I bought the Rega R3 speakers a year ago for £400 in excellent condition s/h.
At the time, I was using them with a Cambridge Audio 840A amplifier. A pretty impressive piece of kit that needed excellent speakers to get the most out of them.

The Rega R3 are those speakers! They look beautiful in real wood, Cherry, the grills looks fantastic and they are not fussy with placement. Put them with the drivers facing in or out, toe in, straight, or outwards, they just work.
They are also the perfect height when you are sat on your sofa.

I have also used the speakers with Rega Brio 3, and on Meridian 205 mono blocks. With all of these amplifiers they absolutely sang. Treble is sweet and crisp, Midrange is detailed and engaging, Bass is tight, deep and rhythmic.

Fantastic musical ability, they have me toe tapping and dancing to jazz and swing.
They work equally as well with rock, bringing entire bands to life in your living room, with vocals screaming out at you as if you were in the front row of a concert.
With classical music, they handle symphonies with the elegance and emotional power of being at a live performance. And with electronic music, the level of detail retrieval is second to none, every little click and beep perfectly formed and dancing around in your living room.


I recently auditioned the new Rega RS3's and RS5's ... They lacked the same warmth and bounce in sound - felt far to detailed and clinical... Therefore, all in all, this is the perfect set of speakers, I will not be replacing them for many many years. BUY A PAIR!

This is the new RS3, not the R3. The RS3 has different cabinet size and tweeter than the now discontinued R3. I tried the R1 and liked it well enough (I reviewed it here too) to try RS3 which I got right when they came out in the US. The RS3 is an affordable floorstanding speaker, the finish is very nice, the speaker is very light for the size by design (even the reference R9 is light for its size). Rega takes a view that less mass is better than more mass when it comes to resonance, they apply that view to their turntables and speakers regardless of price point. Relative to R1, the RS3 presents a bigger stage, deeper bass, better treble. All of the Rega speaker attributes remain- fleet of foot and engaging without offending. This is the only speaker I have owned and used in my house where the term "uncoloured" applies in the very best sense. The bass has impecable timing, the midrange is beautifully open, maybe just a hair sweet which I like, and the treble is "informative". I understand exactly what the stereotimes internet reveiwer means when he mentiones the R1 telling you "how each cymbal was played". I put on Keith Jarrett trio "Out of towners" and that is really true with the RS3 too, Jack dejohnettes tasteful cymbal work is brought out in a very musical way. Also I played- The Feelies "Only Life" cd (the first four songs) bass was tight and punchy as were the drums and lets you know this band has a good rhythm section, the multitracked acoustic and electric guitars were really 3 D with good seperation yet integrated with the whole, The Feelies were a very involving listen on RS3. Next was Dire Straits Love over gold title track- OMG this track never sounded better, gargantuan sound stage, detailed, acoustic guitar sounding great and the time changes before and during the chorus were captivating. Next was Stan Getz "I wish I knew" and "Come rain or come shine" from Pure Getz cd. I'll be brief- Jazz music excels on the RS3 (and as mentioned they absolutely love Keith Jarrett trio). Now we come to Schmann piano concerto Kissin/Vienna Philharmonic, hey classical music has rhythm too!, the Rega speaker does classical in a way that I have'nt heard before, though there was a slight sharpness to the string tone and a slight overall lightness of the orchestra than say a B&W, the time changes and dynamic shading of the Orchestra are brought to the fore. It's hard to describe but the Regas are involving despite their being a different kettle of fish tonally, I find nothing offensive about their overall tonality, this is because they are truly exceptional in the areas of timing and coherence. In short, the Regas will make plenty of other speakers sound jumbled.
I dont realy know why so few US dealers carry the Rega speakers because they are pretty darn good. Over in England the R3 is a cult product. I can sure see the RS3 carrying on that following. A few notes: make certain thay are rock steady and even on the spikes (which takes some time), and I got the best results with woofers facing out. They have one terminal per speaker instead of 2 or 3, and so are not bi-wirable, which I consider a plus. To conclude The RS3 is a very good speaker, try and listen to a pair if you can. Reveiwed in home with Rega Elicit integrated amp, Jupiter cdp, P5, wires were Supra 3.4S and audioquest quartz interconnect.