Rega Aria with Brio R?

I think I've got one more upgrade in me before I'm done for the foreseeable future and having bought an RP8 just before Christmas (which sounds wonderful) I've been thinking of adding an Aria phono stage to complete a nice Rega front end. You can see my kit in my sig, but my question is for those that might have experience with the Aria along with the Brio R. Should I expect a big improvement over the Brio R phono stage or will the Brio limit the performance of the Aria somewhat? I'm only interested in the Aria as I it would sit along the Rega Brio R and Dac R rather nicely but £800 is a big chunk of money if it won't make a decent difference. Thanks.

 

It'll be a nice upgrade. It sounds more open and detailed than the built-in phono stage in your amp. Bass should be more impactful as well. Even better, it'll allow you to use a LOMC cartridge at some point if you'd like to try that, so it'll be something that does not get outgrown. It really comes down to just how important playback of Lp records are vs digital sources.
-Bill

 

It will definitely be a nice upgrade and it will give you much more flexibility with cartridge options. If you can swing the cash, then go for it.

That said, I've always been impressed by the phono stage in the Brio-R. Some may not be aware, but it's more or less the same phono stage on the much more expensive Elicit-R believe it or not.

See here - Rega Elicit R phono stage - pink fish media »

 

Thank you both for your replies, while initially I'll be running MM the MC aspect does appeal later down the line. I guess I was just looking to be talked into it

 

Yeah, go for it, you will be a happy camper for sure.

 

Picked one up and first impressions are exactly as you describe, more open and a bit better defined bass with a little more punch. Thanks again!

 

Newbie to the forum here... Question for Mintsauce ... I've got an RP6 with DV10x5 cart running through a Brio-R to KEF R100s in a relatively small listening room / man-cave. I don't listen at excessive volumes and wondered if you think the Aria was worth the investment? What interconnects are you using between the Brio-R and the Aria?

 

Welcome to the forum RegaJunky, lots of knowledgeable folks on around to help!


I’ve been building the system in my sig for a little over 2 years, but this is my first setup that I’d consider to tip over into the audiophile realm so I don’t have a lot of experience with anything else, but I’ll do my best to answer. My system is set up in my smallish lounge (you can see some pictures of my room in a previous post Void in stairs causing boom? » )and I have neighbours to one side, so out of courtesy most of my listening is at pretty low volume and I only open it up a bit when I’m sure they’re out. To set the scene I’ve had the Brio-R about 18 months and I was running a Project Debut Carbon with a 2M bronze until just before Christmas when I Picked up an RP8 for a great price and moved the 2M Bronze across. This was a huge increase in sound quality, everything about it was much better from the sound stage to the quietness of the background, everything felt more precise.

I only picked the Aria up yesterday morning, but I got a fair bit of time yesterday to go through some familiar albums that I know are recorded well. Some Pink Floyd, Solid Air by John Martyn, Zoolook By Jarre, Massive Attacks Mezzanine and while not particularly well recorded, The Cure. What I’m finding is exactly what KT88 said I should expect, the Soundstage is a bit wider but what I started to notice more than that was that it was more defined front to back. The Bass sounds more controlled and natural, drums are sounding really good and the instrumentation is all more precise and defined in space. I’m really happy that I bought it and I sat last night thinking to myself that I was content with the system (how long will that last? ) I think in my space it’s perfect. To sum up, it isn’t the mind blowing upgrade that going to the RP8 was but it’s not a subtle upgrade either, very happy with it. One thing to think about is that they just updated the Brio look, I’d be amazed if they didn’t do the Dac-R , Apollo-R and Aria to match the styling, so you may get one cheaper around the time they do.


As for interconnects, I made my own based on this TNT Shoestring DIY interconnects - [English] »

I also made my speaker cables based on this TNT tripleT »


Sound great to me, but I’m just at the bottom end

 

pshhhh. you have a great rig. enjoy

 

I certainly am

I was really meaning the cables, I've never tried expensive ones so I've nothing to compare too, but there's plenty of discussion already on the merits of cables.

