Phono cartridge Rega Apheta 3

For more than 15 years, Rega has been improving its unique design cartridges with a movable coil. Back in the very beginning of the noughties, the restless founder of the company Roy Gandhi told the writer of these lines: "I'm going to release the most perfect pickup with a movable coil soon." And even then he kept his word.

Rega was the first in the world to develop practically weightless electrical signal generation systems without traditional damping in combination with high-strength mechanical connections. Recently, the company's developers have reached new power levels as a result of the use of rare earth magnets. In the course of a 15-year evolution using the latest technological processes based on generally recognized laws (Flemings), the extremely successful Apheta 2 was developed and put into production.

The Rega Apheta 3 MS pickup has pushed the boundaries of sound reproduction capabilities even further. The uniqueness of the design of the pickup with a movable coil is primarily due to the use of complex solutions specially developed for the heads of the Apheta series, which are the exclusive competence of the company, based on modern materials and the basic laws of magnetism, and some of which are listed below.

For several years, the company's engineers have been developing modern Fine Line profiles for sharpening a diamond needle, here it is necessary to take into account the fact that the needle itself is installed strictly perpendicular to the cantilever site (this technique was borrowed from the reference model of the Aphelion MS cartridge). As a result, Apheta 3 "lifts" even more details of the recorded signal from the sound groove of the vinyl record, which, of course, leads to incredible fidelity of music reproduction. The cantilever itself is fixed in a diamond-shaped socket and does not have a tie wire, which traditional MS heads cannot do without and which creates a high-frequency resonance of large amplitude (usually about 8-12 kHz). Such resonance is unacceptable and, as a rule, is damped by rudimentary foam. However, foam rubber loses its properties with age, simply crumbles and cannot prevent vibration and "ringing" of the entire structure. The damping features and the tension adjustment of the tie wire determine whether the traditional MS pickup is insufficiently damped (bright) or excessively damped (warm with heavy bass).

Rega Apheta 3 is also equipped with an ultra-low-mass electric generator consisting of a heavy-duty neodymium magnet and four coils carefully wound manually on an iron crosspiece, which are fifty percent smaller than the coils of the very first head of the Apheta series. This weight reduction gives us increased freedom to track the same sound groove. Roy Gandhi proudly emphasizes that this generator is one of the lightest and therefore non-inertial in the world.

The Rega Apheta 3 is housed in a completely redesigned anodized housing, milled from a single piece of top-quality aluminum, and is protected by a rigid, slightly tinted transparent lid to prevent the breakage of the internal thinnest wires, which makes the installation of the pickup on the tonearm safe and devoid of any risks. In the manufacture of all parts of the head, methods of computer design, modeling and production with zero tolerances were widely used, which is especially important not only to combat unwanted resonances, but also for exceptionally accurate mounting of the head on the tonearm site at the famous three points.

Rega Apheta 3 is the perfect partner for the latest Planar 8 and Planar 10 players. Apheta 3 can be supplied pre-installed on the players at the factory, while the price per set is lower than if you purchase all the components separately.

• Impedance: 100 Ohms
• Capacity: 1000 pF
• Gain setting: High ("ON-On" position for Rega phono correctors)