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Will my Rega Apollo be a good transport?

I have been using my Rega Apollo (not Apollo R) and really liking it for a number of years and am considering purchasing a DAC. I don't download much music but when I do I burn it to a disc. Using a Bryston B100 integrated with Morrow MA4's, Audioquest Rocket 44's biwire to my Silverline Sonatina's. Way up here in Maine there are not many hifi dealers so I have been reading a lot of reviews. Bryston, Arcam FMJ, Cary 100 have peaked my interest but I have more to review. Back to the original question, will the Rega be a good transport? Also I am open to DAC recommendations for a good match.
128x128thepigdog
mattmiller's avatar
mattmiller
1,497 posts
 
Yes the Apollo is a good transport. I would look into any DAC that uses either a Burr Brown or ESS Saber DAC chipset. This will give you a warmer and more analog like sound.
thepigdog's avatar
thepigdog OP
257 posts
 
Thanks,Mattmiller
tketcham
291 posts
 
I started using my Apollo as a transport, feeding a Rega DAC and it works well. However, the Apollo has problems when it encounters a CD that has copy-protection written into the disc. It cannot send a digital signal to the DAC. The player will interpret those discs correctly for analog output but not for digital output.

The fix is to rip the CD to a hard drive and then burn the files to a CD-R. The Apollo will then be able to output a digital signal to the DAC. So as long as you don't mind occassionally having to rip and burn copy-protected CDs, the Apollo is a good transport.

What's interesting is that when I used my Oppo universal player with copy-protected CDs it was able to send a digital signal to the DAC.

Regards,
Tom
bigkidz
3,388 posts
 
Replace the laser in the Rega, about $20-20 part. It will improve the sound. No adjustments to the installation. Not sure exactly why it does, but that is what the result is.
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