2. amps-preamps
  3. 180913-113797

rega elex r burn in?

So let me be as detailed as possible.

Four years ago I got a sweet deal, I think $650 on ebay for a used rega elexr. I was coming from a cambridge audio am10 so it was a huge upgrade for me. At the time I had a schiit modi dac and running it all into a pair of older klipsch tangent 40 speakers with basic cables and ancillary components.

I loved the sound of that amp and speaker combo, every good thing you read or hear about what makes rega amps good and specifically the elex r good was bang on and in full force.

However my wife and i had a fire at that house which totaled everything damn near and we moved.I ended up buying a couple marantz amps ,the 7005 and the 6006 over the intervening years and was fairly happy. Fast forward to now and as some might know basically all online dealers are blowing out the elex r for $500 off ,so i bought one.

Well its exactly like i remember except for one thing, the midrange seems overly muffled to me.

Now my companion pieces are a bit different,

Klipsch rp600m
the same schiit dac, Survived the fire.
And some similar basic interconnects and cables.

My rooms a bit different too,whereas before i had my set up in a living room with about 25x10 ft dimensions.
now my listening room is my wife and i's bedroom at about 13x13. Also because of need my speakers are sitting close to the rear wall, which i have noted with my 6006 ups the bass a bit.

Anywho im not really asking about room set up because we're moving again in a few months and i'll finally have a dedicated listening room,more im asking about amp burn in and peoples experience that have had the elex r.

Like i said the midrange seems to be muffled a bit almost recessed slightly, kinda like vocals are sitting back in the soundstage where the instruments are up front obscuring them. I dont remember that being the case with the used one i bought.

It's funny because ive heard the rega io and brio from new and they dont seem to suffer this but ive read reviews of the rega ellict r and people mention something similar to what im hearing with the elex r. Reviews on the ellict r seem to say that 200 hours seem to open it up.

Anyway any help from rega owners would be awesome and help to avail my fears about it.Because as it sits it sounds 80/85% of the sound that i remember from the used one and it makes beautiful music and is built like a tank and id hate to return it.

oh i forgot i work a lot and currently have about 15 hours on it and have not really noticed a sonic change at all in that time.

128x128jetblack9090
reubent
6,986 posts
 

I have an Elicit-R. It is a fantastic sounding amp IMHO. However, it does take a long time for it to warm up. I leave it turned on 24X7 unless I'm going to be away from home for days/weeks at a time. When I turn it back on after a leave, it takes a good long time for it to sound it's best. Try leaving it turned on for a while. If possible, leave some music playing. If not, it will still warm up given enough time.

jetblack9090's avatar
jetblack9090 OP
6 posts
 

well I appreciate the comment I think kind of I figured it out, and it has to do with Bass. so I've been powering my setup with a arcam alpha 5 which has about 40 Watts and of course the rega has about double that. so last night after I kind of posted this I had the thought that maybe the bass is overpowering the mid-range and obscuring the vocals as I described. anyway I took some socks and stuffed them in the ports and lo and behold that basically eliminated the problem.

 

I think originally I remember the amplifier 4 years ago differently because well one, auditory memory isn't all that great and number two the older tangent 40 speakers I was using are a sealed box design and they do not have any bass ports. so with those speakers I had them shoved up against the living room wall just for space saving but it didn't really matter because they didn't have any ports anyway.

 

actually that kind of makes me think some of the best speaker designs that I've heard have been sealed box designs without ports. 

 

so yeah the sound still isn't 100% what I remember but it's basically there and I know some people don't believe in burn in but I do and it's something I've seen time and time again with a lot of different products.

 

thanks again for your help Bud I appreciate the advice and I'll try leaving it on, I've heard people with rega amps talk about leaving them on all the time and getting a better sound, so I'll give it a try. I mean as you can imagine with the fire and all I'm kind of a little nervous about leaving electronics running.

 

 

 

 

akg_ca's avatar
akg_ca
2,237 posts
 

I have the REGA OSIRIS integrated amp and it’s stablemate REGA ISIS VALVE cdp/dac

My experience:

- INITIAL RUN-IN FROM NEW: ~ 300 hrs for the first 90%. Progressive small steps after that. ( NOTE: this is an ad-hoc timeline with a series of steps and plateaus …)

- DAILY USE: I first warm them up for a minimum of 2-3 hrs to get the max performance quotient. It’s not a linear curve timeline,…. patience …..

I’ve not seen any need to leave it on 24/7 .

 

Your disappointment with your midrange and indicated 85% threshold on performance : I’ll take a swing here and guesstimate two things:

 

Your current power cord and the house power line may be lacking

(1);. A dedicated 20A armoured cable line is begging IMO.
(2) I upgraded my PCs to CARDAS CLEAR / CARDAS CLEAR REFLECTION….. immediate step up in dynamics, slam overall and more presence in the midrange

 

Your current speakers may no longer be an optimal match to the new integrated amp choice. (System synergy matters … big-time …..)

REGA electronics can develop a bespoke and very special, sweet, and ethereal system synergy with certain limited speaker brands… all British .
My recommendations for the top synergy matches: REGA’s own and HARBETH ( at two different price points )

I have both .

At the lower budget point: the matching of an all-REGA system is a REGA top-match at its pricepoint ( the current REGA RX models.., well worth an audition as a litmus test)

 

chayro
2,984 posts
 

I give every new component a month before making any decisions.  This gives both the component and my ears time to break in. You both need more time, IMO.  It can be frustrating I know.  

More to discover