 

I also use Rega brio-r with KefR100. Since about two weeks I run the turntable through a separate photo pre (Gold Note) and the biggest difference, compared to the pre buildt in the brio, is a better bottom end.

Dont know how it corresponds to adding the Aria though.

 

I disagree strongly with Bill on this. I've owned both and feel the Brio-R is too constrained in presentation to allow all of the Aria's strengths to cut through. My opinion is to use the phono stage in the Brio, assuming you are using a quality MM, and save your funds to upgrade on the amp side.

If your desire is to add a MC to the mix, a nice step-up transformer would be great (like the Budgie).

 

It shouldn't be a 'bit' better with a 'little' more punch, it should be night and day!!!

 

Wrong. I have the Elex-R amp which, I believe, has the same phono stage as the Brio-R. If that is true, the phono stage measures very well.

 

To be fair I'd had it about an hour when I wrote that in my excitement, it is a bigger improvement than i initially expressed, but not as much as moving up to the RP8 was, which was night and day!

 

Thanks for the advice, but I'm sure you've seen that I had already taken the plunge. For the moment I'm very happy with my sound, maybe in the future I'll get the urge to improve the amp though and I now have the ability to look into MC also.

 

Read the thread. You aren't following.

 

I believe you made a mistake. The Brio-R, despite the hype, is a limited application amp for small speakers in small rooms. It completely castrates higher-end source gear, including the Aria and Saturn-R. Most of the benefits of the Aria occur outside of the Brio's wheelhouse. For the Brio, it's own internal phono stage is more than capable enough.

That's what I mean by 'should be night and day'. But with the Brio, it won't and never will be.

I've had quite a bit of experience up and down the Rega line for years, so this is all based on my own experiences with a variety of phono carts. I've since moved on from Rega, perceiving the line (and most british gear, including Naim) to be too artificiality voiced.

 

I'm curious about this statement in bold. How is most British gear artificiality voiced? Relative to what exactly?

I actually find many British brands to be wonderful. Beyond Rega and Naim, brands like Sonneteer, Chord, Cyrus, Linn, Meridian etc all make top notch quality gear. To my ears at least!

 

I guess I'll get a Double whammy if I get the funds to move up to an Elicit-R in the future, but for now I'll just enjoy what I've got. Again thanks for taking time to reply.Rage against the machine's ST seemed appropriate tonight and it's sounding mighty fine!

 

They sound great to audiophiles just as a pair of Beats headphones sounds great to a hip-hop obsessed basshead. But they are voiced.

Audiophiles don't want neutral. Neutral doesn't sell. Can't differentiate your brand, or within your range, with neutral.

Part of the sell is building a sense of mystique around the brand. Hence all the nonsense language found in the marketing materials.

 

Elicit-R will reveal more of the Arias strengths, if indeed that's your plan. I ran with an Elex-R / Aria combo for awhile and found it enjoyable. But my cart was a mid-line MC. That all said, I was equally as happy with a Budgie step-up into the Elex-R's phono. With a MM cart (what is your cart, by the way), I just can't help but believe an Aria paired with Brio is total overkill.

 

2M Bronze that I moved across from my previous TT

 

Looking forward to seeing your evidence to back up these claims.

 

Paul Darwin: I have now had the definitive explanation from the designer, Terry Bateman, that the Brio R and Elicit R are fundamentally the same phono stages, but the Fono MM is rather different giving a better performance than either of the embedded / included phono stages.

The reasons form this would be subject to pages of technical stuff, but for reasons of brevity I will not include here !!

Best regards,

PD

Rega Elicit R phono stage - pink fish media »


I have the Fono MM and in my opinion it is an upgrade over the internal phono on my Brio R. No reason to believe the Aria couldn't produce even better results.