REPRODUCED FROM AVFORUMS
the signal path have al been m ade good on and,given that the sam e selection of tweaks have been applied with great suc es to the Elicit and Elex revisions,there is a beter than evenschance thatthey wil have the desired efect. At first glance, it’s busines as usual for the connections too. Yougetam oving m agnetphono stage (and, it’s not a box tick feature aswe’l cover)and three line inputs on RCA connections. Thisisrespectable and keepsthe Brio Mk7 competitive with key rivals.The big newsforthisBrio isthatthe analogue connections are,for the first tim e on a half width Rega am plifier joined by digitalinputs.These com prise a single optical and coaxial connection and both of them supportPCM to 24/192kHz.
Like the other Rega am ps that have had these inputs added, the decoding hardware is relatively unusual. It uses a Wolfson WM8742 DAC which actualy made its first appearance in 2009.Asyou m ay surm ise, it’s probably not what you’d clas ify as state ofthe art but it’s a device that Rega has been using to great efect for years and thatm ore than m eets the requirem ents of the two digitalinputsin use here.Italso m eans that there is a potential pointofdiference between the Regaand m ostrivals. In orderto fitthese connections, something has had to give though.W hatyou don’tgeton the rear panel is any form of pre-out or subwoofer out connection which m ight m ake connecting up a 2.1 system
tricky.This is going to be deal breaker for m ore than a few people here although Iam once again com peled to point out that 2.1 remains a minority pastim e in two channel circles. You do geta headphone socket though,tucked away neatly on the frontpanel. O f course, the reason for this restricted back panel space is that the Rega is a half width design, in the manner of its forebears. It takes up a com m endably sm al am ount of spaceand,ifyouhavesom ething like a Planar 3 RS (and, to reiterate,you realy should have a Planar 3 RS)with its external power supply, that could sit alongside the Brio on a norm al width shelf,taking up les room thanaFelAm p doesonitsown. It’s also a genuinely hefty thing.
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