Gromit's music centre...

[istari_knight]

Amplifier bake-off is in full swing.

[shevans]

Just got the Rega DAC to match mine

[Gromit]

Well, I can confirm the Brio-R is a darn good little amp. Quite a star in fact. It drives the 2010's well, doesn't get flustered when asked to give its all on dynamic peaks. As I said earlier, its tonal quality is very similar to the 770ES which came as something of a surprise - or perhaps it shouldn't? We don't (or I don't) want an amp to have a 'sound' particularly - just let what the front end is doing pass unhindered to the speakers, but keeping control of what's going on in the process.

Is it better than the Exposure XV or the Sony? No it isn't, that I can say with reasonable confidence. It doesn't have the muscular 'big lungs' delivery of the Exposure, nor its wonderful portrayal of temporal shifts and inner (musical) dynamics which let a phrase build and fade. Listen to a phrase with subtle rubato (shifting timing) and the Brio has a go, but tends to wander around slightly. It does sound extremely nice in the process though, and is so listenable it seems almost cruel to criticise.

The Apollo-R I'm less convinced by - through its analogue outputs it's just a bit too much for me, sounding bright and chromium-plated. Through the Teac dac things improve, but I might as well just use my 303ES as the transport. Keeping the Apollo would be done on purely cosmetic/space-saving grounds.

Of course the observations regarding the Brio are first impressions, and I've been flitting about with such a wide range of music this morning it's quite tricky to keep tabs on what-does-what. All 3 amps have preferences for their speaker cable - the Exposure just loves Talk 3, there being a definite synergy going on there, the other 2 prefer Van Damme Blue. The Exposure sounds way too bright through the V-D, but am thinking that the amp's not 100% happy connected to it anyway. Will keep the Brio fired up and in the system for a week or so now, getting used to what it does and re-acquaint myself with the other amps after then to see if anything's changed with how I'm hearing things.

[Gromit]

Just got the Rega DAC to match mine

Nice one.

Would be interested to hear what it does with the Apollo-R as I'm not 100% convinced by it on its own. My Teac dac brings about a subtle, but worthwhile improvement, that I can say.

[brian2957]

The Rega DAC tends to be a bit 'pipe and slippers ' for some so it may tame the brightness of the CD player. Also some people prefer the coax input and some the USB input . I recently went back to using the Rega DAC with my server via the USB input and I'm absolutely loving it. I'm looking forward to your final appraisal of these amps Richard since I was thinking about going back to the Brio R , but would have liked to have tried a big Sony ES amp also. Bringing the Exposure into the equation confuses things slightly . Problem is all 3 rarely come up for sale so I would like to be reasonably sure before pulling the trigger on any of these amps.
My main concern about the Sony ES amps is one of reliability . These are now old amps and can be problematic . In the past I bought a Sony 530ES amp and had a problem with losing sound on one channel ( faulty relays I think ) . Although I really liked the amp switching things off and on repeatedly wasn't an option . I'm not sure about the Exposure amps but the Rega can be bought new , or fairly new , so if it's near the other 2 in terms of SQ I would tend to go for one of those.

[shevans]

Nice one.

Would be interested to hear what it does with the Apollo-R as I'm not 100% convinced by it on its own. My Teac dac brings about a subtle, but worthwhile improvement, that I can say.

Whilst i would love an Apollo-R just for aesthetic reasons, I only have the Sonos connect and Apple TV so unable to compare.

With the Rega DAC low level listening with the 2010i's is much easier on the ear (clearer) for me. The Sonos is good without the DAC but even better with, instruments just sound that more realistic. Bass deeper but a bit flabby mainly due to the speakers being so close to the rear wall, pulled out when the kids and wife are out its fine.

My only very minor gripe about the Brio-R is the lack of headphone socket, but i know a man who would love to sell me the Rega EAR.

[struth]

Had a listen to a rega brio b4 i bought the arcam and thought the fmj was better.

[Tarzan]

Ah, Rega amps - yup, I've fancied trying one of those as well. I'm about to scratch a Sony itch, though.

[istari_knight]

It sounds as though they've sorted out the voicing of their amps... I've owned both clamshell Mira & Elicit and would rank them both equally as the most coloured amps I've ever owned.

Really, really bad

[Gromit]

It sounds as though they've sorted out the voicing of their amps... I've owned both clamshell Mira & Elicit and would rank them both equally as the most coloured amps I've ever owned.

Really, really bad

Never heard those - my Dad owns an old clamshell Brio which is a nice little amp. Would be very interesting to drag it up here and hear how it sounds against its newer brother. The 'R' is extremely listenable and, like the cheapy Rega Carbon, what it does wrong is of no great consequence given the price Rega are charging for a new one.

Both the 770ES and Exposure XV are better amps though - that much I am sure of. That's not to say the Brio-R is poor, most definitely not as the others would be significantly more expensive if available new (possibly 2-3 times the Rega's price).