Is it me? Comments on the Rega Mira integrated.

I would have to say my experience with the Rega Mira has been the opposite: very clean, open, smooth, non-gritty non-transistor sounding integrated. I am very pleased with mine. Now it doesn't have the bass control of 5k and up amplifiers and extreme transparency soundstaging and openness of expensive tube gear but for $800-900 integrated it's pretty darn good, IMHO. Mine is running in a second system with following components: Rega Jupiter 2000, cables Cardas Golden Reference and Golden Cross, Ensemble Animatas, Rega Vulcan, filtering by Tice Solo HC. I have another system for home theatre using a Rega power amp, the Rega Maia, and that is a different story. I compared the Maia to my other more expensive power amps and comparitively found it to be a little constricted and closed in.

Dear Entrope: my speakers are Mordaunt-Short Pearl 20i monitors, bi-wired. I tried single-wiring the speakers last night and that tamed the bass quite a bit, but the soundstage still seems very constricted compared to my Marantz SS Special Edition which is quite airy. I think you may be right about the amp-speaker interaction -- just not a good pairing. I like my Marantz but was hoping to find something with similar sound but more detail.

I think the Rega Brio is the best kept secret in hifi. The phono stage alone, which is a built-in card, is worth the price of the piece.

I too have had a Rega Luna since 1999 and have driven Mission 765,KRK monitors and Merlin VSM-MMs,all to good effect.Must be a synergy mis-match?Good luck,Bob