From Rega Brio-r to elicit-r or aethos?

PlasmaNewbie

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I have been the proud owner of a brio-r , rp6 , rs5 speakers since 2013.

I’ve decided its time for an upgrade, and my immediate choice is an Elicit-r followed by a speaker upgrade at a later date.

has anyone had any experience of going from an elicit-r to an aethos?

I am wondering if it’s worth making the jump straight to the Aethos.

looking for opinions from Rega owners.

No idea on speakers , it depends on the amp. There are a few secondhand keg reference 1’s around if I was to aethos...
 
Looking at the specs of the new Aethos it has advantages over the Elicit. More headroom 125 watts into 8 ohms, that 20 watts up. Importantly for a lot of people will be the addition of the headphone section which in itself is quite powerful with Rega having published the figures. Cost wise though, the RRP is a £1300 premium over the Elicit.

Would love to hear one, perhaps I'll try and get to Bristol this year, take the Oppos with me. The burning question though is it worth that premium over the Elicit.
 
I heard a marked difference tween my Elex-r and Aethos. More controlled power, detail and surprisingly notible was the balance tween the two channels... And detail at low vol. And the depth was walk in deep.... Haven't heard the elicit but for what's its worth...
 
It's interesting that Rega have removed the phono stage from the Aethos to improve overall performance of the amp itself.
 
It's interesting that Rega have removed the phono stage from the Aethos to improve overall performance of the amp itself.
I'd prefer to use a separate one anyway so I didn't mind that. I have the aria which sounded pretty decent with the Aethos. I was testing with Buchardt S400 bookshelves 4ohm. And the Buchardts were singing. I wonder what floorstanders Spendor, PMC or ATCs would have sounded like. Probs end game for me.
 
Hopefully I am going to be trying an aethos + Aria phono + Spendor 7.2‘s next week. :clap:

if it goes well, then I’m sold.

Of course I will try a few other speakers at the dealers, before loading them into the car...
 
I had the Aethos & Aria with my RP8 which made for a lovely system, into some PMC twenty5.24. Great depth of soundstage, never fatiguing & most importantly exciting to listen to.
 
Hopefully I am going to be trying an aethos + Aria phono + Spendor 7.2‘s next week. :clap:

if it goes well, then I’m sold.

Of course I will try a few other speakers at the dealers, before loading them into the car...
I have the Aethos and aria. I tried the Spendors D7.2s on home demo. Am interested to see what you think. 🤔
 
I had the Aethos & Aria with my RP8 which made for a lovely system, into some PMC twenty5.24. Great depth of soundstage, never fatiguing & most importantly exciting to listen to.
Am currently home demoing the pmc 25/24i's... With Aethos and Aria. Am Enjoying the music... These and the Spendors are quite different. Think I know which I'm ordering.... 😊
 
Regarding speakers much will depend on room size and positioning, I found PMC much less fussy than the Spendors about where they go.
 
Regarding speakers much will depend on room size and positioning, I found PMC much less fussy than the Spendors about where they go.
Agreed.... I might spoil it. For Plasma newbie. I found the Spendors treble verging on bright on some of the poorer recordings. The 24is are new out of the box and is taken a few weeks for them to warm up... They sound pretty good from where in sitting... I think they're pretty balanced. I miss the detail king Spendors but they lacked bass too. Surprisingly. So different in sound. Takes a while for wear to tune be in... Could live with these... Ummin about splashing out on the 26is. Would have to be end game so damn good....!!!!
 
Agreed.... I might spoil it. For Plasma newbie. I found the Spendors treble verging on bright on some of the poorer recordings. The 24is are new out of the box and is taken a few weeks for them to warm up... They sound pretty good from where in sitting... I think they're pretty balanced. I miss the detail king Spendors but they lacked bass too. Surprisingly. So different in sound. Takes a while for wear to tune be in... Could live with these... Ummin about splashing out on the 26is. Would have to be end game so damn good....!!!!
So many typos!! Written in hurry 😁
 
Hopefully I am going to be trying an aethos + Aria phono + Spendor 7.2‘s next week. :clap:

if it goes well, then I’m sold.

Of course I will try a few other speakers at the dealers, before loading them into the car...


Hey did you get to try the D7.2’s..... ?
 
Hey did you get to try the D7.2’s..... ?

I did try them for a about a week, they are brilliant speakers. But something just wasn't quite right with the combination of the Aethos. I think if I had tried them in isolation, I might have gone for them. Your summary of them sums it up, on the Aethos review thread. But I wouldn't want to put anyone off the Spendor's , it might have just been down to speaker placement and my room.

D7.2’s were too lean, dry sounding and harsh on occasion at top end (Aethos errs towards lean) so the two don’t match...

I picked my Aethos up yesterday, but I am having some work done so won't be able to un-box for a week :(
 
I picked my Aethos up yesterday, but I am having some work done so won't be able to un-box for a week :(
I'll run it in for you. No problems.:smashin:

It might look like an Elicit when you get it back. It's all in your mind though.:devil:
 
Hopefully I am going to be trying an aethos + Aria phono + Spendor 7.2‘s next week. :clap:

if it goes well, then I’m sold.

Of course I will try a few other speakers at the dealers, before loading them into the car...

Congrats on the Aethos ... for all I said about the PMC 24is . I’ve purchased the Spendor D7.2s and a REL t7i subwoofer to give it a little oompth when needed. The spens just got to me more than the PMC’s on the day when they were head to head. Soooo detailed. And the Spendors best suited my vinyl setup. Happy bunny 👍🏻👊🏼
 
Finally got everything setup last night!

VERY happy! If it’s going to get better when run-in then......

907098D0-83C3-41AE-B17E-3AA099385B86.jpeg
 
I wanted to say thanks to Paul at Hi Fi Lounge, for loading and supplying the Rega kit and loaning me the Spendors D7.2 for a week or so. Really happy to recommend him, really easy to deal with and no nonsense. He was recommended to me a forum member here a couple of years ago, and I'm very grateful for that.

I should also mention Dan at Oxford Audio who loaned and supplied the Kef Reference ones. Again very helpful, but I only talked to them regarding speakers.
 
I wanted to say thanks to Paul at Hi Fi Lounge, for loading and supplying the Rega kit and loaning me the Spendors D7.2 for a week or so. Really happy to recommend him, really easy to deal with and no nonsense. He was recommended to me a forum member here a couple of years ago, and I'm very grateful for that.

I should also mention Dan at Oxford Audio who loaned and supplied the Kef Reference ones. Again very helpful, but I only talked to them regarding speakers.

Looks like a lovely system, home demo is key and obviously helped you work out what combination worked best in your room.
 

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