Planar 3 lid design

[berthej]

The lid on my Rega Planar 3 is broken, and I thought about replacing it with a homemade/ custom made acrylic lid.

How important is the lid design for the overall acoustics of the Planar 3? My lid will have rounded edges instead of right-angled ones, and probably will be somewhat heavier. Is that OK?

Thanks for any input

berthej

[harrygrey382]

surely you'll be playing it with the lid up and thereforit won't really affect the sound. But if it's heavier make sure the hinges can still support it open (or the support brace or however it stays up).

[berthej]

…. Well, with the risk of being condemned to public humiliation, I am going to confess that I actually mostly play my records with the lid CLOSED…

I know, but I live in a rather dusty environment (yes, we do regularly clean the house), and to spare my records the lid goes down. Rega states in the user manual that the Planar 3 is designed to play with the lid down for best sound? And hence my question on changing design.
thanks
berthej

[harrygrey382]

I can't see it being too much of a problem. Although if it's designed to be played with it down, maybe the weight could sutbly affect the acoustics.
I think the only issue is you may have to beef up the hinge springs. But if it stays up when you open it, now worries

[ticktock]

the rega lid does NOT have hinge springs.
so it needs to open wide enough to hold by it's own weight.

at all: lid made your own isn't easy, but why should it sound worse? I'm sure Rega designed the lid in regard to cost, not to the sound.

Holger

[harrygrey382]

always better when one knows tha machine...
Out of interest, how do you intend to construct the lid? I need a lid for my GL75 and happen to have a whole lot of thin perspex lying around, but not sure how to form it etc. With heat?

[sreten]

Hi,

Making lids is not easy at all - how is the Rega one broken - may be possible to modify.

/sreten.

[berthej]

Originally posted by ticktock
the rega lid does NOT have hinge springs.
so it needs to open wide enough to hold by it's own weight.

you are right, of course. there are no spring, but the hinges themselves seems rather weak, might break under the additional weight?

Originally posted by sreten
Hi,

Making lids is not easy at all - how is the Rega one broken - may be possible to modify.

/sreten.

Don' know, I bought the rega secondhand like this (at an excellent price). The lid is still in one piece, though, but not very beautiful, and estetically I prefer a clear acrylic lid, than the dark, smoked one that rega supplies.

Originally posted by harrygrey382

Out of interest, how do you intend to construct the lid? I need a lid for my GL75 and happen to have a whole lot of thin perspex lying around, but not sure how to form it etc. With heat?

actually I did not intend to do the work myself. I have before been working with acrylic, bending it with heat, and no, it is not easy, especially if you need to get all four corners in level like in this case. I thought of asking around to various craftsmen for prices and feasibility, comparing to what Rega may ask for a new one. Could be a way to make something nice and different from the standard Rega look

[harrygrey382]

ah i see.
I was thinking a bit more about it though. I might try cutting the flat panels of perspex. Then joining them using very small section aluminium or plastic angle. Probably bonding and small bolts. Might have a chance of working, would be pretty chunky though

[berthej]

Initially I was thinking about doing something similar, the main problem being the difficulties in pulishing the cut pieces to restore transparancy of the edges.

The best way to assemble pieces of acrylic (or perspex) is using cyanoacrylate glue (Super glue); it is virtually an unbreakable joint, much stronger than using metal pieces. Alternative the pieces can be fused together by "melting" the joint with trichloromethane . Done correctly it produces almost invisble joints, but it is nasty stuff to work with.

Now that you brought this idea up again, I might actually give it a go; flat pieces of acrylic are pretty cheap, so if the end result is less than acceptable, not much is lost.

berthej