The Revolver Club visits The Rega Factory
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As a seventies child I grew up playing records. Turntables fascinated me - as they do now. And I would do anything to mess with them. There were all kinds around at the time. Duals, Phillips, Budget HMVs and the fascinating Garrard changers. Then came the Japanese models with their stroboscopes, pitch controls and LED indicators. They were cool. But even as kids we were aware that there were some serious turntables well beyond our reach. We used the term "serious" before we stumbled onto Audiophile. All we had was the occasional glimpse at photos in a rare HiFi magazine some rich friend or relative would bring back from their travels. A lack of access to information provided room for the few know alls to hold forth on the engineering, designs and astounding fidelity of these exotic turntables. We literally daydreamed about the Mitchells, Linns and the REGA's.
REGA's, in my mind, always stood apart with their simple matter of fact design. While the others boasted complicated engineering around suspensions and gyros, linear tracking tonearms etc - there was something fascinating about the plain looking REGA's. I felt it before I knew it that this was honest engineering at work.
REGA's still fascinate me because now I understand the quiet power of compounding - over the occasional clever investment idea. I now understand how relentless iterative improvement of decades around honest engineering principles can address the many challenges turntable design poses - far more effectively than the occasional design leap. If engineering is the science of compromise than I am willing to trust an iteration of 40 years to have arrived at an acceptable one. Besides - REGAs sound wonderful.
It was with great excitement therefore that I found myself on a train to Rochford, Essex on the way over to meet Roy Gandy - and see REGA's being built first hand. It was the kid's trip to the toy factory!
And it was brilliant.
I was graciously received at the station by Sue, the Commercial Director at REGA. I was welcomed at the plant with an Indian flag high on a mast. A very gracious gesture indeed.
Roy turned out to be very friendly, relaxed and instantly likeable. He briefly described REGA's journey, its core philosophy and its various achievements with undisguised pride. He was as keen as I to set off on the factory tour. Forty years had obviously done little to dampen his excitement about all that was up at REGA.
Soon we were on a half day tour covering everything at the REGA factory. Driver builds to speakers assemblies, bearing assemblies, tonearm assembly, cartridge assembliy, amplifier builds all the way to packing and shipment of components. The most exciting to me was the Moving Coil Cartridge section. I never imagined I would get a chance to wind the coil on an MC cartridge.
What struck me was that while clearly in charge of design and direction at REGA - Roy has provided plenty of room for innovation and development by his team at every level. It was interesting to see him discover new equipment and processes that had been brought in by various teams to improve efficiency or reliability in production. It was as I had imagined - honest engineering at work. The plant itself reflected this Roy's philosophy - only the essentials and no drama.
A culture of openness and the cross pollination of ideas was clearly discernible. It was interesting for example to discover that Sue had seated herself deliberately in the R&D section to better grasp design and products.
After a long winding discussion over lunch covering India, turntables, the vinyl revival, the revolver club, food, cooking etc. Roy drove me to the station. All in all a very revealing day.
Official Rega website: http://www.rega.co.uk/
Follow Rega on their social media platforms for more details.
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Written by Manu Trivedi
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