Atth: Rega Ara owners

No ARA owners out there?

Hi Loose:

I have owned the Rega Aras for two plus years. I purchased two NOS pairs from Arcadia Audio and used them in two separate secondary systems ... one system driven by a tube integrated (Prima Luna P2 with a Rega Apollo CD player) and one system driven by an Outlaw RR2150 solid state, 2 channel receiver and Cambridge Audio Azur 540 DVD player. Speaker cables for both systems were QED Anniversary XT.

I found the Aras to be musically coherent small speakers and not particularly deficient in any one area. They work best in small rooms and near walls. The amount of bass was more than I expected from such a small speaker. Pleasant sounding speakers that have a nice sense of warmth and detail to them. You are right that the speakers have a good boogie factor.

Two months months ago, I decided to do a major upgrade with my Prima Luna PL2 based system and I purchased a pair of Spendor A1 speakers. Big upgrade ... improves on all the good points of the Aras, especially with vocals. This is not a criticism though of the Aras ... the Spendors cost 6X as much.

What is your system set-up and what are the Aras doing/not doing?

Regards, Rich

Rich,

I drive them w/ a modified sugden A48b with a rotel 971 cd player. MIT interconnects (for now) and Ecosse speaker cables.

There is also an inexpensive Energy sub in the picture, but it's not always being put to use. I have it connected via speaker cable; the speakers are running full range and when i use the sub, i have it set to a 70 hz or so at the crossover. (I often turn the sub off, depending on the music).

What I'm noticing is that there is not enough 'air' or sense of space and the midrange is a bit veiled. HF could extend a little further...Also, the lower midrange is sort of thin.

so, I want:
more midrange clarity
more body in the lower midrange
more sense of air/ space
more HF extension.
a bit more punch

The amp is warm and robust sounding. Not the last word in resolution, but it does everything reasonably well. Despite its modest power rating, it is able to drive most speakers to which i've had it connected quite well. Not sure about the sensitivity of the Monitor Audio GS20, but the amp had them running pretty nicely at a local audio store.

Beyond that, the CD player, from my own experience, is a bit 'blasé'. It's a bit dry sounding, flat even. The treble can be a bit edgy and the bass is there, but does not have the best definition. Boring-sounding CD player. It's more or less neutral and DOES have a black background; it's just not 'exciting' like some other players.

Having said that, the CD has done well for me in higher end systems, the most recent of which was a Unico integrated and pair of Neat Mystiques. It also did well when i had a Bryston 4B st, a Nakamichi pre and a pair of NHT 2.5i (not to mention a whole slew of other speakers and amps). Therefore, despite its shortcomings, i do not believe the CD player is the biggest issue at hand.

thoughts?

Stephen

Hi Stephen:

After 2 years of using the Aras in two different secondary systems, I decided that I wanted more from a speaker. The speaker set-ups that I had for both Ara systems, which were either inside an enclosed bookcase or on top of a bookcase, were never going to show off the best of what any speaker could do. Yet, the Aras did better than just about any small speaker that I used in these set-ups: Omega 3, EPOS ESL3, NHT SB2, Wharefedale Diamond 9.1, and B&W 302, for starters

The Ara is what it is, a small speaker that presents a good overall sound. You can do better, but I think that you are talking serious cash. For me, I went with the Spendor SA1, which fits in better price and performance wise with my equipment, but at 4 times the list price of the Rega Aras.

Which of course now leads to how much cash were you planning to throw at new speakers?

Regards,

Rich

Further reflections ...

With the Aras I was able to notice when I swapped out CD players or played a CD on a DVD player. The better the CD player, the deeper, more defined, and richer the sound became with the Aras. And that is Rega's claim with the Aras, as your equiment improves, so will the sound of the Aras. After living with the Spendors for 3 months, I am glad I made the upgrade. I listen for longer periods of time and enjoy listening more.

In my other system, I went with Energy RC10's. I have still not listened enough to the RC10's to say whether it was an upgrade or more of a lateral move. The RC10's go deeper and are a little more precise than the Aras. I believe they are about as musical sounding, I have just not done really extensive listening with the RC 10's yet ... they are in the bedroom, I am recovering from my 10th spine surgery, and the only listening positions available to me are laying out coffin style or sitting in a hardback chair.

Regards,

Rich