Review: Rega Apollo CD Player

apollo to a ray samuels audio hr2 headphone amp thru a number of headphones. no sibilance added to any redbook cds.

very good sq, especially for the money.

my naim cd5 w/flatcap blows it outta the water as well it should for 3 times the price.

i own an apollo cd player: i just bought it this past thursday
it is an interesting player for the money indeed.
in a confusing word of format wars, the apollo is indeed
a graet player for the money.
i did compare it to two other players which were $3000 and 3500.00 respectively and while these two players did some things better than the rega the rega was overall the most listenable without fatigue (over a wider spectrum) as some in this thread have postd. it has the most top to bottom cleanness the others didnt have for much more money.

its obvious that the folks at rega did their homework and sensed a market that was wide open as the japanese designers abandond the redbook cd players, and rega went to town on developing a player that closed a wide open gap of consumers who wanted a good RB player without the worry of immediate impending doom on the that market.
it is as some golden ears have observed:slightly bass deficient but its not enemic... at least at this time of non total break in (now only approx 10 hrs)
but bass is sufficient enough to ignore it for the rest of the musical spectrum which is full widely dimensional and open.
it does wipe the haze from standard cd players weve been used to and opens up the soundstage and depth enjoyably.
instrument separation is a delight to hear as i was listening to grover washingtons cd "reed seed" which (hint) should be remastered into audiophile status. this not as popular as his winelight album but trounces that cd in terms of listenable content. its also a cd that like some recordings such as james taylor fire and rain; abbey road among other good recorded albums...that have potential for instrument spaciality and openness that auophiles like.
steve hoffman are you listening?

i immediately heard the three saxphones that differentiated in the "trio tune" song on the cd, rather than just sound as one almost homogenous instrument.
thats the standout difference between cost saving cd players and this one.

this player isnt broken in yet and still i really like it. i went with it because the players going for 2500.00 to 3000.00 didnt seem worth the extra money save for the musical fidelity the "5" model which is the best thing for the money over the rega. but i had to remain within the constraints of my budget alas.

i owned an early model cambridge audio when it was manufactrured in england in the 90's (now its in china).
that was and still is a great player though it is out of order permanantly now and no one localy can repair it. no big deal its why i bought the rega. though the cambridge is a good player in its own right i now prefer the apollo because it is more open and unrestrained, (the cambridge was darker) yet again if you want to spend low dollars the cambridge is a good unit but it seems to have reliability problems as reported by some owners (as mine did).

i also own an earlier magnavox: 90's: (didnt come with a model number) it is a tank by comparison and one might think that having guts would make it better sounding than the rega. it is very good souding still and has better bass extention than the rega but rega has overall more ease of listenability and openness and hence you wont get listening fatigue and will hear all your old cd's sound new for the first time without straining to hear anything as its presented with such listening ease.

beware this cd player may annoy your lady since it is so open and loud she may tell you to turn it down as you proudly show it to her. it sounds like the instruments are closer to you live than any other player in this price range. the drum sticks are woody, clacky; you actually feel and hear the bang of the fingers on the piano, sometimes the breath of the musician breathing air through his sax. this is a player that should be recommended to all budding audipophiles and will not annoy you when another player in its price range comes out because it is pretty satisfying as it is.
i hear its faults but they are mostly negligable and i actually cant fault the player for them; i just realize that its more of a budget player than not. i also found that the $1600.00 arcam was a dud by comparison. i wasnt sure the why of all the hype about arcams. no offense to them but it is overrated methinks.
here's the thing to remember about cd players: you do honestly need the decoding guts to get the best sound which means more expense for the best stuff, but some companies like rega have found out how to work around that and make a "low end" cd player listenable. if it were more analytical then its cost would reflect that.

so without hesitation i recommend it over naim nad etc and all others in its price range and above to the 2500.00 mark at least and in some cases the 3k mark.
so do not hesitate to audition this player and dont quiibble about the money: you have a charge card use it. this player will keep you less edgy about wanting something more expensive with higher resolution and will stop the question of: "should i have done something else with my money?"
vinylizer

I had a Rega Apollo, I didn't like it in my system, I think I must have a weird system, as I didn't like the Linn Ikemi either ! (I currently use a Pioneer PD-S505)
Anyhow the real point of this, is that the Apollo did seem a little bright, and the reason could be that emphasis might be permanently on. I noticed the emphasis light light up on my Muse 2 DAC, when I attached it to the Apollo. I tried a few discs, as apparently CD's with emphasis are rare, but do exist.
Maybe the Muse DAC was misbehaving, I would be interested if anybody else who has a DAC that has an emphasis indicator, has tried connecting it to a Rega Apollo.

The Stereophile review measurements said if anything there was slight rolloff at the top. That said, I have heard it on maybe 3 or 4 CDs out of my large collection. 10cc is one. In these cases on my system (Krell and Apollo) it's clearly the mastering of the CD. Though with my system at least the old cliche' holds - unforgiving to poorly mastered CDs. But yeah, I've heard it very occasionally. Still love the player although I'm trying to get to a music-server based system either with a Transporter or a DAC1 Pre. (The Squeezebox DAC is inferior to the Apollo's.)

regards, David

Forgot to mention, the Arcam would bring that out more IMO. I've listened to Arcam several times and the detail was right on up there - to a fault actually. Intellectually my engineer brain said this it great but the Arcam left the rest cold. No warmth. My Krell has that kind of detail but with more body, warmth and realism. My point is I think the Arcam would exacerbate any tendency to sibilance the Apollo has.
regards, David