Rega Brio or...?

@reubent - Thanks.  I've wondered how the Elicit-R and Elex-R sound.  A couple of reviews called them 'bright' and suggested pairing them carefully with speakers.  However, another review suggested the Elicit-R was warm.  My guess is they are transparent and the reviewers are hearing the rest of their system.

I'm actually auditioning the Brio along with two different sets of speakers - the Wharfedale Reva 2 and the B&W CM5 (used), so there are a lot of moving parts in the evaluation process.  However, it's pretty clear that the Brio sounds great and drives either pair of speakers well.  As you said - it's just enjoyable to listen to music through the Rega.  

Will post my thoughts in a couple of weeks.  Best, Scott  

It's still sounding great - will give a more thorough review in a week or two.  Just a couple of operational/functional notes that prospective buyers may want to be aware of:

1.  The speaker terminals on the back of the amp are very difficult to get to, as they are close together and somewhat recessed.  I don't think that spades would work.  Bananas or bare wire are your best bet.  

2.  The ground lug for the turntable is on the underside of the unit, and it's a fair distance from the RCA jack for the phono input.  If you have a phono cable with an captive ground wire, you may end up with a fair amount of tension on the phono cable/ground wire.

3.  The power cord jack is right next to the speaker binding posts.  My power cable (an Anti-Cable level 3) sits snugly against the binding posts.  If my power cable's connector were any larger, I wouldn't be able to use it.

I guess these are the compromises that have to made to provide a small footprint amp like the Brio.  Will follow up with listening impressions later.

I have a Rega DAC.  It died just after the warranty expired.  Paid $1000-plus to have it repaired/upgraded.  Got a year warranty on the work.  15 months later, one channel died.  It's now in storage.

I shall never set foot near a Rega anything again.

Just thought I'd update you all on my experience with the Rega Brio.  I'm running it with Wharfedale Reva 2 speakers, a VPI Traveler turntable and a Marantz SA 8004 SACD player.  

The Brio has been very impressive - it just pulls you in to the music.  After a few days powered up it smoothed out quite a bit, and I have absolutely no complaints.  The highs are very natural and non-fatiguing, which is something that is difficult to find at this price level.  Midrange has nice weight to instruments.  As my speakers are stand mounts, I can't say how it does really deep bass.  However, the bass that I get from my speakers is very full without being boomy.  The overall sound is very cohesive.

The phono stage is much like the amp itself - relaxed, musical, engaging.  One thing I wasn't expecting was the quality of the headphone amp.  I don't listen to headphones too much, but I might start.  It's very dynamic and clear with my Sennheiser 600s.  

For $1000 I can't think of anything that compares.  You could have an awfully engaging all-Rega system with a RP3, Brio, and RX1 speakers for about 3k.  

Anyway, I was reluctant to try it because of the complaints of hum issues, but mine is silent and makes great music.

Best, Scott

The brio is a solid choice, Sounds like much more than 50w into 8 ohms. I went with the elex-r because I wanted the better phono stage and power. Another reason I went elex-r was the price. They were $1875 until a few months ago- now they are $1395! Once rega announced the release of a new version in July the prices dropped. The new model is $2799. That is out of my league. take care- and don't worry about a tiny bit of bad rega reviews, most are pure crap. They put everything into every product they build- really high standards and a mostly hand made assembly line. My whole system is now rega except for the powerline conditioner. I am very pleased.