Direct Drive

@sokogear 

By P9 I mean the old RP9/Rega 9 - I thought you would have known that.

The point was that the top Rega TT's have the power supply tuned/optimised to the actual motor used in that unit.

@goofyfoot 

@sokogear I can't understand why most Rega owners wouldn't opt for Origin Live tonearms. OL turned the Rega on its head and is considered a bargain.

I can, I have seen piles of OL tonearms at the Rega factory with stuffed bearings.

The venerable Rega RB300 and its successors are probably one the highest selling tonearms to the DIY community.

The top Rega arms are significantly better. The reason you don't see them separately much is that most Rega buyers mostly buy a complete package.

@dover So your saying that the Rega arms are built better than the OL arms. I've been told differently by a dealer of both brands but I wouldn't rule it out. I doubt either tonearms are built like an SME, Triplaner, and many others at that level.

I believe one of the things that should be recognized here is whether a vintage table would be preferable to a modern table. Micro-Seiki made some great DD tables but many believe the newer tables to be better. I'd say decide for yourself as either is just a preference.

@goofyfoot 

Their early arms were poor - modified Regas.

I haven't seen their latest top arms but they use a different principle with the main bearings. As I understand the OL bearings are "loose" and rely on stylus drag to lock in. Roksan used a similar principle with their Artemiz.

The top Rega arms use traditional gimbal bearings are handbuilt and take many man hours - each part is "blueprinted" and triple checked before during and after assembly.

This is not unique - most of the great arms Breuer, Sumiko MDC800 for example were great, not because of unique design, but because they were hand assembled by a superior artisan. both arms I mentioned were only ever made by 1 person.