In June 2019, we had the honor of welcoming Roy Gandy, founder of the Rega, to our premises for the second time. During this visit, he kindly granted us a few moments to answer a new exclusive interview! It is the occasion to come back on what we said to each other during a previous interview in 2017.
2. Do you have any new products that will come out in 2019/2020?
3. Do you have any new projects for next year?
5. Without really doing marketing, how did you build brand appreciation?
6. In conclusion, you would like to say something to our readers?
1. When you came to visit us in 2017, you talked about the launch of new products.
Since then, the Planar 8 and a new high-end phono preamplifier have been launched on the market. What about the Planar 10?
I have good news on this subject, I think the Planar 10 will be commercialized in the last quarter of 2019. I can tell you already that between the Planar 8 and the Planar 10 turntables, some technical aspects are obviously different, but in the end they are similar. We can consider Planar 10 as the big sister of P8, everything we have done on it can be found on P10.
Then, there have to be some differences, I can for example tell you that the Planar 10 will have a ceramic platter and that its power supply is more complex than that of the Planar 8.
2. Do you have any new products that will come out in 2019/2020?
Indeed, for 2020 and maybe even before… Beside the Planar 10, we are working at the same time on a brand new amplifier, which is called “AETHOS”. It costs about 3 000 pounds and comes between two models of current integrated amplifiers, the Elicit and the Osiris. It has the specificity of being only analogue, with no digital section. The sound quality is exceptional!
When we released the Aura phono preamplifier, we thought that there was no equivalent in this price range, and that its sound quality was better than any other phono preamplifier on the market. But in order to achieve such a level of quality, we were obliged to offer this product at a higher price than our usual average price. And finally, when we compared it to the competition, we thought it wasn’t so expensive. And for this new amplifier, it is the same philosophy, we think that there is no equivalent in this price range!
3. Do you have any new projects for next year?
Absolutely, we currently have about 10 to 12 design engineers working at Rega, and at least 20 to 30 products that are currently in different stages of development.
Note that we now have a rather unusual approach to this subject. Actually, the Planar 10 and the Rega Aethos amplifier are ready since about 6 months… However, we don’t want to release them right away because we want to have some control over our development. We have expanded very quickly over the last 10 years, we want to slow down a little in order to maintain the quality of our products. The decision of which of these two products will be launched first should probably be taken soon!
4. The last time we met, you told us that Rega was not a company that wanted to invest in marketing and advertisement. Finally, you created a promotional video for the Planar 6. What did you think about it? Has your opinion evolved?
This question would certainly make Simon smile, who is behind the creation of this video (laughs). Simon works on the website, creates flyers, is in charge of the photographs… He’s the person who manages all the marketing at Rega!
Know that we don’t really have a dedicated marketing budget. But we must admit that Rega is growing, and that means more work for Simon. So we decided to make an effort over the years in this field. Two years ago, for example, we finally gave Simon a budget to do what he wanted. He used a part of it to make the famous Planar 6 promotional video.
– So he changed your opinion? 🙂
I can’t really say that, but it was a great experience that made the product really valuable. However, we prefer to continue to follow the philosophy that we have had since our beginnings: if we design good products, then music lovers will see this for themselves and will naturally choose Rega, without being “influenced” by marketing! According to me, marketing doesn’t do everything 🙂
5.Without really doing marketing, how did you build brand appreciation?
At the beginning, distributors around the world wanted to buy our products. And in each of these countries, audiophiles finally visited these retailers to find some Rega. This is how we started to develop. I think that word of mouth followed.
As I was saying before, it is our philosophy that if we make the very best products, people will come to us! Then, thanks to the development of digital and social networks, many fan pages were created with our logo on Facebook or on websites in different countries such as the Philippines, Russia or China.
At first, it is true that we were worried about this phenomenon because people could say negative things about the company. And our fears have finally disappeared because it was not the case, so we can only be glad!
6. In conclusion, you would like to say something to our readers?
All I want to say is that we can see that the world has been changing a lot lately. At home in England, for example, people think we have big problems because of the Brexit. There are also big issues in Italy or between Iran and the United States. Thailand has serious problems with its government, just like the Philippines.
Finally, the world is changing and we are not sure that we will find the solution. But I would say there is only one thing that will never change: music. According to me, it could be one of the reasons why the World might remain a little more united. Music tends to be more and more international, people in the world appreciate music from other countries. Even French music does not have borders! I think music can give some hope to people and help to connect them to others 🙂