Rega Apollo Vs. Saturn?

Thanks for your replies. The Rega DAC may be the way to go. Might be nice for my DVD player, cable box, etc..

I've had the DAC for 2 weeks now. Far better than my Apollo. Some say it's better than the Saturn, some say it's a bit different but equally good. I haven't lived with a Saturn, so no opinion from me.

If you like Rega, particularly their sources, you should make it a point to hear it before deciding on a Saturn or Apollo.

As a heads up, I've read that Rega is planning on revamping a bit. The Apollo and Brio's replacement will be in a half width chassis that's shared with the DAC. The Mira and Saturn will get a facelift, but remain full width. No word if it's purely cosmetic or internal too.

This came from a Rega rep on Pink Fish Media. They're supposedly due out sometime this year. I'd guess later than sooner.

I have a Saturn + the Rega DAC. I performed extensive A/B comparisons of the Saturn through the Rega DAC against the pure Saturn into my LFD amp and Harbeth Compact 7's. In every instance, the pure Saturn came out ahead. Before buying the Saturn, I was planning to use a Music Hall CD 25.2 through the Rega DAC for CD playing but experienced a lot of jitter issues. So now I am quite satisfied with the Saturn for CD's and the Rega DAC for all the computer based music.

Given my experience, I would say that all the opinions that an Apollo + Rega DAC are better than the Saturn are inaccurate and probably more speculative than actual testing based.

Mkimsey - Just curious, what are your impressions Saturn playing CDs vs. Rega DAC playing computer-based music?

So far I prefer the Saturn and CD's. It's close. Frustrating thing is, that to get hi-res out of the Mac I have to use a good quality Toslink cable because USB will not play in hi-res in the Rega Dac. I've had a Naim CD5X in the past and an Audio Aero Prima and feel the Saturn is comparable. I like that it evaluates a disc to optimize it before playing.

I once had the loan of a Wavelength Brick for a few weeks and that was incredible. I would have gone that way but I thought the Rega Dac would take care of CD & Computer, whereas the Brick can only do USB. Had I known I would be buying a stand alone CDP anyway, I would have bought a Brick for the Computer side. I still may wiggle back that direction yet.

Back on the CDP.... you can still get a new Saturn for $1800. The "trade in a clunker promo" is still in effect though many dealers don't promote it. At $1800, the Saturn was a no brainer. (See Gene Rubin.)