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Thread: A cable thread for Rega system owners.

  1. #1
    Join Date: Nov 2011

    Location: Newcastle UK

    Posts: 3,745
    I'm Rich.

    Default A cable thread for Rega system owners.

    Hello folks, thought I’d put this post up for the benefit of any Rega Brio-R, DAC or RS series loudspeaker owners out there who may be keen to optimise the much discussed 'synergy' which happens when one puts Rega bits together in a system with sympathetic cable choices.

    Warning – This is subjective type thread, if you’re not keen on threads about cables and synergy then probably best to look away now.

    So now we’ve got that out of the way I’ll post my thoughts on my recommendations for the best bits of wires to get your Rega kit singing…

    Interconnect – Rega Couple (Clone)
    The IC I’m currently using is a homemade clone of a Rega Couple which I bought off a member here for 15quid if I remember rightly. It uses Klotz AC110 cable and Puresonic RCA plugs which are widely available and reasonably priced.
    http://www.studiospares.com/cable-gu...e/invt/544590/
    http://www.puresonic.com.tw/web/RCA%20plugs.htm
    Before I settled on these I tried cables from Monster, Belkin, QED and Chord.

    Speaker Cable
    For this I settled on the excellent value Rega Quattro Cable from these guys, it comes as a bi-wire cable and is easily split for single wiring. I connect bare wires directly to the binding posts on amp and speakers.
    http://www.lintone.co.uk/special-off...9-148-3202.php
    Before settling on these I tried Chord Carnival Silver Screen, Supra 79 I had lying around, some of the mid-priced Gale stuff from Richers I used to have in my kitchen system and some thick non-descript ‘professional low noise audio cable’ which I was sent with some ebay stuff I’d bought. I’ve not had the means to try the much adored Tellurium Q Black which have been suggested but they will be tried at some point.

    Mains Cables
    For the mains I settled on some homemade clones of Rega’s own high end mains cables which are apparently shipped with the flagship Osiris amplifier. All the stuff came courtesy of MCRU and rather than post links I’ll just say they were made from Lapp cable, Martin Kaiser Brass Plated IECs and MK brass plated toughplugs. Pretty straightforward construction with the braid connected at the ground pin of the plug end, used a bit wire casing and solder to connect to the earth cable and keep the job tidy. The cable ends were tinned with a little solder so the small pins got a good grip. For the DAC I use a cloverleaf IEC to C5 adaptor also supplied by MCRU.
    I also tried some other homemade cables made from Black Rhodium Fusion Cable, Kaiser Silver Plated IECs and MK silver plated tough plugs. Also tried the stock Rega cables the components came with.

    Other Bits
    As my laptop is my main source and have now collected quite a few HD tracks I added a Musical Fidelity V-Link II. The Rega DAC has a fine USB input but this just seemed to bring out the best of everything from the DAC. For those interested my USB cable is a mid-priced gold plated thing from maplin, the Digital Coaxial is an old bit of 75ohm Monster Cable I’ve had for 20 year.
    http://www.musicalfidelity.com/produ...ries/v-linkii/

    Finally a few thoughts on set up
    Through trail and error I found the Brio R sounded best when plugged directly into the wall, all the other components were connected to my Tacima Mains Conditioner. The RS3 speakers responded well to being placed on those granite worktop savers available for £7 a piece from Argos. They also responded well to being slightly tilted back, not too much though. I have the side firing woofers pointing outwards.

    I’ve tried to avoid saying this had more bass and that was more bright etc etc as its such a subjective area. These are just things I’ve found worked best for me and I’m grateful to Gaz and Brian for their advice. They have some further tweaks of their own which I’m sure they will be kind enough to post here for the benefit of other Rega users. They’ve experimented with lots more options than I have and I’ve only gained from their experience and contribution.

    To sum up if you’re buying a Rega system like mine, Brio-R, Dac and RS series speakers then you are probably spending anywhere between £1200-£2000 on your components depending on where you get them from. All of the tweaks mentioned above can be achieved for approx £150 which seems very reasonable. My system has never sounded better.

    Gaz n Brian, over to you… fill your boots!
    One of these days... I'm going to cut you into little pieces.

  2. #2
    Join Date: Mar 2008

    Location: Galashiels

    Posts: 13,669
    I'm inthescottishmafia.

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    Biggest improvement I've heard in a Rega system was swapping in some TQ Black. Never heard a cable make such a difference in a system.

  3. #3
    Join Date: Apr 2009

    Location: Near Saffron Walden, Essex

    Posts: 7,087
    I'm Dave.

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    Rega have a complete new range of incons and speaker cables on the way. First up is a 'new' Couple using different cable and plugs and a flattish speaker cable. All designed/developed by Rega.

