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Anyone on the Rega upgrade tree

R

reddish75

pfm Member
Having bought a Rega Brio ( latest version ) for my father in law a while ago we're looking to upgrade as he likes to play it loud and we just sense the Brio hasn't got that much more headroom. The speakers BTW are the Dali Oberon 5's.

I've seen that Rega has the Elex Mk4 which is next in line upwards and the Elisit Mk5 upwards again, from what I can see the poweramps of these amps follow the same topology using Sanken Std03 transistors so I'm assuming the same sound signature just more power?

Does anyone have any experiences with these amps and upgrading up the Rega line or to another brand?
 
I can't see 20 or so watts more making a huge difference if you really want to play loud. Rega are usually fairly accurate in stating output power.

You'll probably gain more refinement, (slightly) better capability with lower speaker loads, control etc.

A Rega guy watches these threads so he may be able to give advise.

Perhaps look at different brands too, especially ones with considerably more power than the Brio, perhaps Class D somewhere around the Oberon's price as your speakers may be the bottle neck the further up you go with amplification.

One such amplifier may be Cyrus' ONE HD or Cast. They measure around a hundred watts into 8ohm but that may still not be enough if you need PA levels. They were priced well above £1k originally but are heavily discounted now.

Arcam's SA20, albeith rated at 80 watts, measures way more than this but I don't think it sounds like Rega so you probably won't like it. Anyway, also available for around £800 now and a very capable amplifier which can scale with your system to a reasonable extent.

My 2c's. Others will be in a better position to specifically comment on Rega upgrade paths.
 
RoA is speculating. I, conversely, can offer advice from experience, having gone through the whole (older range) from Mira 3, through Brio r, to Elex r, then Elicit r, and have now reached the wonderful Aethos.
Before the Aethos, which I continue to think is a superb amplifier, I particularly enjoyed the outgoing Elex r, for it’s engaging rhythmic presentation. It was much better than the Brio r.
The new Elex makes 4 has received an Editors choice award in the latest edition of Hi Fi Choice, and appears to be regarded as the sweet spot in the range. I’d like to hear one.
I’d definitely audition the new model, which Hi Fi Choice regarded as a relative bargain for the money. Not familiar with your speakers, nor their resolution capabilities, so as always better to audition with your speakers, and preferably in your home. Better still, if you could stretch to it, suggest also auditioning the Aethos.
 
The recently discontinued Elex-R is a very satisfying amp, against the current Elicit Mk5 at home, I couldn't really tell much difference between them. I would suspect that the additional grunt of the Elicit would enable it to fare better at louder listening levels.

I did at one time turn my Elex-R up to a wholly inappropriate and unsustainable level and did notice the sound starting to harden but this was a level that wouldn't be listenable in a domestic setting. At 'normal' settings, it's a lovely amp. The Elex Mk4 I consider to be superb value for money. Both would be useful improvements over the Brio IMO.
 
The Elex Mk4 seems a very nice amplifier. However, I really dislike that volume knob with the silver surround. It cheapens the look of anotherwise nice amplifer imho. Subjective I know but they should have used the nice, sculpted volume dial from the Brio.
 
RoA said:
The Elex Mk4 seems a very nice amplifier. However, I really dislike that volume knob with the silver surround. It cheapens the look of anotherwise nice amplifer imho. Subjective I know but they should have used the nice, sculpted volume dial from the Brio.
Click to expand...
Definitely subjective. I like the chamfered edge and machine cut indicator notch. 2016 Brio knob always seemed like the Mohel missed a bit, to me.

As Brio cosmetics date back to late 2016, these are likely as not to be changed to match the current livery very soon. Frankly, I was surprised not to see this being introduced at the Bristol show, although Rega obviously had their hands full with what goodies they did unveil.
 
I cannot comment on the Rega amps, but I can provide a bit of extra info on the speakers. I also have Oberon 5's. They have a nominal impedance of 6ohm and I suspect that they have some significant dips below that although I've never seen measurements. In any case, I had a Naim NAP150 which seemed to struggle with the DALI's at loud volumes, but I have found that an EWA M50 amp (also 50wpc) drives them with ease.

So, I'd rather also be asking, within the Rega range do you get increased control over low impedances?
 
Dali spec Oberon 5 as a 2-way having 88dB sensitivity ref. 2.83V @ 1m with a maximum spl of 108dB. These are small reflex loaded floorstanding boxes with 2 x 5.25" bass/mids wired in parallel which (if both are the same) will take the nominal impedance of an individual driver down by half. An interesting comparison here is Oberon 1, as this appears to have the same bass/mid unit (singular) as Oberon 5 has in parallel, and is also rated nominal 6Ohm. Assuming they are the same drivers then both impedance specs can't actually be true unless there happens to be some load balancing going on within the Oberon 5 crossover. The following naked crossover PCB of Zensor 7 (same circuit as Oberon 7, and likely 5) indicates a 5W8.2Ohm resistor in parallel with the 2 x bass/mids, so "nominal 6Ohm" is likely to be closer to exactly 6Ohm (at least below the crossover point).

zensor-7-plytka.jpg
 
We got a Elex Mk4 ( Doug Brady, great service ) today tried that and the Elisit his opinion was that there wasn't the price difference in sound, smooth and detailed I would describe it as, also picked up an Audiolab 9000cdt, which in conjunction with the Elex made a wonderful warm sound, did try the Saturn and Naim 5 something players but they just sounded to clinical and stark in comparison.

Also tried some Dali Rubicon 6's which were a real step up from the Oberons. Next on the list I think.
 
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