Has anyone heard Rega's Isis CDP?

I think Rega makes the Isis in a tube and solid state version. Check out their website under Industry Directory here on A-Gon's home page. I heard the tube version at RMAF 2010 with Wilson's Sophia 3s. I thought it was the best digtal I have heard. Before that I thought it was MSB's 3 box flagship, but I thought this was more natural sounding. If you are looking to spend real money on digital, check out Neodio. I heard it at CES this year in the Wilson Alexandria room and thought it was better than the Isis or the MSB. I don't think you can go wrong with any of them. Pick your flavor and go with it.

Elinor,

Your findings are interesting but worthless, how can you possibly rate any of these front ends in completely different systems? How do you know what was doing what? I am sure the Neodio is excellent but is it better than an MSB or a Rega the only way you could possible figure that out would be to listen to all three in an identical system.

Audiofreakgeek, I find Elinor's comments interesting as well, thus they are not worthless, they are interesting. Thanks for posting Elinor, I am not familiar with Neodio and will look into it for future reference.

I am not saying his post raised the light on other front ends however, it shows Elnors inexperience. The only way you can judge anything is to switch out one variable and listen.

Going to three different rooms with three entirely different systems it is impossible to discern what is doing what to the sound, you could speculate that the front end is accounting for the difference but it is just one element in a reproduction chain, and then you have the room differences to counter as well!

I would add to the list of great sounding front ends out now

the Esoteric K03 and the AMR CD 77.1 both of these players sound really good, but without having a comparison to any of the other players it is all speculation on which sounds the best, and speaking of best that is a totally personal issue, best in what capacity?

I think that Elinor's response was very interesting. Yes it is impossible to tell what each piece is contributing to a system when you hear it at a show but it certainly sounds like the Rega Isis helprd produce beautiful music in a nice system.