Rega 24V High Performance Motor Upgrade Kit

Is it an upgrade? In my case, definitely yes, as the original (28 year old) motor had taken to oft sitting there and buzzing quietly to itself, certainly not doing anything interesting or useful like turning the platter. When it did go round, speed was far from constant. Electrical testing suggested one of the coils had died; I don’t know why, but probably simply old age. Also, upon removing the old motor, there was considerable slop in the shaft, probably a worn top bearing.Does it improve the sound quality? Hard to say in comparison to anything, as it now seems likely the old motor was dying by degrees. But the turntable (Planar 3) certainly now turns at very close to the correct speed (measuring fractionally under 33.2 rpm), and passages that were previously slightly cringeworthy - sustained piano notes for example - are now perfectly listenable. I don’t recall how such things were when the turntable was new, but equally I don’t remember being offended by it back then, apart from the fact that LPs played perceptibly fast in the early days (~33.6 rpm). Bear in mind however that these are synchronous motors, and mains frequency in the UK can in principle vary by as much as ±1%, (but is usually much better than this).It does indeed start up more quickly, though I still prefer to give the platter a bit of a manual spin to preserve the belt.Note also that I changed the belt at the same time as the motor - the original had become a bit crunchy in places - so that may have an influence on start-up, speed and stability too.At first, transmitted noise (rumble) was horrendous but, following advice on a smattering of Internet forums, I left the thing running continuously for 48 hours. The noise has now gone.There is a perceptible mains hum in between tracks in the last third of each LP side, and in the run-out groove. Doesn’t offend while music is playing, but it’s there. Could to an extent be a function of the Elys II cartridge, which is allegedly sensitive to such things, but may also be solved by earthing the motor casing - should be simple enough; I may try this at some stage and will report here when I do.Installation is easy if you possess even a modicum of engineering sense, and there’s a only a tiny bit of soldering involved, but I wouldn’t recommend taking it on if you haven’t tried to do similar before. The sticky pads are, I have to say, remarkable and hold on to the motor extremely well.Overall? It’s not value for money, that’s for sure. I certainly wouldn’t have bothered with it if I hadn’t been forced to, but it’s significantly cheaper than a new turntable of equivalent pedigree so a triumph in that regard. I suspect however that I could have replaced the original suspended motor for less than half the price.Having said that, four stars as it’s a well-designed kit of parts, and does precisely what it’s supposed to do. To salve my conscience, I’m going to assume it’s an improvement on the old motor.

Just installed this upgrade motor on my 1979 Rega Planar 3 Turntable, as the bearings in my original motor were shot and the motor was very noisy.Installation is quite straight forward, but it is best to take your time, and carefully check the motor pulley height and the alignment of the drive belt in both 33 and 45 RPM positions before actually sticking anything in place, it can be a little tricky, but will save you a lot of time down the line should you get something wrong.Like one of the above reviews, I had to use both spacers stuck together in order to obtain the correct pulley height, and I think this is because of the way the motor housing within the plinth is machined, some will have been machined so there is a thin layer of chipboard remaining, others will have been completely machined out leaving just the laminate for the sticky pads to adhere to, and this is where you may need to use both sticky spacers,Just remember to check that the height of the pulley is below the Sub Platter height, and the belt aligns correctly at both speed settings.The small instruction manual, tells you that you can use the metal spacer washer between the bearing well and the Plinth if the pulley is a little high, as it will raise the height of the Sub Platter and thus the platter itself, but in my opinion this would be a bad move because raising the platter height will cause the stylus to track at a slightly different angle.The motor I can definitely confirm is much quieter that the old suspended type, and runs with better speed accuracy, I have seen comments on various websites that claim it reduces crackles between tracks and makes the music louder ....... It doesn't, and I wouldn't expect it to.If you have a noisy motor that produces a loud humming sound at the start of a record and in between tracks, then this is a good fix, If you want to upgrade because you think it will make your music sound better, this wont make any difference in my opinion.So why only 4 stars .... The price, if it were half the price then I would give it 5 stars.