New Rega Brio R!

The big audio news out of the UK this week is Rega's new version of its entry-level Brio, named the Brio R. (The R is for "remote," a welcome addition to an already great product). As you can see, the styling is taken from its very successful DAC, which came out earlier in the year. I've heard the DAC a couple of times, and I think it's probably one of the finest DACs out there for about a grand.

It's no secret that the Brio has earned a lot of fans over the years. I've owned the Brio3 for a couple of years and I can't think of anything that touches it sonically for $700. In fact, my review of the Brio3, which you can see at http://thevinylanachronist.blogspot.com/2010/09/rega-brio-3-integrated-amplifier.html, is my second-most read blog entry since I started this more than a year ago. (For those keeping score, the most read blog entry is also about a Rega, the RP1 turntable.)

The new Brio R will retail for $895. For your extra $200 you get the aforementioned remote, which alone justifies the price increase in my opinion. You also get improvements in the low and high current power supplies, the coupling and the bypass capacitors. You even get an improved phono stage which has been revised to "reflect improvements in current Rega Planar turntables." The input sensitivity has been increased, in other words.

Advanced word is that the Rega Brio R is a stunner and will continue to lead the field when it comes to sub-$1000 solid state integrated amplifiers. I look forward to hearing one soon.

Vinyl event at End of an Ear

When I visited Brian Di Frank at Whetstone Audio on Saturday, he invited me to a listening event at End of an Ear later that evening. End of an Ear is a record store located at 2209 S. 1st Street in Austin, and Brian told me it's his favorite record shop in the area. Brian brought over an ice chest full of Modelos, a Rega RP1 turntable, a Rega Brio 3 amplifier and a pair of Rega RS5 speakers and set it all up in a corner of the store. Brian's mission was to prove just how good vinyl can sound, even on a modest system.

This was the first time I've actually heard the new Rega RP1 turntable in action, and I have to admit that it sounds really good, much better than the P1 it replaced. Brian was able to achieve some pretty remarkable sound in a fairly odd space (bare walls, tile floor, off in a corner). Look at it this way...the RP1 is $445 (and that includes arm and a cartridge), the Rega Brio 3 is $695 (and that includes an MM phono stage), and the RS5s are $1595 and offer close to full-range sound. You could even forsake a little bass and go with the RS3s for $1195 or even the small bookshelf RS1 monitors for $695 and still have an analog-based system that is highly musical.

As for End of an Ear, this is a truly great little record shop with a fairly large inventory. I wish I hadn't blown my monthly music budget at Waterloo Records earlier that day...End of an Ear had everything Waterloo had and at a lower price! They're pretty packed with both new and used LPs, and they have a fairly large selection of CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray discs as well. They even had a little corner devoted to vintage receivers and inexpensive turntables to help vinyl newbies get started for just a little bit of money. Or you could just head down to Whetstone Audio and get that all-Rega system and be happy for the rest of your life.

Again, End of an Ear is located at 2209 S. 1st Street in Austin, Texas, and their phone number is (512) 462-6008. Whetstone Audio is located at 2401 E. 6th Street and Brian's phone number is (512) 477-8503.

Rega Brio 3 integrated amplifier

"I think that the Rega Brio is the single biggest bargain in all of audio."

That was Brian Di Frank, owner of Whetstone Audio in Austin, after I told him I'd been using the Rega Brio 3 in my system for much of the last year. Sure, Brian is a Rega dealer and sells a lot of Brios, but he's also one of those dealers who prefer to sell the models he loves as opposed to the models that have the largest margins. He's also one of those dealers who absolutely loves any piece of hi-fi that converts music lovers into audiophiles through the sheer force of value. I have to agree with Brian completely; I can't think of an integrated amp that matches the Brio's performance for anywhere near its modest asking price of $650.

