HiFi Heroes: Roy Gandy of Rega

This week's podcast is devoted to out final Hi-Fi hero for now, Roy Gandy.   Roy Gandy founded Rega Research in 1973. It is a prominent British audio manufacturer celebrated for its minimalist engineering philosophy and high-fidelity equipment, which has always combined excellence with good value.  The company has evolved from building the original Planet turntable in 1973 to developing its modern flagship, the Naia, which uses advanced materials like graphene and titanium to achieve extreme rigidity and low mass.  Beyond record players, the company is recognized for influential electronics like the Brio integrated amplifier, a compact unit praised for its authentic analogue performance.  Gandy’s design approach views the turntable as a vibration measuring machine, prioritising mechanical integrity and musicality over superfluous digital features. He has always claimed not to be very interested in the concept of high fidelity that “seems a bit strange” to him, but acknowledges that he is passionate about music, and fixing things that seem wrong to him.  To preserve Rega’s corporate culture and ensure long-term stability, Gandy recently transitioned the business into an Employee Ownership Trust. He has provided a legacy of technical innovation rooted in a lifelong passion for accuracy in music reproduction, and created a remarkable British company with a loyal and caring workforce.  This podcast starts by considering his early years.  In recognition of his mother’s talent as a concert pianist, the music accompanying the podcast is Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14, the Moonlight, played by Arthur Rubinstein, and provided in the public domain by the Internet Archive.