REPRODUCED FROM HI-FICHOICE
whenpresented withsom thing energeticlikeBloc Party’s Rough Justice is hugely entertaining. W ithoutflinching from the surprising levelofheft that the recording pos es es, the Elicit M K5 absolutelydancesthrough the trackin a waythat makes many rivals feel like disinterested observers. This is helped by the considerable reserves of grunt on tap. It m ight not be as powerfulas the Aethos,butthis is stil an am p that’s likely to be able to drive any rem otely price-com parative speaker to wel beyond any dom esticalyac eptable volum e levels. The extra functionality is good too.You can reasonably argue that som e of Rega’s own standalone phono stagesm ighteke a litle m ore perform ance from the Planar 10 (HFC 456) Vertere Sabre cartridge that serves as a test partner,butitsuc es fuly captures the form er’s glorious and iunfetered transparency and the huge reserves of headroom m ean that gain is unlikely to be an is ue.The headphone am p is also very close to the Aethos in overal perform ance and is m ore than up to the job of being used onaregularbasisratherthanm erelya convenience feature that’s em ployed now and again. W hateverargum entsm ightbem adeonpaper aboutthe ElicitM K5 being am ore self-contained device than its predeces ors, however, ignore thatlistening to the two Regadevicestogetheris ales on in design synergy.The Saturn M K3 isnot a radicaly specified device judged by the standards of2022,butthe way itperform s is a rem inderthatthere are aspectsofdigitalthatare m ore than m erelysam ple rate handling.
Som ething I would be careful about – however good itm ightlook–isstacking thetwo unitsdirectly on top ofone another.The ElicitM K5 runswarm so Iadd a set ofQ uadraspire Q Plus Advanced feet (HFC 448)underthe Saturn M K3 to help ventilate it. This aside,the Rega duo is entirely confidence inspiring.The build quality ofboth isexcelentand the top loading m echanism ofthe Saturn M K3 feels solid and hasa litle cerem ony to use in a way that m osttray m echs do not.The Solaris rem ote that controls both devices is nota work ofart,butis reliable and iseasyto use.So long asyou have the required clearspace overthe top ofthe Saturn to open the door,there should be no isues in ac om m odating them both. Sound quality The novelty ofgoing directto a Rega am p istoo m uch to ignore and by using an M 2Tech USB to SP/Difconverter,itis atached directly to a Roon Nucleus(HFC 435).The single m ostim portantthing thatthe ElicitM K5 doesfrom the outsetisto show that this digitalsection m ight be sm al,but it is certainly no afterthought.The 24-bit/96kHzstream of Punch Brothers cover of Edm und Fitzgerald isbeautifulyhandled with Chris Thile sounding absolutely convincing;distinctfrom the beautifuly layered instrum entation,alofwhich hasconsiderable tonalrealism and enough energy to be both believable and engaging. Theam p sectionisstilthem ainstaroftheshow, though,and reading backthrough m ynoteson the Aethos,itisim pres ive how often the sm aleram p m im icsitsbiggerbrother.Thatsam e sense ofagilty
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