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Rega Aethos?

Musicraft said:
It'll be interesting to see how the Aethos fairs against Naim Audio's new SuperNait 3, Peachtree Audio's new nova500 and the established Sugden Audio Masterclass ANV-50, Peachtree Audio nova300 and ATC's SIA2-150 MK2.
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I wonder how these compares with the cambridge edge amplifiers.
 
hifinutt said:
Did anyone go to the moorgate event on the 10th?
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Went to the Aethos launch on Friday 20th.
Very enjoyable and interesting. Met and spoke with Mr Darwin who is a top man.
Difficult, however, to evaluate the sound of the Aethos amp, and the new Rega Planer 10 turntable, in isolation, suffice to say that the system being demoed (with the top Rega phono stage, and floor-standing PMC speakers) to my ears, sounded subjectively right, being nicely detailed and balanced.
Also informed by Paul that the Aethos and Planer 10 will not be supplied to the public for a number of weeks yet.
Well done to Paul (manager of Moorgate) and the staff, for being friendly and engaging, and making it an enjoyable afternoon.
 
Allaboutmusic said:
Interesting that they used PMC speakers rather than Rega
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Yes wondered about that too, but didn’t get around to asking why not. They had Rega speakers in the showroom (noticed a pair of RX3’s, but don’t recall seeing any 5’s or the top of the range model)
 
Ronaudio said:
Went to the Aethos launch on Friday 20th.
Very enjoyable and interesting. Met and spoke with Mr Darwin who is a top man.
Difficult, however, to evaluate the sound of the Aethos amp, and the new Rega Planer 10 turntable, in isolation, suffice to say that the system being demoed (with the top Rega phono stage, and floor-standing PMC speakers) to my ears, sounded subjectively right, being nicely detailed and balanced.
Also informed by Paul that the Aethos and Planer 10 will not be supplied to the public for a number of weeks yet.
Well done to Paul (manager of Moorgate) and the staff, for being friendly and engaging, and making it an enjoyable afternoon.
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thanks so much , paul was for many years active on the cyrus forum and have been to the shop to hear stuff . great to hear your thoughts and if there is a demo near me i shall go
 
I have an idea about Rega mostly do speakers because that was the first Thing they did. I have had R7, R1, RS7 and RX3 and All fine speakers. But it is a though market and their speakers is to old school for many hifi folks. Just a guess:)
 
Elkjær said:
I have an idea about Rega mostly do speakers because that was the first Thing they did. I have had R7, R1, RS7 and RX3 and All fine speakers. But it is a though market and their speakers is to old school for many hifi folks. Just a guess:)
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I didn't knew speakers were their first thing
Would guess a Planar was

Never came on with the R/RS5 but #1, 3 & 7 performed better, no hope for a RX7 ?
The original Ela was great.
Guess transmission-line in general, is too expensive for large scale manufacture.
 
Elkjær said:
I have an idea about Rega mostly do speakers because that was the first Thing they did. I have had R7, R1, RS7 and RX3 and All fine speakers. But it is a though market and their speakers is to old school for many hifi folks. Just a guess:)
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First product from Rega was a turntable, back in 1973 or thereabouts.
 
