About The Rega RB220 Tonearm The RB220 is the latest incarnation of one of Rega's most popular tonearms. The latest design takes full advantage of Rega's brand new arm tube and the current three point arm mounting system. Each RB220 is meticulously hand assembled, creating a precision crafted tonearm achieving extremely low friction levels and performance way beyond the expectations of a product at this price point. Cutting Edge Design The RB220 uses Rega's custom one piece, aluminium arm tube, carefully manufactured to optimise performance and reduce stress on the Rega designed polymer bearings (patent pending). Each tonearm is meticulously hand assembled using custom Rega made tools and torque settings to guarantee optimum performance. This level of care ensures perfect tracking and maximises the amount of information the cartridge can extract from the record surface. The RB220 has pre-set bias making this arm even easier to set-up than previous models. The Rega designed bias system will adjust the amount of bias as the tonearm tracks the record ensuring even tracking and negating the need for user setting.. Rega is famed for its tonearm designs. One unique characteristic of these designs is the achievement of near frictionless movement horizontally and vertically whilst having no measurable free play in the bearing assemblies (and in reality one or two microns of pre load). So, why has Rega spent over thirty years and invested so heavily in this area of tonearm design where the removal of even microns of movement has been pursued? Look at a stereo vinyl LP under an electron microscope and you will see microscopic ridges and bumps that the diamond stylus of the pick-up cartridge tracks and reads. The length of a ridge depends on its frequency. The height is its amplitude. Towards the centre of an LP, a 10 KHz signal is just 26 microns long and if it's very quiet it may be less than 10 microns high. If your tonearm has 10 microns of movement within the bearing assemblies (and even very expensive tonearms usually have much more play and movement), reading the bumps will be difficult and musical vibration will be lost in arm movement. It is impossible to quantify exactly the musical distortion or loss of measured information. This is due to the random nature of pivot or bearing movement. However, it is easy to see that accurate measurement or tracking of a 10 micron bump is not possible if the tracking stylus can move randomly at least the same distance that it is trying to measure. Thus the importance of zero play in the bearings of a Hi-fi tonearm. RB220 Set Up Instructions With the cartridge fitted and aligned using the alignment protractor supplied, screw the balance weight along its shaft until the stylus is "floating" approximately 1mm clear of the record. The recommended tracking force can now be applied by rotating the balance weight so that it moves towards the front of the arm. A half turn (through 180 degrees) generates 1 gram of tracking pressure (turning the weight 360 degrees will apply 2 grams). Use the plastic inserts found on the weight as a guide. Set the tracking weight to the upper limit of the suggested tracking weight provided by your cartridge manufacturer's guidelines. As mentioned above, bias setting is pre-set and does not require adjusting. Your Rega RB220 tonearm is now ready for use.
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