  4. #4
    Join Date: Nov 2011

    Location: Newcastle UK

    Posts: 3,745
    I'm Rich.

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    Quote Originally Posted by hifi_dave View Post
    Rega have a complete new range of incons and speaker cables on the way. First up is a 'new' Couple using different cable and plugs and a flattish speaker cable. All designed/developed by Rega.
    Just when you think you've got it cracked eh...

    Seriously interested in this Dave, please keep us informed of what you are hearing from them.
    One of these days... I'm going to cut you into little pieces.

  5. #5
    Join Date: Apr 2009

    Location: Near Saffron Walden, Essex

    Posts: 7,087
    I'm Dave.

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    As usual with Rega, details are scant to say the least.

    They have been working to develop cables for some years as they have never had a 'range' or even any cables which have been in production for any length of time.

    The new couple uses a cable which is different to the current one but just how will have to wait until I have it in my hands. The plugs are custom for Rega. Price is £98 for 1 mtr pair.

    The speaker cable is flattish and £14.98 per mtr. 250 strands of OFC, 4 mm square section and that's it. Both cables are German made I believe but don't quote me on that.

    Very soonish will be the Elicit-R amp, Saturn-R CD player and Aria MM/MC phono stage.

  6. #6
    Join Date: Oct 2008

    Location: Glasgowshire

    Posts: 9,656
    I'm Gary.

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    Beat me to it Rich, cheers for taking the time to start ther thread off.
    Brian and I have similar Rega Kit, main difference is my RS3 speakers but his Rega's share the same house sound.
    Between us we've tried all sorts of stuff and we always "sanity checked" the results with each other. We listened to the changes in each others systems too. I'll add to Rich's thoughts below;
    Interconnect – Rega Couple (Clone) The IC I’m currently using is a homemade clone of a Rega Couple which I bought off a member here for 15quid if I remember rightly. It uses Klotz AC110 cable and Puresonic RCA plugs which are widely available and reasonably priced.
    Had a loan of a set of the Clone cables from Rich, sounded great. An improvement actually over my Mark Grant HD2000's in my Rega system.
    Was surprised at that to be honest, but I think its a case of system dependancy and its interesting that Brian thought the same when he heard the comparison.
    Compared to the original Rega Couple cables though...we felt they were not quite as good. Not a lot in it, but they were better.
    I was happy to pass on the 2000's without thinking I was compromising on sound anywhere.
    I use the official Rega Couple cables and have no desire to change.
    Speaker Cable
    For this I settled on the excellent value Rega Quattro Cable from these guys, it comes as a bi-wire cable and is easily split for single wiring. I’ve not had the means to try the much adored Tellurium Q Black which have been suggested but they will be tried at some point.
    Oh..speaker cable. Now there's a thorny one!
    In my system, I originally had Mogami 2972 recc'ed to me by the dealer who sold me the RS3's. Sounded great, overall sound really open dynamic and musical. Then Ali Tait came along...
    Dac bake off at mine, Ali had brought his TQ Black for me to hear.
    When we plumbed it in ALL THREE OF US just looked at each other, not believing the level improvement this speaker cable had made.
    Everything was better - everything. The RS3's now sounded like a more expensive set of speakers, a couple of levels up in fact.
    Everything was just.....right.
    Brian of course wanted a set, but we wanted to find out if we could get the "TQ Effect" with a cheaper cable, perhaps Rega's own for the "Rega Synergy?"
    We tried the Quattro...good but the magic was missing. Not night and day difference but you could tell something had been taken away and you missed it.
    Brian tried Black Rhodium cable, again nothing oin the TQ but I think (and Brian can confirm) that he preferred it to the Quattro?
    Nope, TQ Black for Rega speakers is the way to go, Brian got himself a set and hasn't wanted to change since.

    Rich, maybe David Brooks at MCRU can do you a loan set for a couple of weeks or whatever? No harm asking, Dave's a good guy.

    Mains Cables
    For the mains I settled on some homemade clones of Rega’s own high end mains cables which are apparently shipped with the flagship Osiris amplifier.
    I bought an official Rega cable to try (was using a couple of Frank's (Effem) Krystal Kables Titans.
    The Rega was better so Brian and I set about recreating them.
    Brian had ordered some Lapp cable from MCRU and made me a clone cable to try using a silver plated plug and Wattgate IEC I had lying unused.
    He was making up cables for himself at the same time, trying out different plugs, IEC's etc. For an indication of how good the Rega clone cable was in a Rega system it bettered Brian's DIY Furutech monster, gold plated plug,IEC and Furutech silver plated power cable.
    I could see he was disappointed after having built it, but was happy to know he could build better for a lot cheaper!
    Interestingly, he found standard brass plugs, not silver, rhodium plated or whatever made the best sounding cable...