I popped down to Audio T in Brighton yesterday to get a listen to the Rega Aethos, prounounced Ethos at the open day event.
The back panel as far as i can tell is exactly the same as my Elicit R, minus the phono input.
It certainly sounded excellent, a weighty rhymthic sound, detailed and involving. It was a vinyl event, but i politely asked if i could have it connected up to a Saturn R instead, as that represents my present set up. Speakers were Rega RX5?, whereas i use Kudos C20s.
It's always difficult making a full evaluation of the amp, as various variables were in place. So the room is different, as are the speakers, different cables and also, the CD i focussed on, (Bjork/Debut), is not one i've played on my system. It was the only one in the shop selection, that i owned though.
Also, music was being played at a higher level than i could ever wish to, what with my neighbours mother in law, now being based in the living room next door to mine. I did turn it down eventually, when i remembered to. I noticed that the volume control on the remote is not sensitive to touch and took big volume leaps, which i hope can be better controlled, like the Saturn R one, which is stepped in increments.
It certainly sounded great overall and i think it will be on the market in about 2 months time. It is definetly not a replacement for the Osiris and it was confirmed that the Osiris maintains its position, as their reference amp.
Depending on whether, i go down the music server approach or remain exclusively CD, I'm definetly interested, but the Naim Supernait 2/3 is also in contention, as an upgrade to the Elicit R. I also use a Bluesound Node 2i into the dac portion of my Saturn R, as a stepping stone into the world of streaming.
Whilst i was there, i spoke with a Rega rep and he confirmed Rega have no interest in the streaming side of the market. Too many software changes and too much faffing about, is the explanation given.
With regards to a pairing Aethos level Cd/Dac, a la the Saturn R, i was advised that, they are assessing the market with regards to CD popularity/sales, as investment at a higher level would work out at a 6 figure cost. There is likely to be a 2 year assessment period.
They did say however, that the CD mechanism they use is coming to the end of its supply, around that 2 year period, so that will have to be factored in, if they continue to make CD players, especially at a high end level and if it makes economic sense.
So a worthwhile day finally getting to hear the Aethos and finding out about Rega's future plans, other than their devotion to beloved vinyl, which has now plateaud apparently.
The Dac R has been discontinued, so for the moment, they will be focussing on record players and amp sales, which are steady winners for them. The Rega rep thought that Chord cornered the market on dacs and spoke highly of them
 
PerF said:
I didn't knew speakers were their first thing
Would guess a Planar was

Never came on with the R/RS5 but #1, 3 & 7 performed better, no hope for a RX7 ?
The original Ela was great.
Guess transmission-line in general, is too expensive for large scale manufacture.
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As mentioned above, speakers were not Rega's first offering. But I have never heard a bad Rega speaker, and some (Kytes, ELAs, RS3/5s) were truly excellent.

They are consistently a great company IMO, and their recent TTs are astonishing.

If I hadn't already got back on the Naim amp upgrade path, I would have been very interested in the Aethos.
 
Thanks rod , yes crazy that folks play these demo`s so loud . puts you off going to any . your observation "I noticed that the volume control on the remote is not sensitive to touch and took big volume leaps, which i hope can be better controlled, like the Saturn R one, which is stepped in increments."

is common to some amps and a real pain in the neck , i like my pre amp as it has 200 fine controls and so important because so many albums have different volumes
 
Hi Rod,

Pleased that you enjoyed the day and the new Aethos amplifier.

Just for clarification purposes, we have more than two years supply of CD mechs and have not yet had a final buy notice from the manufacturer so we can carry on building, selling and servicing our CD players for many many more years than the 2 suggested, and indeed will carry spares for current models for many many years after that.

Also it is the vinyl "revival" that has plateaued not our interest in vinyl, vinyl replay and the ongoing research and development of turntables.

Best,

PD
 
Hi Paul,

Yes the Aethos demo was very enjoyable.

Never for one moment was implying that Rega would not be able to support CD players in future, or that Rega interest in vinyl had plateaued, merely sales apparently, to be clear.

One of the key reasons for buying Rega products after all, is their excellent back up service and quality of product at reasonable prices.

Cheers

Rod
 
I can't say that I've met a Rega amp I didn't like, although I usually meet them second-hand and MUCH further down the hi-fi chain. The last thing I met was a Rega Luna that came as part of a system I bought at a VERY good price. Owing to an excess of hi-fi hardware I ended up swapping it for an Adcom GFA 545 II power amp that I'm putting up for sale on "that website" later today, pending recommendations for couriers.

Ah, the joys of hi-fi horsetrading. Still, nearly at my "final" system... it's only taken me 20 years :p
 
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