An Aura of Sophistication - We Take A Closer Look At The Rega Aura MC Phono Stage

The new Rega Aura is the culmination of many years of research by Rega. As a reference MC phono stage, Rega have created a no compromise phono pre-amplifier that will deliver all the subtle nuances extracted by your prized moving coil cartridge.

This truly is a heavy weight in every sense, weighing in at 14kg, it's a solid unit that exudes quality with its completely re-designed custom case. The slick front panel allows you to easily switch capacitance and load settings with minimal effort to ensure your MC Cartridge and the Rega Aura match perfectly. On the rear you get balanced outputs as well as RCA.

In order put it through its paces. we put together a great sounding system consisting of Rega's fantastic RP10 turntable, fitted with their top of the line cartridge the Aphelion, hooked up to a Rega Osiris amplifier and Bowers and Wilkins 702 speakers. To make things more interesting and to give a comparison we first listened through Rega's Aria Phono stage.

Pumping up the volume on Massive Attack's Mezzanine album everything sounded great through the Aria but then switching to the Aura definitely took things to the next level. The bass we previously thought moved along very nicely suddenly became much more focused and fluid. The separation and detail improved exponentially, more than justifying the extra cost of the Aura! We carried on listening with some Pink Floyd and we instantly became Comfortably Numb whilst thinking the Aura was right on the Money.

At £4000 it isn't cheap, but if you are lucky enough to own a cartridge from say £1000 upwards then the Rega Aura should definitely be on your short list.

Come and have a listen at Audio T Bristol

Rega Hi-Fi products are available from all branches of Audio T.