When Ed Selly from HiFi Choice came to see us some weeks ago to write a dealer visit he brought some familiar music. One of the albums was Public Service Broadcasting’s “Race For Space” and it was played on an RP8 / Apheta / Aria / Elicit system running into Russell K Red 100 speakers. To say that the system ‘landed’ well would be an understatement.
Rega’s electronics designer, Terry Bateman, was delighted to read this. But there was an ironic twist to the tale. Terry takes over:
“I was listening to 6 Music spring 2012, around the same time
I was doing the design work on the Aria phono stage, and heard the track
Spitfire by Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) and thought wow that sounds
great. I duly ordered the 12” vinyl single using the PSB Bandcamp page.
I was so impressed with the Spitfire vinyl I used it during
the design of the Aria alongside the usual stalwarts of Jackson Browne, Joan
Armatrading, Elton John and AC/DC to listen to the sound of the Aria.
A month or so later I received an email mailshot from PSB
and decided to reply to said mailshot saying just how impressed I was with the Spitfire
vinyl and J. Willgoose (J.) founder and leader of PSB was kind enough to reply
saying just how excited he was that I was using the PSB vinyl to design a high
tier phono amplifier like the Aria.
One message lead to another and it transpired J. was well aware
of Rega and was looking to buy a vinyl based system for general use and to check
all aspects of the making of future PSB vinyl LP’s.
Later that year we supplied J. with our finest audio
apparatus comprising of a P3/24, Exact, Brio-r and RS1 speakers, which J. used
to check the recording of the Race For Space album and the mastering, cutting
and pressing of the vinyl LP.
Spin forward a year or two and I was intrigued to read the
Signals Article in the August 2015 Hi-fi Choice and they used the PSB Race for
Space LP for demonstrating the Rega system – for me this was more than just a sheer
coincidence and I saw it as a close synergistic connection between the two!
I told J. about the article and he was kind enough to offer
the following
:I’ve
been the proud owner of a Rega RP3, a Brio-R and the RS1 speakers for coming up
to two years now. I can honestly say I’ve never enjoyed listening to music as
much as I have on this system – it’s one of my favourite things in the world
just to get home, put a record on and get my feet up with a cup of tea on the
side. It’s great to have such a good system for listening to test pressings
when they come through from the pressing plant, too – previously there was a
lot of guesswork involved but now I feel much more confident when giving the
thumbs up (or down!).
I
can’t recommend Rega highly enough, anyway. It’s made a world of difference to
my home setup and I don’t think I could ever go back. I think that’s the only
negative – my standards are too high now!
Very flattered that they chose our record, of all the options at
their disposal, too. Seeing as I’m heavily involved on the engineering and
mixing side it’s really nice to know that the audio is being appreciated as
well as the songwriting.