Hi-Fi Plus Investigates the Rega Aura
Posted by The Sound Organisation on Oct 4th 2019
The Rega Aura is Rega's top-tier pre-amplifier, designed to increase the signal strength coming from a turntable equipped with a moving coil cartridge. Since its introduction, the Aura has wowed the hi-fi world, getting glowing reviews from Hi-Fi Choice, The Ear, and What Hi-Fi?. Now, Paul Messenger of Hi-Fi+ has submitted his contribution, having delayed this review in light of Rega's overwhelming demand for the Aura.
For the Aura, Rega has done away with circuitry to handle moving magnet catridge inputs, instead optimizing the electronics to focus on moving coil signals. As Messenger explains, this specialization in design allows the Aura to avoid any bias current flowing within the unit and improves the dynamic expression of the music. Rega's devotion to quality is evident in the Aura, and the pricetag is more than justifiable when considering the audible quality it provides.
"The Aura seems to make very good sense in delivering an essentially good value package alongside a comparably priced low-output moving-coil cartridge...There may be plenty of significantly more expensive step-up-plus-EQ devices than an Aura, but this low-output phono stage simply makes good cost-effective sense against the current cost of moving-coil cartridges."