Review of the Rega Brio-R
I promised to put up a review of the Rega Brio-R so here it is. The equipment the I use to demo the Rega with is the Arcam RDAC, Dynaudio Excite X12 speakers and of course the Brio-R. I am not good at writing long reviews and English is not my native language so I try to keep grammar mistakes to a minimum.
When you unpack the Brio the first thing you notice is it's size, it's very small with all the necessary inputs on the back (five line inputs and the phono output, and of course the speaker terminals). There is no headphone output witch I could live with, but I can understand that you need one.
Now the most important part of the review: Sound Quality. The amp has a detailed sound, I heard things that weren't there before most noticeable on the Unplugged CD of Eric Clapton. The amp is not forgiving of bad recorded material, but I guess that is part of moving up the amp-ladder. Also I found that when playing records that the sound is bright not harsh, but bright. For people that like that kind of sound this amp is a must listen. Voices have a strange quality that I cannot put in to words and are very expressive, maybe it's the combo of Arcam and Rega, but i've heard better. Bass is exactly right for me with a tight and defined presentation.