REGA Brio

Café Brio, Olney is the place to be! The amazing variety of food, the welcoming ambience and friendly staff all work to its advantage. I always have a pleasurable experience there.

For the £249 prices tag this amp is excellent value.

Another value for money audio product from Rega. It's competitively priced at £328,00. It's very much a no frills affair: two knobs for source and volume, that's it. But really what else do you need? I have my Brio hooked up to a Rega P3 deck and a pair of Rega R1 speakers. The sound is detailed if rather restrained. It faithfully renders music in an engaging and never harsh way. Vinyl replay is bold and dynamic (via admittedly a naim phono stage). Having no CD player I can't comment on how it would perform.

If your after something a little different aesthetically from the mass of budget designs out there and real audio value for money you can't go wrong here.

I bought this a few years ago to complement a Marantz CD 6000 OSE CD player and a pair of Mission M74i floor standing speakers. It was a toss up between the Brio or a slightly more expensive Rotel. To my relatively inexperienced ears there was little or no difference between the two, and after a pleasant chat with the technical guy, I plumped for the Rega, along with £70 of very good speaker cable, which he informed me was essential to get the best listening experience.

Previously I'd tried a pretty TEAC amp, which was OK. Then after doing some research, I moved upmarket to a NAD, which was really disappointing, and actually rather nasty to be honest. So I rushed home with my new purchase and hooked it all up. I often wonder how I enjoyed music before, such was the experience. The CD player is good, the speakers are fine, if a little uncouth at times, but I firmly believe the Brio is by far the best part of the system. Superb clarity and texture combined with pace and energy, but knitted together so as not to overwhelm the listener. It is my most cherished musical purchase so far.

The M74i's are going very soon... Time for an upgrade me-thinks. JBL's impressive Northridge E80's loom and I can't wait! I'll be back with some thoughts in a few months.

REGA Brio is simply an amp for good system components. Wonderfully simple to operate having just a volume and source selecter knobs. Low watts output is meaningless when you've heard the results. Don't be put off by its tiny 35 watts, it really sings.

Great phono stage as well as you'd expect from REGA.