Rega Brio R bright???

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.

I just have to speak up here....the BRIO R IS NOT BRIGHT! I have no idea what you are doing to it, but I've heard it with various speakers, Regas, Totems, Harbeths, and it is not bright......and I'd also say it is lunacy to pair it with Magnepans, for any serious listening. And even though it will relax after break in, it is not even bright straight out of the box. I have not heard it with the Dynaudios. Dynaudios pair well with the new Hagel gear....

I like how you say the voices are strange, and ask if perhaps it's the rega or arc am....maybe it's just the Dynaudios are a bad match.....

Iaudio1987,

I listened to the Dynaudio X16's hooked up to an Exposure 2010S2 integrated amp. The sound was very good together and I noticed little brightness to the sound. If you can stretch your funds try the Exposure.

You might find that you like tubes more than solid state. Give a Rogue Cronus integrated amp a try sometime. That will tame the edge a bit.

Its a pain in the ass to choose a amp for my speakers. I do not have that problem with headphones.

I've had a lot of amps on demo, Arcam A28: too analytical
Marantz: too boring. Rotel ra1520: very good amp, but bass was too overwhelming at home (not at the store)

What i want is a amp witch is musical above all. If an amp is detailed, but not musical, i'll pass

You really need to start looking into tube amps. Trust me I have had the same issues you just said. I changed over to tubes a few years ago and it is really hard to go back to solid state after that. I am confident you will like the warm musicality of tubes and tube amps mostly have little to no harshness to the sound. I only use solid state now in my second system.

The only problem for you is that Dynaudio speakers are not very efficient. You need at least 50 tube watts to get them going. I did hear the Dynaudio X32 hooked up to a VTL 60 watt amp. I put on some electronic music and they went as loud as I could ever hope for.