Audio Dropping Out on Rega Apollo and Saturn


I borrowed a Rega Apollo and Saturn for home audition from my local dealer.

On both CD players, I experienced audio drop outs from some of my CDs as they were playing. I noticed that these CDs did have some minor scratches, but nothing major. When I would play these same CDs on my Jolida JD100 CD player, I never experienced these problems.

Are there any Rega Apollo or Saturn owners that have experienced this problem with some of their CDs? It seems like to me that Rega does not have a very good error correction system as the laser scans the CD. So if you do happen to have some CDs with scratches, it could hinder an otherwise pleasant listening experience.

If there is no clear explanation or work-around for this, then I have no choice but to remove these players from my consideration.
wkass

Showing 2 responses by fusion10

For what it's worth, I owned a Saturn for a few months last year (purchased brand new) and had the same issues as Fillmoor. Namely, the player not responding properly to remote control commands to change song (it would go to the wrong song), and also cutting out the first second or so of pretty much every track that I skipped to. If I hit stop then it seemed to right itself more or less, and unplugging the unit would right it entirely (for a little while). Not major problems, but annoying all the same. I traded the Saturn in for another player, but it was so that I could get the matching player for my amp (not because of the issues I had).

I'm considering the purchase of an Apollo now (yes I switch gear too much - I'm still trying to figure out what I want from my system). I'd buy Rega again if I determined it was the best player for my current set up, but as of this moment I'm considering various options. I'm not too worried about the glitches as I'm confident I'd have the support of my dealer, but of course it's a tick against Rega when comparing with other brands. They may just be glitches today, but what'll they be five years from now?
Well, I bought an Apollo, 35th Anniversary SE (couldn't resist when I found out my dealer had a couple still left), and it failed the first day I had it! I played one song, hit STOP, and it wouldn't. Opened the lid, it kept playing. When the disc finally stopped, the Apollo had trouble recognizing when the door was opened or closed, and it wouldn't initialize discs (and by extension does not play anymore - the disc doesn't even spin). It's currently in for repair.

I'll tell you this though - it sounded amazing for that half hour it worked. It seemed to really have synergy with my Audiolab 8000S and Quad 12L2 speakers. I can't wait to get it back, but whether I keep it long-term or not I don't know. It's going to have to play reliably over the next couple of years.