Rega Brio MK7 Integrated Amp - Black (DEMO)

Retail: $1,195.00

The First Brio With a DAC Inside

The Brio has been Rega's best-selling amplifier through six generations, and every one of them was analog only. The MK7 changes that. Rega built a DAC into it, so a television, a CD transport or a streamer connects digitally without a separate box in between.

Power steps up too, to 50 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 72 watts into 4 ohms. The custom half-width aluminum case measures 216 by 79 by 365 millimeters and weighs 4.9 kilos, so it still fits where a full-width amplifier will not.

Records, Discs and the Television, All In

Three RCA line inputs handle analog sources, and a moving magnet phono stage is built in for a turntable. On the digital side there is one coaxial S/PDIF input and one optical Toslink, both accepting sample rates from 32kHz up to 192kHz.

A headphone socket on the front runs from its own dedicated circuit rather than borrowing the speaker output. The supplied mini system remote handles standby. Rega covers the Brio MK7 for three years in the United States.

Where the Seventh Generation Went

Rega re-laid the circuit board rather than bolting a DAC onto the old one. The MK7 runs dual raw power supplies to keep the sections isolated from each other, and higher specification MUSES operational amplifiers appear in the line, DAC and phono stages alike.

That isolation is the real engineering story. Adding digital circuitry to an analog amplifier is where things usually go wrong, and separating the supplies is how Rega kept the analog side clean. Distortion measures typically 0.005% at 1kHz, A-weighted.

It Looks After Itself

Protection is built in at two levels. A thermal cut-out guards against overheating, and short circuit protection covers a shorted speaker lead. Neither sits in the audio signal path. The amplifier also drops to standby on its own after roughly an hour with no signal.

Consumption is 200 watts at full tilt and 0.4 watts in standby. For an amplifier that will spend most of its life idling between listening sessions, that second number is the one that matters.

Overview

• Most advanced version of Rega's Brio Integrated Amplifier yet
• 50 watts into 8 ohms / 72 watts into 4 ohms
• Built-in MM Moving Magnet phono stage
• Rega DAC with two digital inputs
• Built-in headphone stage capable of driving all standard hi-fi headphones
• Custom mini system remote control
• Custom designed case
• Standby and auto standby functionality
• Short circuit protection
• Thermal cut-out
• Manufacturer's lifetime warranty from Rega Research against manufacture defects

Inputs / Outputs

• 3 x analog line inputs
• MM Moving Magnet phono input
• S/PDIF isolated 0.5V 75Ω Ccoaxial digital input
• S/PDIF optical Toslink digital input
• Front panel 3.5mm headphone out
• 1 x pair - speaker L - R

Specifications

• Power Output: 50 W per channel into 8 Ω, 72 W per channel into 4 Ω
• Power Consumption: 200 W
• Supported sampling rates: 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192kHz
• THD + Noise (A-weighted): Typically 0.005% at 1kHz
• Dimensions (W x H x D): 8.5" x 3.1" x 14.4"
• Weight: 10.8 lb.