Gold may be the traditional gift for a 50th anniversary, but Rega has other plans. Getting its first-look preview at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2023, the Rega Naia is a new high-end turntable from the British hi-fi specialists to be launched this year.
The Naia won’t officially launch until autumn 2023, but Rega couldn’t resist taking it along to give visitors to the Bristol Show an early preview. The new turntable was very static on display, but we managed to figure out the most important details.
The Naia was inspired by the £30,000 Rega Naiad – a free engineering exercise that was so popular that Rega ended up making about 50 limited edition models – and whose design concept has been used in the more relatively affordable Planar 10 and Planar 8 decks ( both received five stars Which Hi-Fi? reviews).
The Naia is closer to the ambition of the Naiad, with numerous firsts for Rega. The Naia’s skeletal plinth design may look familiar, but it’s now made entirely of carbon fiber for the first time and is infused with graphene material. The usual Tancast 8 foam core (used in Planar 10, Planar 8 and Planar 6) has also been used in the plinth.
The one-piece RB titanium tonearm is new, there is a vertical bearing housing, tungsten balance weight shaft and weight, and a titanium vertical spindle. The center bearing is a ZTA zirconium hardened alumina (ceramic) – the same material used in the Naiad.
A triple drive belt is used for improved stability and driveability. The platter is made of ceramic and is “resonance controlled”, and has an enhanced flywheel effect, which should help with speed stability. And to top it off, the deck has “low mass” skeletal aluminum feet.
The turntable comes with a separate AC power supply, the same one used in the Planar 10.
The Rega Naia is available with or without the company’s reference Aphelion 2 moving coil (MC) cartridge.
On its own, the Naia turntable costs £9200. With the Aphelion 2 MC fitted, the total cost is £12,000. That’s a hefty price tag, but Rega says you can make a “big saving” of £655 on the Aphelion 2 (£3465 alone) if you’ve factory fitted it.
We said in our review of the Naiad-inspired Planar 10, “The result should be something that offers a good portion of the Naiad’s performance, but at a much more accessible, but still premium, price.”
While the new Rega Naia is more expensive, it could be something really special if it promises an even bigger, even more reliable slice of the Naiad’s performance – and what with Rega’s rather excellent proven track record with turntables. We can’t wait to get our hands on a proper production sample of the Naia in our listening rooms to listen to later in the year.
MORE:
Making the limited edition £30k Rega Naiad
Read our review of the Rega Planar 10 / Apheta 3 turntable
Here’s our guide to the best turntables you can buy