What's New! 2000 Archive Rega Research New Products Scoop! November 29, 2000 - Things are finally coming up to speed in the production of the new Rega electronics line-up. I now have Mira 2000s & Planet 2000s in stock and Brio 2000s are readily available. We are still waiting on the new Jupiter 2000 which should be in soon. I have also done some listening to the new Planet 2000 as compared to the original Planet and some other gear. Click here to read my comments on the sound of the Planet 2000 as posted on AudioAsylum.com. August 22, 2000 - I just got a pleasant surprise in my mail box yesterday. A CD ROM from a good friend with a bunch of nice picture of the new Rega Research gear that will start arriving here next month. There will be new versions of the Planet, Jupiter/Io (now combined into a one box CD player!), Mira, and Brio available soon with other new versions of the Luna, Mia and other models following later this year. The new Planar 3 2000 (see picture below) has already been released (see announcement below). I've posted a bunch of pictures, specs, and other info about the new Rega products on our Picture of the Month Page, so please visit that page that page to check 'em out.
"Rite of Passage" Many of you have seen our Picture of the Month page featuring one of our customers amazing system which featured these large OTL monoblock power amplifiers (clik here to view this page). These amps are Joule-Electra premiere product with a retail price of $18,000/pair which feature all the finesse & purity that the Joule OTLs are famous for with completely effortless and very dynamic capabilities. I've had some more detailed info on these amps from their designer Jud Barber for a few months, so I figured I'd scan that info in and put it up here for those curious view and read. There are two pages and each page is about a 200K JPEG file (which depending on the speed of your connection, may take a minute to load):
Merlin Music Systems Introduces I've already been receiving calls about the new Millennium series VSM and TSM loudspeaker systems from Merlin Music Systems. While no info is yet available on the Merlin web-site about the TSM Millennium and the VSM Millennium (this is in the works right now), I wanted to give you (my loyal readers and customers) a scoop here on what is up as I currently know it. I've seen a few mentions on the web which state that this is just a "wire and footer" change made to the VSM-SE model. While this is in a sense correct, there is much more here than meets the eye. While the basic design of the TSM and VSM speakers (cabinet, crossover, driver compliment etc) has not changed, the changes wrought in the Millennium series speakers have taken close to two years to come to fruition. Numerous samples of OEM hook-up wire have been tried during the development process with much back and forth discussion between Merlin and the cable's designers. The new "Z" feet for the VSM's as well, have taken over a year to finish development and reach production. Since nothing is slapped into a Merlin speaker without serious evaluation, the impacts caused by these changes are carefully considered. Small changes have been made to crossover circuit damping, driver torque settings, and cabinet stuffing to bring out the best from each change. Now here is the kicker... since these changes on a parts cost and cost to manufacture basis are small, Merlin is able to incorporate changes that make significant improvements at NO increase in price. Let me try to give you a general idea of what is the end result here:
The cumulative result of these improvements is not subtle. Additionally with the availability of the two different "S" and "T" wiring harness for the VSM Millennium (one tuned for under-damped "T"ubed amps and the other for damped "S"olid state amps), the speaker has a greater flexibility to work with a wider variety of associated gear and rooms. If you wish to upgrade your current speakers, there are some restrictions. Only TSM-SE and later production VSM-SE speakers (those with the Cardas No Stress binding posts) can be upgraded to a Millennium series speaker. Previous versions of the TSM and VSM lack the cabinet design, drivers, circuitry, etc that are needed to meet Millennium specifications without being exorbitantly expensive to upgrade. Exact upgrade prices have not yet been determined. Upgrading requires removal of the crossover, removing all drivers, and soldering as well as the use of special tools (torque wrench), so we are recommending that speakers be sent back to the factory for upgrading. Express Machining Accessories Arrive!
