One of the first (if not the first) Rega Naia turntables is coming to America, and I know where it’s going. But more on that later.
Firstly—what is the Rega Naia?
The Naia represents the new production flagship turntable from Rega. Notice how I said “production”, that’s because the Naia comes as the result of nearly a decades worth of research and development that was tested in the extremes from the “Naiad test bed turntable.” Some of our readers further in the know might look at the new Naia and see just a carbon clad Rega P10—but I assure you that it is not. The Rega P10 doesn’t share much actual tech from the Naiad, but the new Naia does, at least as I understand it.
Reporting by Eric Franklin Shook
While the Rega P10 does feature ceramic bracing and a ceramic platter, the obvious bits of course, beyond that—not much else. Yes, the recent P10 and some turntables further down the line have been designed with ‘lessons learned‘ in the development of the Naiad, but none so yet have been as close to a direct port of the concept Naiad turntable, and as such to receive the Naia(d) name.
To further slide down that rabbit hole, there have been Rega P10 owners who will testify that the Rega P10 sounds nearly as capable as the Naiad, upon which it shares a few bits of material technology. So the real question then becomes: Will the Naia outperform the Naiad it was based on?
Ahead of its debut at Capital Audiofest 2023, a festival of sound which begins in Rockville, Maryland the second weekend in November, the new Rega Naia is making an early appearance at Now Listen Here in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Now Listen Here is a Harrisburg based high-end home audio dealer, which also operates a satellite showroom in Falls Church, Virginia.
Included here, the press release, a stunning video of the Naia, and a visual comparison of the Naia vs Naiad.
PRESS RELEASE
Introducing the Rega Naia turntable
18 SEPTEMBER 2023
The Rega Naia turntable is the result of years of painstaking development which was used to create the now famous Naiad test bed turntable.
The Naia takes the best of this development and technology and transfers it into a production ready version without compromise. The Naia is packed with ground-breaking features, materials and technology developed by Rega over many years to reach new levels of vinyl replay. The Naia takes our pioneering low mass, high rigidity plinth technology to the next level by using a Graphene impregnated, carbon fibre skeletal plinth with Tancast 8 foam core. This ultra rigid structure is then strengthened further using two ceramic aluminium oxide braces, the same material used to create the redesigned, resonance controlled ceramic platter with improved flywheel effect and complex profile.
Find out everything you need to know about the Naia here.
The Rega Naia (pictured above) and Rega Naiad (below) for comparison.
