Direct Drive

@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.

I agree with @dover - when I had my P5, I first upgraded the arm from the RB700 to the one on the P8 - the RB880 (it wasn't available by itself, but my dealer took one off the new P8 for me and sold that table to someone else who wanted the new P8 - the P10 wasn't out yet, and he wanted the best Rega arm at that point, which was the RB1000). Since then, the P10 came out with the flagship arm (other than the cost no object Naiad), the RB3000 (not sure why they skipped the 2000-ask the Marketing guys). I was thinking of upgrading to that arm, but was told if my table was properly isolated, it wasn't worth the premium.

The arm upgrade from the RB700 to the RB880 was a shocking improvement. A while later, I decided to urge the table itself to the P8 (I try to not spend big bucks all at once) and to be honest, the improvement in the table was not nearly as much as the arm. Mainly it was better wiring and dust cover and sound to some degree. 

So yeah, the Rega arms are a great value (never had one below the RB700), but I know the early ones were legendary and IMHO anyone with a Rega table who upgrades to a non-Rega arm is nuts.

And yeah, I am sure SME and Graham arms and some high end Origin Lives are better, but at a much higher cost.