A Corneliani suit at 70% off

When a $6,500 turntable carries technology from a $30,000 reference, my investment banker brain kicks in. That is the Rega Planar 10 with the RB3000 arm. It is the turntable equivalent of finding a Corneliani suit at 70% off: you just grab it.

Rega took what it built into its $30,000 reference and brought it down to something a normal person can actually buy. The tonearm is so precise that no glue is used anywhere in it, and it carries a lifetime warranty. This is the analyst in me reading the fundamentals, not a listening report, and the fundamentals are almost embarrassingly good for the money.

And it is not alone. The Clearaudio Innovation Basic borrows the levitating bearing from the $150,000 Statement, the Kronos Sparta takes the counter-rotating platters of the Discovery, and the Technics SL-1300G borrows from its own $20,000 reference class. That trickle-down is where the real value lives.

Above $50,000 the curve flattens hard: exponentially more money for incrementally less performance. It is like moving from a Porsche 911 Turbo to a Bugatti, when the 911 already does 90% of what you need. Real value is the flagship's idea at a fraction of the flagship's price.

Flagships sell the dream. The trickle-down sells the value, and value is what I grab.