Rega Revises The Planar 3 Turntable! Roy Gandy and his crew at Rega Research are full of surprises as of late (there are even a few more scheduled for late this year which I'm not allowed to talk about yet!), and the latest is the revision of the veritable Planar 3 turntable. No name change is in the works for this old favorite (which will be initially be called the Rega P3/2000 here in the states to differentiate it from the older model), but some neat changes have been made to the table based on lessons learned in developing the Planar 25. The arm is the same, highly regarded, RB-300 with the changes being made to the plinth and motor areas of the Planar 3. The first change is that the Planar 3 has a new rigid plinth which is manufactured from a special new ultra light weight composite material which reduces overall mass of the plinth by more than 20%. Similar technology based on what is used in the Planar 25 (a trimming circuit which minimizes motor vibration and allows the motor to be mounted more directly to the plinth) is being incorporated into the Planar 3. The circuit on the new Planar 3 does not allow active trimming like on the P25, but does allow the motor to be more stablely mounted (no more wobbly rubber O ring motor mount) to the plinth. Retail price will go up $50 to $745 on the Planar 3/2000 and they are expected to be available very soon. I have no pictures yet, but as soon as I get my hands on one, we will get some pictures of the Planar 3/2000 posted here on our web site. Buy JPS Labs Ultraconductor Products OnLine!!! With a special arrangement with JPS Labs and Yahoo Internet Shopping, you can now buy the affordable JPS Labs Ultraconductor Series products OnLine!!! Just go to the JPS Labs Ultraconductor Store (click here) Web Site (JPS Direct), pick out the Ultraconductor products you want, and purchase securely OnLine. Remember, that the JPS Direct web-site ONLY allows you to purchase JPS Labs Ultraconductor series products OnLine. To purchase JPS Labs Power Cords, Superconductor+ cables, and Superconductor2 cables, you need to give us a e-mail, phone call, or fax with your requests. You are also always free to contact us directly and purchase the JPS Labs Ultraconductor products through Signature Sound! 2000 CES People & Products Early this March (3/6/00) I went through my stash of 2000 CES show pictures and put together a small picture gallery for this months Picture of the Month Page. Check out this page for some nice pictures of the great people behind some of the products we sell. Check it out! Product Line Changes @ Signature Sound As time goes on in this business, we are always fishing for great new additions to our products line-up. At the some time however, there are those product lines which need to go away as well. Sometimes the product line is just not a "good fit" with kind and type of business we do here (which is actually almost completely 2 channel HiFi gear - which is the way we like it BTW) and sometimes we are just not satisfied with other aspects about a product line (reliability, service, fit and finish etc). OK, you probably saying "Enough of the BS, Rich! What new toys are you going to be selling?", so I'll get on with what's coming on board: SimAudio - Unless you've been living in a (non-audiophile) closet, you have probably heard of or read about the SimAudio (clik to visit web site) line of amplifiers, preamps, and integrated amps. We will slowly be bringing SimAudio products in during this year (starting with their Moon Series gear in March if all goes well) and hope to have a fair selection of their products on display by years end. We have always really liked this gear for its great sonics and wonderful build quality, and have been waiting to the time was right to bring it on board here. OK, that is all we are adding for now, so you must be wondering what product lines are going away.
Merlin VSM-SE Wins Soundstage! 1999
While at CES, I also had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Merlin Music Systems president and speaker designer, Bobby Palkovic. Bobby mentioned that while it has been a very successful year for Merlin, parts and material costs have been increasing steadily. "Prices for items from paint & MDF to crossover parts have gone up over the past three years. Since we operate at one of the lowest cost to manufacture to retail price ratios in the Hi-End audio business, we have had no choice but to increase prices 10% across the board this year to cover our increased costs." So as January 1st of this year, here are some the current retail prices for Merlin Music Systems products:
Please give us a call for other Merlin Music System speakers and option prices. Those regular visitors here to our humble web site will notice that things have been cleaned up a bit around here. The home page menu graphic has been updated and the arrangement of the menu choices has been improved. All of the pages should have our new logo at the top of the page and I have deleted a number of older pages (including the Signature Soundings newsletter page) because of the information was outdated and I've come to realize I don't have the time to do these things. Many manufacturer web site links have been added and or updated as well. I've moved our current monthly/seasonal specials to our Demo & Used Gear Page and will be trying to work on some updates to the site this summer, but I'm working on a major transition in our accounting system here which will make this a slow process. Please do stay tuned, I do appreciate your repeated visits to my humble little web-site here. - Rich Brkich, Owner, Signature Sound Oops! Forgot to tell you last week, that I've posted more picture from my UK trip. This latest batch features a number of cool pics from the Rega Research factor plant tour. The trip was at the end of September to go to the HiFi News sponsored HiFi show at the Hammersmith Novatel in London, which was followed by a visit to Rega Research in the southern part of England. Check out the just posted Picture of the Month Pages ( Page 1 - Page 2) which has a number of pictures from this visit.
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Signature Sound
8409B Shallowcreek Road, Liverpool, NY 13090 USA
Phone: (315) 622-4137 Fax: (315) 622-2993
Demos By Appointment
Hours: Noon to 8:00pm
We have
just started carrying the Express Machining line of record playback accessories. They are
well known for the Lift turntable arm lift, the Heavyweight counter weight for Rega
tonearms, and the Rega VTA Adjuster. I've heard many favorable reports about the
Heavyweight from Rega Planar 3 and Planar 25 customers. so we are very happy to be
carrying this line of products. Please call or e-mail for further details, pricing, and
special pricing on Express Machining accessories when purchased with any new Rega
turntable. The new VTA adjuster promises to offer Rega owners to add VTA adjustment
capability to their tables. 