REGA PLANET CD PLAYER MOD. IS IT WORTH IT? WHAT'S INVOLVED? HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO THE ORIGINAL?
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- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2024
- Russ Andrews has launched a new HiFi component modding service. I wanted to test it out. And here I am with a modded Rega Planet CD player. How does it sound?
VIDEO CONTENTS
00:00 - Introduction & Prices
3:49 - ...While They're 'Ot
5:37 - The Mod In Detail
7:41 - Sound Quality
9:13 - Original Planet
12:09 - via Leema Elements
13:43 - Final Thoughts, Pros & Cons and Rating
RUSS ANDREWS: www.russandrews.com/rega-plan...
PATREON - / audiophileman
THE AUDIOPHILE MAN WEBSITE: theaudiophileman.com
FACEBOOK GROUP: / theaudiophileman
TWITTER: / paulrigby50
LINKEDIN: / audiophileman
INSTAGRAM: / audiophile_man
TUMBLR: www.tumblr.com/blog/theaudiop...
#mod #cd #cdplayer #review #theaudiophileman
IMAGE CREDITS:
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Photo by Wendy Wei: www.pexels.com/photo/person-h...
Photo by Wellington Cunha: www.pexels.com/photo/woman-at...
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Photo by Brett Jordan: www.pexels.com/photo/collecti...
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OTHER CREDITS
Old Bossa by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution
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Artist: www.twinmusicom.org/ 
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Utterly cool. I always liked the musicality of this player and it’s one of my favorite pieces of industrial design.
Important to renew and refresh when you can. All HiFi really ought to be upgradable like this. Thank you Paul.
Great topic to cover. Modding and DIY is criminally under reviewed.
I have that exact model, got me thinking, thanks!
Thanks Paul @TheAudiophileMan. Good video. It's great to see a balanced review of services like this. Re you "wish more people were offering a similar service"... They do, myself included 😉, among others. I hate seeing perfectly good kit going to waste for want of quality internal mods. Keep up the good work!
Dear Paul, Very very nice review. Thank you big time for all your amazing videos. Brilliant ! 🙂
Great concept, I hope the company thrives.
Amazing, need to consider this with my original Planet. I recently ran mine through a modern DAC and quite honestly the difference were so negligible I was hard pressed to decipher them. But I’ve been listening to it 25 years so maybe just used to it. Having such an extensive mod is tempting though.
Thanks, really interesting review. But not sure I would go down this route, unless it was to replace the laser or CD drive unit. I would rather use a good quality external dac fed through the digital output of the original CD player.
I bought a second hand all Leema system, well to be honest, I swapped a motorbike for it, but I have 58 year old ears & after buying hi-fi for years & listening to the hype over upgrades, better cables etc. My thoughts on CD players, if it has a digital output, it will sound 90% better with a modern DAC, over any costly upgrades! Maybe just me, I have a topping DX5 & use the coax from the Antilla CD player to leave me options via the Topping DAC, now don't get me wrong the topping is not better than the Leema DACS in the CD player (but it is closer than I expected & I still have an RCA connection to the integrated amp for comparison), it just means, I can use the balanced outputs (of the Topping DX5) for all my digital inputs to the Leema Tucanna 2 integrated amp, fed by Leema speaker cables into Leema Xeta floor standing speakers, I mainly use Tidal MQA & love the sound of old recordings, like the Doors first album, Love-forever changes, thru to the sonic bombast of Ghost Nation, by Gary Numan, Hans Zimmer soundtracks & my youth, punk, new wave, etc, on TIDAL MQA. CD is so reliant on the source CD & most early CDs are crap, remastered CDs are mostly crap, for comparison try the 1994 Genesis CDs compared to the Genesis CD's available now. I recently sold a Wadia 301 CD player & to test it, I tried it thru the balanced output & then thru the digital output via the Topping DAC, it was like night & day, it is a great CD transport, but the internal DAC is awful compared to the Topping, So to sum up CD players (transports) for this RUclips video, A Russ Andrews upgrade is expensive & will probably not upgrade the DACS (cannot confirm that), I reckon a modern DAC will be much more of an upgrade, for less money!
Hard to believe looking it up, my German pressing of this a favorite Popol Vuh recording is now 53 years old. And later also got a CD version.
Great review, pity I missed the review prior to visiting NW Audio show for the first time. My only concern is the life of the laser mechanics. As I believe they are now a niche market compent. Who can replace those as reputable British manufacturers who I cant naim are unable now to address 😢🤔🎵🎼
Wonderful to see you reviewing mods
I've been enthusiastic about this route for decades. Could you give viewers an idea of the turnaround time involved in your particular mod?
Turnaround depends on the component and the job and probably other variables, Brent. So I would talk to RA on that one :) And thank you.
My 1997 Planet is still going strong.
A nice review Paul. It is fascinating how CD players have changed over the years, technologically & sound wise.
In etwa um die gleiche Zeit habe ich mir den Luxman DZ-03 gegönnt!... Hinter dir steht ja eine LP der deutschen Rockgruppe Popol Vuh! Super!
