Rega Isis CD Player

Jason Kennedy has posted a review of the Rega Isis CD player ($9995) at The Audio Beat. His conclusions:

Whilst the Valve Isis was in residence, I enjoyed an all-too-fleeting period with a Metronome Kalista Intégré, an alarmingly expensive French CD player (£38,000 here in the UK, $65,000 in the US) that does everything so well that it almost seems like good value. It made the Valve Isis sound positively dark in tonal terms, but it didn’t dramatically improve on its musical qualities, even if detail levels were in a different league. Rega does not appear to voice its products to sound as immediately appealing as possible, but it does go to great lengths to make them musically compelling, which is arguably the most important quality for a piece of hardware to have. I have enjoyed some wonderfully revealing and refined components that didn’t really make me want to listen to music once I’d gotten used to them. The Rega Isis in both its guises encourages a thorough re-evaluation of your music collection just to hear how good preferred albums really are.

he Valve Isis has color and dynamics, heart and soul. Its sound is not super-detailed, because it puts the emphasis on the music rather than any audiophile qualities the recordings may have. This means that it may not be an instant hit in the demo room. Do not expect to be wowed; rather, expect to fall in love. What more can you ask of a musical conduit?

You can read the full review here.