I've spent most of this year in the company of some truly wonderful turntables, and there are two decks that I want to highlight if you're looking for a great turntable deal during this Black Friday sales event.
One of the most tempting deals I spotted for Black Friday is the Technics SL-1500C. This superb direct-drive turntable is usually available for £899, but you can nab it for its lowest-ever price of £799 at Sevenoaks right now. This additional £100 saving is available to Sevenoaks' Rewards members – but don't worry, signing up to this membership is free and easy, and worthwhile, in our opinion, if you want this extra discount on a five-star deck.
But it's not quite the best turntable at this price. That honour goes to the Rega Planar 3/Nd3 – our current Award-winning champ and yours for £799, also at Sevenoaks. Both these models are quite different propositions, but if it were my money and I was looking to buy a whole new turntable to live with for the next few years, it's the Rega I'd go for. Let me explain.
The Rega Planar 3/Nd3 is very much a purist option compared with the Technics' phono-stage toting, electronic speed switching, direct drive model. The Planar 3 remains a belt drive design that's fully manual, but built to an elegant, high standard at this level. Rega's low mass but high rigidity engineering principles are seen in the minimal but neatly finished plinth and the RB330 tonearm – everything works smoothly and overall, the Planar 3 is a pleasure to use. The new Nd3 cartridge can be upgraded to step-up models in the future, but its addition to the Planar 3 package at no extra cost is a breathtaking performance upgrade in its own right.
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We Planar 3's innate enthusiasm and incredibly agile rhythmic prowess has us hooked from the start, with a vivid, expressive and nuanced way with the midrange that means vocals shine through. It's an articulate and fluid sound, but the cartridge brings with it newfound levels of detail retrieval and stronger dynamics and precision. Stereo imaging is improved and bass notes are cleaner, more focused and tighter. We said in our review: "The Nd3 tells us more about the recording, rendering vocals and instrumental textures more convincingly." It's a hugely entertaining performance, with so many more textures and subtleties revealed in the recording, with breathtaking clarity and accuracy. It just seems to come so easily to the Rega – the Planar 3 is terrifically cohesive and musical, relaying the emotions in the recording to light in a way that rivals can't quite match. It set the bar so high at this price that it ran away with the Product of the Year accolade at the What Hi-Fi? Awards 2024, knocking the Technics out of the way.
The Technics SL-1500C is still a great option, however, and we can see why it would still be the clear choice for many. The build quality is excellent, the direct drive motor is swift and smooth, and electronic speed control is always welcome – Rega's Planar 3 still sticks with a somewhat cumbersome manual changing of the belt when swapping between 33 1/3 and 45 rpm records. Unlike higher-end Technics models, the SL-1500C comes with an Ortofon cartridge fitted, and the built-in phono stage is of a good quality at this level. It's designed to work well with moving magnet and moving coil cartridges, so there is scope for upgrades down the line, too. It's easy to use, and has a wonderfully clean, crisp and organised presentation. Its bass performance is particularly of note, with impressively defined leading edges at low frequencies – one area in which it outperformed the older Planar 3/Elys 2 package.
There is something reassuringly solid about the Technics' performance and build, and that pristine, composed presentation – plus the convenience of the built-in phono stage – certainly stacks the pros up in its favour at this knockdown £7999 price.
But for the same money, it's the Rega's subtler, more dynamic, more precise and cohesive performance that lingers with me more. It's more fun, and it just sounds right. Let me be clear: both of these are five-star turntables and you can't really go wrong with either choice. You'll be getting a fantastic record player either way. But we're all about performance-per-pound here at What Hi-Fi?, and even though it's not on a Black Friday deal, the Rega Planar 3/Nd3 at £799 is a great bargain in itself and delivers the superior performance. And for my money, it's the one I'd plumb for over the Technics.
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