    With this in mind, I questioned the use of MK Toughplugs in the cable.
    Without plated pins its just a normal plug really, with the crappy wee grubscrews connecting the wire to the pins.
    I tried using the older style MK Smartplugs, which have MUCH better internal biding post type internal connects you can really screw the cable down with. This improved the sound of the cable over the Toughplugs.
    Other Bits
    I added a Musical Fidelity V-Link II. The Rega DAC has a fine USB input but this just seemed to bring out the best of everything from the DAC.
    I too used a VLink II, running USB from server to SPDIF to the Dac.
    A good upgrade though Rich is to use the VLink 192.
    It uses completely different circuitry inside, USB chips different, proper Galvanic shielding the whole schmeer. Its noticably better sounding, even on 16/44 stuff.
    If you have a lot of HD tracks you owe it to yourself to have a listen if you can.
    A good usb and digital cable are vital of course if your using a converter and (unfortunately) adds another two steps in the chain as well as costing more.

    The Rega USB input though is EXTREMELY good we found, the only snag is that it only does up to 16/48 which is not ideal if you have a lot of HD music.
    That said, if your playback software allows you to downsample anything over 16/48 (I use JRiver) it still sounds tremendous.
    Brian was using a Vlink II (not a 192) and actually prefers the sound of the USB input.
    I was over at his last week and updated his Jriver software and applied a few new system tweaks and its the best I've heard his system sound...wonderful system.
    Finally a few thoughts on set up
    Through trail and error I found the Brio R sounded best when plugged directly into the wall, all the other components were connected to my Tacima Mains Conditioner. The RS3 speakers responded well to being placed on those granite worktop savers available for £7 a piece from Argos. They also responded well to being slightly tilted back, not too much though. I have the side firing woofers pointing outwards.
    The Rega amp and Dac are unfussy about where they sit. As an experiment I sat them on the carpet and there was no difference I could hear. Good solid (and heavy!) casework.
    The amp responds more than the Dac to changing power cables, it really likes good clean power fed to it.
    All my kit is polugged into a Belkin PF30 power conditioner apart form the amp, which is plugged directly into the wall socket.
    Having replaced my wall sockets with unswitched Crabtree ones, I noticed a marked improvement in the amp, not so much in the Dac.
    The Dac sounds better plugged in to the PF30.

    The RS3 speakers are unfussy about siting, but you get more from them when they are absolutely level and (in my room) tilting them back a few degrees so the tweeters are firing slightly upwards.
    This was not a free tweak, it cost me 20p to sit 4 five pence pieces under the front spikes!
    Having the bass units firing outwards was a no brainer in my case, having them inwards collapsed the soundstage and a lot of the clarity was lost.


    So there you have it, I think we are pretty much sorted with the setup of our Rega systems...
    though I hear on the grapevine Brian's working on a new mains block...Brian?

    Hope there's some useful info in amongst my ramblings!
    AC POWER
    Hardwired 10kVA balanced mains powering entire system
    AMPS
    Meridian 557 power Amp (Modded) / PS Audio BHK Preamp (Modded)
    SPEAKERS
    Wharfedale Evo 4.4
    DAC
    PS Audio Directstream (Modded)
    TURNTABLE
    Pro-Ject X8 balanced output via XLR / Ortofon Quintet Blue cartridge
    PHONOSTAGE
    Pro-Ject DS3 B balanced Input (TT and Phonostage powered by Pro-Ject Power box RS2 linear psu)
    DIGITAL
    OPPO 203 (Modded: Linear PSU, i2s output to Dac) - Roon Endpoint, HDMI input used for all things Streaming/ PS5 /AppleTV ... also good for movies apparently?
    MUSIC PLAYBACK
    Tweaked AP-Linux based Roon Server into Oppo 203 as Roon endpoint
    Ipad Roon Remote.
    Apple Music/ YouTube via AppleTV, fed to Dac via Oppo HDMI input/i2s output to Dac.
    SPEAKER CABLES
    Biwired: Duelund DCA10GA (Bass) Duelund DCA16GA (mid & treble) Duelund 12DCA used as jumpers (On
    "Blackcat Cable" Chris Sommivigo's advice - yup, even with biwire it sounds better - and it does)
    INTERCONNECTS
    All Balanced: Ghost+ recording studio XLR cables

  7. #7
    Join Date: Oct 2008

    Location: Glasgowshire

    Posts: 9,656
    I'm Gary.

    Default

    Be interesting to hear the new Rega Iconnect, thanks for the heads up Dave.

    Quote Originally Posted by hifi_dave View Post
    As usual with Rega, details are scant to say the least.

