What is equal to the Rega Apollo for less money?

I faced the same situation you are and ended up purchasing a new Music Hall 25.2 online at a bargain price.

It sounds wonderful in my system and has operated flawlessly.

I don't regret my decision at all and look forward to many years of enjoyment.

I haven't heard the Apollo or any of the current Cambridge Audio models, but I'll chime in on the Music Hall. I bought the original 25, almost new and pretty heavily modified, a little over 3 years ago. I listen at least 3-4 hours a week, sometimes a lot more, so this player has seen a fair amount of use. No breakdowns or operating problems whatsoever. For the last year, it's been used as a transport only, but it's the transport and laser reading that usually cause problems. On the other hand, some Apollo owners have encountered disc reading problems that has been attributed to the unit's software. Search the archives and you can get more information about it. I don't know if the problem has been fixed.

With the Music Hall, you also have the option of having Underwood modify the unit to bring it closer in quality to the Apollo for approximately the same price. Sorry I can't comment on the sound of the Underwood mod, because my unit was modified by another company, no longer in business. In addition, my mod eliminated the op-amps, so its sound could be quite different from the modified Underwood unit.

I have a Cambridge 740c and have had no problems, great machine. Problems with the 640c are well known, the ribbon cable would become dislodged leaving the left channel dead, subsequent models are supposed to be free of this problem. I had a Rega Apollo for a couple of months and sold it, it was not my cup of tea or maybe it was my system. Problems with the Rega player are also well documented, there are many that have had problems with the software causing the machine to do some crazy things, there is one report of a Saturn that played the music of a CD after it had been removed from the player and a different CD loaded up, it did not play the music from the loaded CD. I also did not care for the plastic face plate and the less than responsive control buttons. Also keep in mind that the warranty is not transferable with the Rega's.

An outboard Dac with a less expensive transport (DVD Player) would give you a lot of flexability, a Monarchy Dip can always be thrown into the mix if jitter is an issue.

The slightly upline 840c has a PAIR of digital input channels of optic/coax each!
Can you spell E X P E R I M E N T ??

The 740c is also equipped with 2 inputs for digital sources. I hooked up a cheap DVD player to one of the inputs of my 740c, the result was definately an improvement over the DVD players output.

Phill