Very interesting. Is it possible that new models can be upgraded or not. In the 90s I saw in the hifi press a number of times that the Pioneer A400 Amplifer was modified by one person or various people from new. The outcome was a vast improvement to the components installed by Pioneer, but at that time it was used at the owners risk.
Great video as usual Paul. I need a better cd player than my current Technics but for this I have a very small budget as I prioritise my vinyl so was thinking of the Rega Planet as these seem to go for around £300 which suits me nicely. If I do get one would it be better further down the line to use an external DAC such as the iFi Zen or go for these upgrades? Or would you think that just buying a new Marantz CD 6007 in the first place at £350 would be the best bet? Can’t get out to do auditions as I have now had a stroke on top of everything else so your advice is much appreciated.
Hi Tony - if you don't already own a Rega and if you see yourself leaning towards the separate DAC arrangement then save your money, grab a 6000CDT ad a cheap DAC from iFi or Schiit, a decent cable and head in that direction. If integrated designs are your thing or you like the vintage look of the Rega or space is an issue so an integrated is sensible for your system then go for the Rega.
Very interesting, some time ago I checked out upgrading my Audiolab 8290cdq, but found it too expensive for my wallet!
I'm awaiting the backlash for your power cable comment! I use upgraded power cables by the way. 😉
Jim🏴🙂
I have this exact unit . The power supply has fried . Does anyone know the volts the colour wires are meant to be . So I can find a replacement thanks
20 plus years is definitely time to consider upgrading your hifi gear.
There are strange thermionic forces happening in deepest Essex.
I think I need one of the £70 Russ Andrews mains fuses that they sell. Apparently "UltraFuse™" - is the best mains plug fuse they have heard." Go figure(!)
I had a Arcam Alpha player modded years ago with a Trichord Clock and it was a really good upgrade, if the full mod service is c£1000 then I think buying a modern 2nd hand cdp player would be a better option
Hi Andrew - if you bought a Planet today then it would cost well over £1,000 in today's money so I reckon the cost is fine for those wanting to bring their much-loved CD player up to modern-day standards. And that's who this mod is aimed at - and it's the overall service that's reviewed here, let's not forget, not just the Planet mod - the service is aimed at those people who love their HiFi, they don't want to bin their favourite components, and many people are very attached to their old kit and they want to keep that relationship going no matter what. This is one way of doing that. Modding is aimed at particular users for particular purposes. It's not for everyone, as you know.
Sold my Naim CD5/Flatcap combination to upgrade to streaming. I now use Roon with a Topping D90 DAC. Fantastic combination! My ripped CD's sound far better than the Naim offering. I had an original Rega Planet, and loved back in the day.
Streaming is inferior to cd at all levels
@@andrewhayes7055 I disagree, music from my hard drive has been ripped and has been error checked. There is zero tracking and zero error correction for the streamer to do. QED
Nice to see the old Glastonbury Fayre live set. KUDOS
Well spotted!
Hi Paul Some of the more recent Rega CD players have had reliability issues , so I wonder how long term your investment would be ? . Kind regards as always. 😀👍👍👍
Russ Andrews are based in Kendal where I live and are a great bunce of blokes when you visit them
Especially when ur spending money
Can you clarify the total cost ? . At 7m13s , did the mod include the optional extras ( clock etc ) to lead to a total of around £930 ? Thanks
This review is based on the fully modded version - as you can seen in the images - but the mod itself, as I stated the video, can be instigated at differing levels depending on your budget. You can even graduate the mod over time, adding bits when funds are available. That Trichord clock on the Rega board, is one example.
Thanks for the video ' I own many players and cd transport and my 1987 Sony cdp 605esd is amazing as both it has the bu1 mech and Tda1541 dac chip Reads toc fast !
Plays the worst cds and digital Coax ouput is hard to beat ! And laser still @ 95 percent Hard to beat the Sony Early ESD
Can anyone tell me the value and type of mains fuse in this unit ?
I still a Rega Planet of this vintage. Top end is quite articulate and refined. But there’s no bass. Playing the same track on the Planet and on Spotify via a NAD amp with streaming and Spotify has a vastly wider frequency response, more transparency, and LOADS more bass. More interested in a new cd player, maybe with built in DAC / streaming, than a mod.
Are replacement Sony (KSS-204?) lasers still available BRAND NEW for this? A lot of money to throw away on a 20+ year old design that you may have to resort to a dubious new-old stock laser replacement if the original is (likely) on it's last legs. Plus, anyone who had a Planet (like myself in 1998), have moved on, without looking back at this old horse.
@@JohnDoe-np3zk I did emphasize brand new ones. New-old stock or refurbs are flaky for longevity generally, and doing the job properly will incur a chunk of labour. I've had a Rega Apollo, Naim CD5i-2 and CD5XS since then and cannot fathom why anyone would spend that much on such a dated design. Put the money towards a more recent 'classic' player
These kind of services are not new. In the nineties my favorite hifi shop offered several modded models of brand new originally mid level audio devices, mostly cd players, which after the modification were supposed to be top level. To be honest, i never heard an A-B comparison between the original and the modded devices but i do know that these modifications were popular amongst audiophile fans.
all comes down to cost I guess as to whether its worth upgrading or buying new
Actually? I think cost is secondary for any mod. I think the primary consideration is the owner's wholly unreasonable emotional attachment to their beloved component and their crazy desperation to hang onto the thing no matter what :) That's what keeps the classic car market healthy. It's why there's a retro computer industry, etc, etc. Nostalgia - it's the fastest growing industry in the world today.
