It was heartening to see the amount of younger visitors to The Bristol Show this year. And, if you can remember that far back, one of the scariest things when embarking on this lifestyle/ hobby, is putting your first playback system together. Personally, I found the standard hi-fi store overwhelming. Also, I didn't feel confident enough to go in and ask for what I thought I needed. Well, Rega is looking to take all that scariness out of the equation with the £999 System One.

The Rega System One, as its name suggests, is a complete turntable-based hi-fi set-up that should see the owner good for a few years.

Sitting centre stage is the familiar and much-loved Rega Planar 1 catering for all your vinyl needs. The turntable plugs into Rega's IO 30 Watts per channel integrated amplifier. The new amp has more than a whiff of Brio-R about its design and, more importantly here, features an integrated MM phono stage. You also get a “high quality” headphone socket and two line inputs.

From the Rega IO, runs a pair of bundled 3m loudspeaker cables out to the Kyte bookshelf loudspeaker pairing. The Rega Kyte is a pretty standard 2-way design and will be available separately for £429/pair.

First impressions of the Rega System One was pleasant enough. Granted, we're sure that many of us will have alternative systems we could suggest for the money (I pretty much did that while roaming around Henley Audio's stand at the show), but that's missing the point. Here you have a one-stop-shop that offers synergy from the off and can be unpacked and spinning records in a jiffy. It certainly provides better fidelity than the cheap midi system I started with back in the 80s, and with the addition of a streamer, later on, you'll have most bases covered.

Price and availability

The Rega System One will be available from Spring 2020 for £999. The Rega Kyte speakers will cost £429 per pair if bought separately to the System One.

More information can be found at Rega.