Tim Jones
pfm Member
Reverse disclaimer - no one has paid me or given me anything for this post.
As some will have noticed, I've recently had a bit of an amp clearout - the Aleph and the Sugden A21SE have gone to new homes.
Ever since we moved to Winchester over a year ago, I've had trouble settling down with an amp. The Naim 82/HCDR/250DR we moved with just sounded a bit boring and flat in the new and much smaller room they needed to live in (oddly not the first time I've had that experience with biggish Naim amps). And so my Class A adventures began. I don't think the ProAc DB1s I've been running since we moved in have really been an issue for any of the amps I've been running.
In amongst all this, I bought a s/h Brio-R from eBay for a neighbour who had asked me to put together a little system for him. I liked it so much, I bought one for myself. Intrigued by the new(ish) generation of Rega amps, I borrowed an Aethos from my local dealer and was a little underwhelmed. It sounded too muscle-bound for my 2.5m x 4.5m room, although I liked its signature sound.
A couple of weeks ago I thought I'd investigate again, and, suspecting that it might be the right point in the range for me, had an Elicit 5 in on home dem. I've just bought one, new; the first new amp I've bought in ten years, because this is the best amp I've had in this room by a significant margin. Yes it has lots of features - the DAC (untried as yet), the headphone socket (which is very, very good with my HD650s), and the sweet MM stage (which means I can run both my MM equipped Sony and my MC equipped P10 simultaneouly).
But the chief characteristic is the sound - it has both the spatial and timbral virtues of the Class A amps I've had recently (ok, not the sheer holography of the Aleph, but not far away) and some of the things about Naim that I've missed - the grunt and drive, and the capacity to sound completely unflustered at relatively high levels. I have also, for the first time in what feels like quite a while, not had to worry about the gain structure of what I'm putting into it.
I know that some Aethos owners have been unimpressed by the egonomics of the remote volume. Either Rega have fixed this across the range, or the Elicit 5 has escaped it - both the Solaris remote that came with the amp, or the little Brio control that I also have work very well; baby steps on first press, and more serious movement if held. it's just as good as a Naim remote.
I had been aiming towards a Pass INT25, but I think my Class A adventures are coming to an end; and at £8K that seems a hell of a lot relative to the sheer enjoyment I'm getting from the Elicit. So I'm stopping here for a while and spending my cash on more music.
Of course I'm in danger of becoming an even bigger Rega fanboi than I am already, but there is no escaping just how impressive and enjoyable a product this is.
As some will have noticed, I've recently had a bit of an amp clearout - the Aleph and the Sugden A21SE have gone to new homes.
Ever since we moved to Winchester over a year ago, I've had trouble settling down with an amp. The Naim 82/HCDR/250DR we moved with just sounded a bit boring and flat in the new and much smaller room they needed to live in (oddly not the first time I've had that experience with biggish Naim amps). And so my Class A adventures began. I don't think the ProAc DB1s I've been running since we moved in have really been an issue for any of the amps I've been running.
In amongst all this, I bought a s/h Brio-R from eBay for a neighbour who had asked me to put together a little system for him. I liked it so much, I bought one for myself. Intrigued by the new(ish) generation of Rega amps, I borrowed an Aethos from my local dealer and was a little underwhelmed. It sounded too muscle-bound for my 2.5m x 4.5m room, although I liked its signature sound.
A couple of weeks ago I thought I'd investigate again, and, suspecting that it might be the right point in the range for me, had an Elicit 5 in on home dem. I've just bought one, new; the first new amp I've bought in ten years, because this is the best amp I've had in this room by a significant margin. Yes it has lots of features - the DAC (untried as yet), the headphone socket (which is very, very good with my HD650s), and the sweet MM stage (which means I can run both my MM equipped Sony and my MC equipped P10 simultaneouly).
But the chief characteristic is the sound - it has both the spatial and timbral virtues of the Class A amps I've had recently (ok, not the sheer holography of the Aleph, but not far away) and some of the things about Naim that I've missed - the grunt and drive, and the capacity to sound completely unflustered at relatively high levels. I have also, for the first time in what feels like quite a while, not had to worry about the gain structure of what I'm putting into it.
I know that some Aethos owners have been unimpressed by the egonomics of the remote volume. Either Rega have fixed this across the range, or the Elicit 5 has escaped it - both the Solaris remote that came with the amp, or the little Brio control that I also have work very well; baby steps on first press, and more serious movement if held. it's just as good as a Naim remote.
I had been aiming towards a Pass INT25, but I think my Class A adventures are coming to an end; and at £8K that seems a hell of a lot relative to the sheer enjoyment I'm getting from the Elicit. So I'm stopping here for a while and spending my cash on more music.
Of course I'm in danger of becoming an even bigger Rega fanboi than I am already, but there is no escaping just how impressive and enjoyable a product this is.