A bit pointless . For about £700 you can get a new respectable player from Marantz , Denon or an Audiolab transport and a dac of your choice. I use Audiolab 6000 cdt / M Dac plus . My previous player was Meridian 507 .
U can get a seriously heavy Valve CD player from China Hifi for less than that
VALVE CD PLAYERS CAN B PURCHASED FROM ALI XPRESS MUCH CHEAPER THAN THIS... AND MAY SOUND BETTER
i think they change for the worth, cd players in general were ok,now they seem very frail and not better than the ones relesead in the 90´s, this if we are not talking about the cheapest models, Rega surprised me for the worth. the material is the cheapest plastic they could find ,they age very bad and the display looks like those 35€ players, the main problem is the absolete format the cd , developed in the 70´s and with lot´s of limitations, install filters or diferent division of each track per channel, capacitors!?
Paul, with respect I could not disagree with you more. Is Russ your brother-in-law? Just kidding. I have owned the Rega Planet since 1999. It was discounted as part of a system I bought, but the cost of it was less than the basic mod (and yes, I know that was 25 years ago). As an avid diy person, I can tell you that re-capping the unit isn't going to do much unless the original caps are out of spec. The clock upgrade might help, but it alone is 300 pounds. And don't get me started on power cables. My solution was to create a coaxial cable and take the Rega's digital output to a Denafrips Aries II. Way cheaper and sounds even better. Also, I would really like to know where all these cheap CDs are. Unless you are crawling around in thrift shops CDs in the U.S. are more now than they have ever been. They only look cheap compared to new records. I've been playing in bands, buying audio gear and now building gear since the sixties. I am always amazed at what reviewers think they hear.
Ahhh, the classic, ‘with respect’ opening, eh? Been a while since I’ve seen that one. :) Thanks for your comments, John. Great to hear that you’ve dedicated yourself to audio in one way or another for so long.
To your points? There are plenty of award-winning reviews on this channel and my website and I’m not related to any of those either and yes it is redundant to bring late 90s prices into this one. You’re right.
I agree that superior sound can be found using a transport/DAC setup. You might want to check out my reviews of the Audiolab 6000CDT and 9000CDT for confirmation.
That doesn’t help the Planet owner who loves his box and wants to retain it ‘as is’ but just wants to improve the sound though, does it?
Any mod is aimed at a particular user looking to achieve a particular goal. It’s not a magic pill to solve all HiFi ills and neither should it be. If someone out there can benefit from this upgrade then good for them and Russ Andrews should be praised for extending ‘choice’. I’m not going to beat them down for that and neither should you.
As for the rest? I think we may have to agree to disagree :) I see plenty of charity shop, record fair and car boot CD bargains out there, I can hear sonic differences in all cabling not just power cables (see my website for a wealth of reviews on cabling) and I know several major HiFi companies whose amplifier designers (for example) have spent weeks A-B testing capacitors to find out which one sounded best for their own build budget.
But look John, we all have different ears, different expectations and different requirements. There is no right/wrong where music is concerned. As long as you derive enjoyment from your music making tools (and that’s all HiFi is…) then that’s all that matters. Thanks again for your post. It was much appreciated.
You are IMHO mistaken about finding CDs. Ebay is awash with perfectly playable second hand ones. I just got 5 Cara Dillon CDs for a total of around £18. The only thing you'll pay more for are quite recent CDs or foreign imports. The list of cheap CDs is endless -- Mary Black, Naturally 7, Keith Urban, Celine Dion, Bela Fleck... on and on. All delivered to your door inclusive of postage costs.
"Repurred", Audiophile Man? Aren't you overdoing the accent? 😉
"I yam what I yam," - as that great philosopher, Popeye once said
@@TheAudiophileMan 😂
@@TheAudiophileMan I am what I am, I am what I am, a family man.
@@cremersalexwas that a Mike Oldfield track off of 'Five Miles Out ' sung by Maggie Reilly?
@@JD-lk7im ruclips.net/video/I0voH4cU4ck/видео.html
this lp´s when passed into cd sound horrible the guitars are far from what is heard on th record, everything else sounds kind of empty with new levels for each track on each channel ,making it sound bad ,the same hapopens with all other bands from the same era or more modern,late 90´s at least
The only good upgrade is a trade in for a better model.
Damn this thing is ugly
everything is wrong with this Rega cd player, or just how it did sound in the past compared to the cd played in this , new equalizations doesn´t turn the sound better just trying to hide all errors from the convertion from analog to digital and it makes no sense in 87 the DAt was a digital component and sounds much better this if you record from vinyl to the DAT cassette or not even comparable ,how can they sell us today the same 70´s digital format ,the cd destroys most of the analog recordings, to be more accurate it destroys all recordings
I have my sn is 020501