Thompsonuxb said:
Reijer give us some detail......
I've never heard a rega amp - but I'm a sucker for paper specs and they look low powered to me.
Anyhoo how did the amps compare
At the first shop my wife and I auditioned the Rotel Ra-12, NAD C326BEE and a Peachtree 65SE against a Audio Analogue Cresendo on a pair of 685s2. Source was in all times an Cresendo CDplayer. We have Agnes Obel, Alison Krauss, Michael Jackson Xscape and some music from Dutch artists. First the Rotel fall off, it lacks detail, depth, clarity and dynamics. Then the NAD and finally the Peachtree. To our ears the Audio Analogue was the best match because it has the clarity, depth, detail and dynamisc we were searching for.
At the second store we auditioned the 685s2 with Arcam FMJ A19, Rega Brio and the TEAC AI 501DA, with an Rega Apollo R as a soure and with the same music.
At first the Arcam fall off. It missed sound, clarity, detail; it even looks the set were out of fase. Then the Rega was plugged in. A nice sound was comming towards us. Lots of detail, power and dynamics but we thought that this wasn't it.....
The owner of the shop than came to us with a stupid little box that was named TAEC AI 501DA. We were blown away. This was the sound we were looking for. My wife was convinced, TEAC it was. I asked the owner to switch back to the Rega and than back again to the TEAC. When playing London Grammers Hey Now on both sets, I was aslo convinced: TEAC was the choise for us.
The owner of the shop was also surprised, with the disappointing performance of the Arcam and the result with the TEAC, a new brand for him.
But....... take into consideration that my Dutch ears probably have a slightly different tuning or taste than British or German ears.