat but they obviously appeal to a huge amount of others and do float theirs.

PS> If the Gyro you’re after is at Emporium it comes with the Base and Cover which is worth a few hundred quid and the counterweight is sitting at a jaunty angle so needs swivelled a bit :) Whatever you decide hope you find something enjoyable to use and listen to.

ATB
Gus
 
Gyro SE here for nearly 20 years too. Definitely agree that the HR improves things as do a set of Pete's Pylons which also abolish much of the setup faff.
I too have a Tecnoarm2 and think it's excellent (have had many others previously). I'm also an Ortofon advocate, so only one thing for it I say.
Previously owned Regas and they're brilliant, but I prefer the Gyro and it absolutely trumps them in the looks department (imo) and definitely in the build quality department too. Service from manufacturers is on a par pretty much, both excellent.
As always, you pays your money etc, but I doubt I will ever part with my Gyro...it just ticks all the boxes.
I also dislike the look of the skeletal Regas very much, but clearly that's a personal thing
 
Gyro v Rega ?

Both are cracking decks. The Gyro has a touch more 'meat on the bone' compared with the Rega and is a little more tolerant of real-world recordings as a result. Rega is a touch 'tighter' and a smidgen 'lighter' than the Michell.

I've had my Gyrodec at home for 27 years and apart from an a.c. QC Supply haven't felt the need to change/upgrade. Support from both manufacturers is legendary so enjoy your demo and buy with confidence.
 
As Tiggers has said, both very good decks with different characteristics. Which one suits you…… well you know what comes next!
Having heard both quite extensively, it’s a Gyro all day long for me. Superb deck, the techno arm is fine & can work with a variety of carts. I find the Rega a bit too far forward & doesnt give as much flesh on the bones. However, I see that others think otherwise.
 


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