Any word from anyone on AudiogoN about the new Rega Apollo R CDP?

I haven't heard the Apollo-R, but I owned the Apollo and now own the Rega DAC. The DAC is better than the Apollo in every way. Haven't heard the Cary Xciter to compare, but if you're looking for the Rega sound, the DAC sounds great being fed by my Apple TV gen 1.

I'll tell you what, if the Apollo R had an asynchronous USB input using it's new DAC it would be a slam dunk. I could have the best of both worlds and not have to worry about a decision.

+1 on the Rega DAC. I also tried the Apollo and it's a good player. But the Rega DAC opens the soundstage and air around instruments, mated with the Mac Mini or an old Oppo DVD player. I might consider the Apollo R as a better transport, but I do think the Rega DAC offers much more, even if connected to a inexpensive transport.

Rob

@Baka 1969
I haven't heard the Rega Dac, but others have commented that the Dac sounds more open than the Apollo, and I can well believe it. The Apollo sound is neat and tidy, with good insight and pacing, but it isn't a big wide open sound. For a while I used the Apollo as a transport with my Digital Link III, and that worked well. Ultimately I replaced it with the NAD universal player because I could play DVD-A thru my Dac, and theNAD is less fussy than the Apollo about playing discs.

@richardfinegold

It's kind of ironic that the previous Apollo was more fussy about playing discs while the Apollo is supposed to buffer the music. Which begs the question on how well the Apollo or Apollo R are as a transport?

I was discussing DACs with a buddy of mine. He has the Wired For Sound (W4S) 2 DAC, but he also had the Cary Exciter DAC. He needed a balanced DAC so he made the switch. He has heard DACs in excess of $3,000 and he still believes the Exciter held strong against it and was better than most DAC sets that CD players under $3k have. He uses a Cambridge 650 player as a transport plus the W4S DAC. He also uses a music server that he runs into the W4S. He likes the server/W4S combo (which he though was equivalent to the Cary in SE mode) to the Cambridge player alone. That mirrors my experiences comparing my server combo with CD players under $1500.

My entire point of the thread is will the Apollo R alone be a better choice than my current front end? Is the previous Apollo, with the closeout deals, a better transport than my server? Will there be a new Saturn R with an asynchronous USB input that will be better than all of it?