    They have been working to develop cables for some years as they have never had a 'range' or even any cables which have been in production for any length of time.

    The new couple uses a cable which is different to the current one but just how will have to wait until I have it in my hands. The plugs are custom for Rega. Price is £98 for 1 mtr pair.

    The speaker cable is flattish and £14.98 per mtr. 250 strands of OFC, 4 mm square section and that's it. Both cables are German made I believe but don't quote me on that.

    Very soonish will be the Elicit-R amp, Saturn-R CD player and Aria MM/MC phono stage.
    AC POWER
    Hardwired 10kVA balanced mains powering entire system
    AMPS
    Meridian 557 power Amp (Modded) / PS Audio BHK Preamp (Modded)
    SPEAKERS
    Wharfedale Evo 4.4
    DAC
    PS Audio Directstream (Modded)
    TURNTABLE
    Pro-Ject X8 balanced output via XLR / Ortofon Quintet Blue cartridge
    PHONOSTAGE
    Pro-Ject DS3 B balanced Input (TT and Phonostage powered by Pro-Ject Power box RS2 linear psu)
    DIGITAL
    OPPO 203 (Modded: Linear PSU, i2s output to Dac) - Roon Endpoint, HDMI input used for all things Streaming/ PS5 /AppleTV ... also good for movies apparently?
    MUSIC PLAYBACK
    Tweaked AP-Linux based Roon Server into Oppo 203 as Roon endpoint
    Ipad Roon Remote.
    Apple Music/ YouTube via AppleTV, fed to Dac via Oppo HDMI input/i2s output to Dac.
    SPEAKER CABLES
    Biwired: Duelund DCA10GA (Bass) Duelund DCA16GA (mid & treble) Duelund 12DCA used as jumpers (On
    "Blackcat Cable" Chris Sommivigo's advice - yup, even with biwire it sounds better - and it does)
    INTERCONNECTS
    All Balanced: Ghost+ recording studio XLR cables

  8. #8
    Join Date: May 2011

    Location: Glasgow

    Posts: 7,718
    I'm Brian.

    Default

    Yup , just when you think you've got it sorted along comes another set of new cables TBH with you I'm really happy with my system at the moment so not sure I'll change for a while . Thanks for the write-up guys , makes interesting reading , and thanks to Rich who started us out on this journey by providing us with the Rega clone . I have to say I agree with most of what has been written in both posts . Where to start After testing quite a few USB cables we found the Furutech Formula 2 USB cable to be the best at a ' sensible ' price . Similarly the legendary Rega synergy kicked in with the installation of the Clone interconnects. These can be made using the Klotz AC110 cable and the Neutrik Profi RCA plugs. As Ali and Gary say the TQ black provided a substantial upgrade over the Quattro and ( IMO ) better Black Rhodium Twist speaker cables , taking us all by surprise. Lastly the Rega mains cable provided us with another surprise upgrade . We decided to try and replicate the mains cable using the Lapp 100 CY cable , however the cable which we received was thicker ( and better sounding ) than the cable used by Rega in their current mains cable . After much plug swapping we eventually arrived at the MK safety plug ( unplated ) and the Martin Kaiser IEC plug ( also unplated ) which Rega use in their mains cables at present.
    I must emphasise here that we cannot underestimate the effect of synergy in all this , and the beauty of these changes is that they are relatively cheap and transform the Brio R / DAC combo.
    I'm currently testing a new type of mains block with the Regas which I will post on if it's an improvement.
    Thanks to Gary ( Gazjam ) and RichB for posting their thoughts . If any of you Rega owners out there have any ideas to share we would very much like to hear them.
    Last edited by brian2957; 29-01-2013 at 15:19.

  9. #9
    Join Date: Nov 2011

    Location: Newcastle UK

    Posts: 3,745
    I'm Rich.

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    Cheers for filling in the blanks guys, clearly we all agree that the much discussed 'synergy' happens and when it comes to Rega the enhancements can all be done on a modest budget increasing the overall bang for the buck we get from our systems. Hence I hope this thread might serve as a useful reference for other Rega owners. Given the reviews the amp and dac got there must be plenty of them out there.

    Like Brian I will be now resting on my laurels for a while with only future tweaks being replacement plug sockets when I come to decorate in the next few weeks. A set of TQ Blacks and a V-Link 192 might turn up later in the year if I get curious again, for now though I'm quite content.
    One of these days... I'm going to cut you into little pieces.

  10. #10
    Join Date: May 2011

    Location: Glasgow

    Posts: 7,718
    I'm Brian.

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    Very happy with my system at the moment Rich . Try the unswitched Crabtree sockets mate . The improvements were far from subtle in mine and Gary's system , a cheap upgrade IMO .

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