Rega Ania Vs Apheta 1

What would you take? No other brands please i wont be dissuaded until ive owned a Rega MC.

Mint used (100 hrs) Apheta 1 for $100 cheaper from a trusted seller

or

New Ania

Some might remember i bought a P9 that had a damaged Apheta 1, well silly me turns out the arm was damaged too. Slightly twisted headshell and bearing play, whole thing was a disaster, dont buy a used TT at this price from interstate! Anyway its got a new RB1000 on it now but im skint for a cart and im sick of my Exact.

Funnily enough the Damaged RB1000/Apheta 1 combo still bested the Exact cart on my P7, so for those than slam the Apheta 1 for being sharp ive heard it even sharper with the SRA angled way inwards and the azimuth was well off too. It still offered up a good amount more detail and i enjoyed the sound but it is impossible to properly align the cart with the damage.

FYI i am using a Rega Aria > Rega Cursa 3 > tube monos > Rega RS5/Rel T5i

Cheers.

 

heard em both in the demo room of the store i get my hifi from...better bass on the ania...but it was harsher on the ears over time...went with apheta

 

They are not far apart in sound, more different than better / worse, and the Apheta 1 is getting rather long in the tooth now. I'd not bet the farm on how many hours or what type of handling it has seen. Get the new cartridge with warranty.
-Bill

 

@KT88 I think i will end up with the Ania. I love buying used gear although its really bitten me in the backside on this P9, but i think especially with carts buying new is probably a good idea.

There is one dealer in Australia who is still selling Apheta 1's for $500 less than the Apheta 2 but its still $700 more expensive than the Ania.

Is the Ania at $1,000 a better deal price vs performance wise than the Apheta 1 at $1,700?

I love this P9 ive got, now its got a working arm but jeeze its cost me, could have got a new RP8 and Apheta 2 for what this is going to cost me with an Ania!!!!!!! Still the RP8 just doesnt do it for me.

 

I personally think the P9 turntable overall was and is a superb turntable. As long as you’ve got the arm issue solved, install the best cartridge you can afford. The Apheta 2 is a great cartridge. To my ears, it plays in the same audio sandbox as the Dynavector XX2, Soundsmith Aida, and the Ortofon Cadenza Bronze. The P9 tonearm design was a great piece of engineering and remains so today, and I think it deserves a great cartridge (if that’s in the budget of course!).

I auditioned the Ania on a Rega P6 recently. I liked it better than the Ortofon Quintet Black, Denon/Charisma DL103, Clearaudio Maestro V2 (MM), and Hana SL. So the Ania has my vote too, and it will absolutely do its very best on the P9 with its excellent tonearm. If the decision is mostly about budget, then I agree with @KT88 that there’s just enough of the Apheta character in the Ania to make purchasing the Ania a perfectly good decision for your P9.

Most important, I think there’s no bad decision here. The Ania is very, very good - good enough to immerse you in your music and make you forget all about cartridges and arms and bad sellers.

 

I've bought most of my system used and have always done so, except for phono cartridges where I always go with new.

 

My RP8 with the Ania and Aria combo is a beautiful thing.

 

Thanks guys Ania it is!

 

I'm with Mazzy but I have a P6 with Ania. You're going to love it after its all run in.

 

And remember it will have some hours to warm up. 50-100.

 

I've only owned my Ania for a few weeks now (purchased new along with a Planar 6 TT). I was able to borrow a well run-in demo P6/Ania combo to try at home before purchasing. In both cases the rest of the chain was a Parasound Halo JC3 Jr. phono preamp running into a Naim Nait 5i integrated amplifier and finally through a pair of Rega RX3 speakers. In the case of both the demo table/cartridge and the new table/cartridge I would describe the sound as detailed but not harsh in any way. So in the case of your demo system details might also be of benefit to others. I'm not trying to brag about the Ania nor am I trying to talk poorly of the Apheta — it might very well be that my system is simply not resolving enough to bring out the harshness you're referring to. I only mention this because I've experienced listening fatigue with past systems and am very wary of ever repeating such mistakes. I'm guessing that I'm not the only one.

 

They both sounded great....but when A/B'ed you can hear the subtle differences...and the Ania was a bit brighter and harsher....not compared to most carts but compared to the Apheta

 

Updating... turns out i can have my damaged original Apheta rebuilt with a boron cantilever and linear contact stylus for $420 USD or a micro ridge stylus for an extra $100... new Ania here in Aus is $1000 and after exchage rate the rebuilt Apheta will be $600 so thats where im heading now.

Sending it to a guy called Andy who runs a cart rebuilding service called needle clinic... seen a couple of good reviews of rebuilds hes done on Aphetas in the past and hes very prompt replying to emails.

Will update with how it all goes... hopefully this turns out and i end up with a mint P9 with its brand new RB1000 and rebuilt Apheta with a fancy boron cantilever... all of this has cost me as much as a brand new RP8/Apheta 2 at full RRP but if it comes together ill be very happy indeed.

 

I recently had my Apheta 1 retipped by Andy. He put a sapphire cantilever and a micro ridge stylus on it—it’s very good. Hard to describe. Articulate and detailed. It’s still breaking in so There may be more improvement, but it’s far better than it was and far better than the Ania and the 20x2l I own. The retip makes it something new and unique. Andy does good work.

 

That could quite possibly be the single most helpful response ive ever had mate!

Im still tossing up between the linear contact and micro ridge stylus as both are an upgrade on Rega's hyperelliptical but the Aussie dollar is low and the exchange does jack the price up. Really excited to hear how it sounds as ive heard an Apheta 2 on an RP10 with 15K Martin Logans and it was quite stunning. Ive only ever heard my Exact and my Apheta 1 with bent cantilever on my P9 but even so the Apheta i felt was remarkably more striking and immediate with copious amounts more detail and ide have to think that with a far more rigid cantilever and more advanced stylus this would be further improved.

The guy that owns the RP10/Apheta 2 i mentioned above is keen for a shootout once i get my Apheta fixed which will be a very cool comparison. The rebuilt Apheta despite having lesser internals will boast a higher spec cantilever/stylus assembly so should be a really interesting comparison to a stock Apheta 2.

Thanks again for the comments regarding the rebuild.

 

Updating again... my P9 now has a brand new RB2000 and an Apheta 1 that i bought used with 250hrs on it for $500... sounds crazy good compared to P7 /Exact... i still have my damaged Apheta that i will still get rebuilt and most likely end up using in the end... funny thing both Aphetas have different clear sides... the damaged one is just a thin flexy plastic whereas the used one i just bought appears to have the hard plastic plates as on the Apheta 2... anyone know anything re this?

 

It is rather common practice in manufacturing, where smaller quantities of a specific product is made, to introduce improvements as the production is still in the current model. This is often called a "running change" in the USA. It means that an update is being incorporated as standard for all future production pieces but also that the model identification is not changed as the update is not significant enough to warrant that, or they simply wanted better product of the same type. When changes are significant enough to create another price point or a different spec that would effect the end user, then new model numbers are assigned, even if it is only a v2, etc. In the Apheta, I think that better formed cover was all that they updated.
-Bill