I received the Brio 3 from Jeff Dorgay as a lovely parting gift after I left TONEAudio. When I started writing for TONE, I had the exquisite Yamamoto Sound Craft A-08 45 single-ended triode amp and matching CA-03 preamplifier w/phono stage. I also had to add a pair of Yamamoto Sound Craft step-up transformers so that the CA-03 would mate better with my Koetsu Rosewood cartridge. All in all, it was about $8000 worth of amplication that provided a whopping 2 watts per channel. I was using the Zu Audio Druids at the time, and they were a fantastic match with their 101 db sensitivity and 11 Ohm impedance. But the simple fact was that I wouldn't be able to review a wide variety of speakers as long as I had the Yamamotos. So I sold them (and immediately regretted it).

During my time at TONE, I used a wide variety of amplification--everything from McIntosh to Exposure to Simaudio to Nagra to conrad-johnson to Manley to BAT to LFD to Clayton Audio to an old Advent 300 receiver. But I never made the plunge and purchased anything. So when I left TONE in the summer of 2009, I was amp-less. Jeff came to the rescue with the Brio 3.

So I've been quietly using the Brio 3 in my system over the last year. While I have to admit that the sound quality is a clear step down from what I'd been used to over the last decade or so, I've concentrated on the strengths of the Brio and now love it for its simple, unassuming way of doing things.

For those of you aren't familiar with the Brio, it's the entry-level integrated amplifier from Rega that's been around in one incarnation or another since the '80s. I remember almost buying the original for $399 back in 1986 or so. This new version, which is about a year old now, offers the following improvements over its predecessors:

*Increased power output (49 wpc)
*Modified power supply (using Sanken 150w output transistors)
*Upgraded toroidal power transformer

It still looks a lot like the old Brios, which is to say it shares the same aluminum casework as a wide variety of Rega products. Still, it's much more than a typical black box integrated, with its gently curvy top and solid overall build quality. While it doesn't stand out in my equipment rack, it certainly doesn't seem out of place with the more expensive gear, either.

The Brio also has five inputs, including a phono stage that has been optimized for use with Rega cartridges. (Like Naim, Rega components are designed to work best in all-Rega systems.) Since I'm using a low-output MC with my Rega P3-24 (a Zu Audio DL-103), I have to use my Lehmann Audio Black Cube SE as a phono stage. So I can't comment on the phono stage, but it's there if you want it.

After all that, the Brio 3 is simple, straightforward and no-frills. I didn't even have to read the owner's manual to get everything up and running the first time.

At first, I focused on what the Brio 3 didn't do. It certainly doesn't do what the big boys do: offer a feeling of unlimited size and space, and offer the last bit of resolution and detail. If the Brio 3 could do this for $650, almost everyone would buy one. But the Brio is an almost textbook example of PRaT (pace, rhythm and timing), that touchstone of British amplification. The overall sound was punchy, forward, dynamic and compelling. It doesn't offer a lot of soundstage depth behind my Vienna Acoustics Bach Signatures or my Spendor S20s, but it does put a sizable amount of information in front of them. That's not to say it sounds aggressive (a characteristic I don't particularly like), but the Brio 3 and its 49 watts per channel sounds authoritative and gutsy.

If I were to nitpick on a single flaw, it was the sense that pieces of musical information were glossed over or even missing altogether. It's that old chestnut, sins of omission rather than commission, which is a good thing when it comes to making sonic sacrifices in budget gear. On some of my favorite recordings, I'm not hearing the things I'm used to hearing such as reflections off the walls of the recording venue, or the distinct sound of hammers hitting the piano strings or even the distinctive resonance that comes from inside of the chest of the typical male vocalist. Sometimes I miss these details a little too much.

But I'm a guy who has been listening to $100,000 systems for the better part of the last five years, so I'm spoiled. If this was 1985 or so and I was still a fledgling audiophile, I would be ecstatic at the level of performance I get out of the Brio 3. While I'm certainly planning to upgrade to something like a Naim NAIT XS or an LFD Integrated Zero Mk. III in the next few months, I think I'll keep the Rega around for a second office system. Knowing Rega's reputation for sound quality and reliability, I'm sure I'll get decades of pleasure out of this little amp.