3/30/2021 0 Comments Best Cd Transport 2019
In addition to giving it one of our Exceptional Value Awards, weve purchased the Apollo for our permanent collection, and it will be receiving a Product of the Year award over at The Audiophile Apartment.With all the excitement for streaming building at a feverish pace, some people still like the old-fashioned way of serving up digital; namely, spinning a silver (or maybe gold) disc.
![]() Patterned after the rest of the players in their lineup, the Apollo uses the same Starship Enterprise shaped lid for the transport. Regas Roy Gandy is a brilliant man with a wacky sense of humor, so one never knows if this is on purpose or random. Best Cd Transport 2019 Manual Lid AssuresEither way, this manual lid assures that it is not another mechanism that will fail ten years later Rega is always the master of simple elegance. The front panel features a large display, flanked by a power button on the left and 4 buttons to control transport functions on the right. Thats it. Perfect. On my recent podcast with John Darko of Darko Audio, he admits I recently picked up a couple thousand CDs at a great price recently. Without having to get up and flip the record over. Not bad. Following Mr. Darkos lead, I substitute the morning coffee for a dreadful bit of wheatgrass, and a copy of Brian Enos Thursday Afternoon. To get immediate perspective, the Apollo is put in comparison with a stack of Nagra Classic gear (amp, preamp, and DAC) driving a pair of Focal Stella Utopia Ems, with a dCS Bartok along for the ride in input two. The Apollo makes an excellent debut, and when switching back and forth between the much pricier competitors, the lines are quickly drawn. Centered around the latest Wolfson WM8742 DAC chips and their own analog stage, all carefully implemented in a compact case. According to Regas Terry Bates, the players designer, the analog output stage is entirely different. Again, youd expect nothing less from Rega) He refers to it as A discrete implementation of an op amp with a nod to forgotten about 1960s amplifier circuitry with class A output. In short, Bateman calls the Apollo greater than the sum of its parts, and we concur. The Apollo keeps the pace with the densely packed, thunderous drumming on the opening track, offering compelling low-level resolution during the quiet beginning of Lay Your Hands on Me. This is a ton of fun listening to a disc, long since ripped to NAS, that was one of the first CDs I purchased back in the 80s, with its massive full digital recording sticker on the cover. The deep, growling bass at the beginning of Charlie Sextons Plain Bad Luck and Innocent Mistakes puts the Focals to the task and rattles everything on the coffee table. Sorry, you cant stream Under the Wishing Tree on Tidal or Qobuz, so there are times when a player comes in handy. With so many CDs popping up at yard sales and in used CD stores, theres a lot available for next to nothing. The Apollo as transport feels right at home plugged into this 20,000 DAC, and when playing 1644 files, the sound from this combo often sounds more musical than what is streamed. In the context of a primary budget system, it holds its own and often betters the sound of turntables at the same price point. While our Rega P3Exact combination still offers a bit more warmth and palpability through the midband, the Apollo corners the market on dynamics, and low bass punch. The two together make a formidable pair, offering the best of both worlds for a reasonable price but thats always been the Rega ethos. Of course, it does not have the finesse youd expect from a DAC or player that costs as much as a used Audi, but the basics are firmly in place, and thats what makes the difference between digital being engaging or not.
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