Trying to choose between Brio Elex-R and Rogue Sphinx V2 &Audiolab’s 6000a (budget choice)


I have a Rega Planar 3 with a Nagaoka MP-200 on its way.  I'm keeping my psb Stratus Silver speakers.  I also have an Anthem CD-1 cd player, but my bigger concern is the sound via the turntable.  I'm looking at the integrated amps mentioned in the title.  I don't like the sound too bright or brassy, but I don't want it muddled either.  Bass needs to have punch but not bloated.  I listen to a little of everything but mostly classic rock, both hard and soft. I know I may have to go with a separate phono preamp at some point, but I want something that has a solid phono stage for now.  FYI: I have a B&K Pro 10MC preamp I could use in whatever setup I end up with, but I'm leaning towards selling it and just going with the integrated.  Thanks in advance for your collective wisdom :)


johnrandi
I have listened to the Brio as well. This could be just me but I think the gap between the Brio and the Elex is greater than the gap between the Elex and Elicit? 
The Rega amps are understated, no sexy boxes and lights etc. But when fed with a decent source and played with decent speakers I find these amps to be a solid value in the under $2K arena. 
If you have a large square shaped room then you might want to reconsider your entire system. I moved my Rega kit into a different house with just such a challenging room. I just upgraded to a Pass preamp and a Bryston power amp, which yields a better smoother sound. But in my previous location I enjoyed the Elex very much. Prior to the Elex I had a Rotel...
A used Elex-R will run about $1000. Some users who have tried the Elex and the Elicit prefer the Elex. Some prefer the Elicit. Both sound good to me...
@johnrandi  - At $1500, its a great value. Also, build quality is very good and heavy duty, so it should hold up well for years to come. Love mine.......
@reubent Trying to keep it $1400 or less, but I do see a few elicit-r's out there for about 1500-1650.  I was thinking new, or at least open-box/demo, but you gave me something to at least consider.  Thanks.
@johnrandi - What is your budget? New or Used?

The reason I ask is that I own a Rega Elicit-R that I purchased used for about 50% of MSRP. At that price it is a fantastic integrated amp with a fine sounding MM Phono input built-in. I came from separates and I've owned a long list of mid-priced integrated amps from the likes of Bryston, Arcam, Anthem, Plinius, Musical Fidelity and Audio Refinement. I've been using the Rega Elicit-R for a couple of years with no desire to replace it, or even look at other alternatives. It's worth a look if it's in your budget. Going rate is about 50% of the $3000 MSRP for a good used one.


There’s a Hegel H160 on US Audio Mart for $1600, which is a great-sounding integrated that puts out 250Wpc into 4Ohms so has plenty of juice to drive your silvers.  No phone pre, but there’s a new Cambridge Audio CP2 available here now for $148 that’s probably a good bit better better than most phono preamps built into lower-priced integrateds and may be good enough to delay dropping more cash on another phono pre for a while.  This could be a great sounding system, but one caveat is you’d need to get a set of RCA to BNC adapters as the H160 only has two analog inputs, one of which is balanced.  On the flip side, the 160 also has a pretty good built-in DAC so you could try the digital out on your CD-1 to the Hegel and see if there have been any improvements in digital processing over the past 20 years.  Just another potential option, and best of luck. 
I had the Sphinx v.1 for a while. Was not terribly impressed with it. I think the preamp section is pretty good. I tried running the pre out into an Odyssey Stratos and there was a dramatic improvement. 
Not heard the others. 
I am not familiar with all your choices. I have the Elex-R, the P6 w/ Ania MC coil and Aria phono stage. Sounds fantastic feeding my Rega RS7 speakers. The Aria is really solid...
Streaming became the issue for me: just never sounded as good as playing this vinyl kit. This has sent me down a digital upgrade path...