Rega Valve Isis : CD Player

Rega’s now legendary head electronics engineer Terry Bateman spent 10 years researching the concept of a CD player using valves in the output amplifier. Valves have been widely used in musical instrument and recording amplification from the 1950’s to the present day, therefore it made great sense to develop a valve based CD player to match that of the signal chain found in such applications.

This approach kept the circuit straightforward. This is mainly because musical instrument amplification is not excessively hindered by some of the folklore surrounding certain aspects of valve audio design. He took the approach of combining the technical and sonic attributes of valves in a differential instrumentation amplifier circuit driven from differential output DAC with a passive LC filter.

Specifications : Rega Valve Isi

• Laser Semiconductor
• Wavelength 780nm
• Digital sampling frequency 44.1kHz
• Power Consumption 46w
• Phono Unbalanced 2.4V source impedance 600 Ohms
• XLR Balanced 2.4V source impedance 600 Ohms
• Co-Axial SPDIF 0.5V source impedance 75 Ohms
• Toslink compatible output
• USB 16bit 44.1/48kHzTHD+Noise< 0.06%
• Frequency Response 30Hz – 20kHz +/-0.5dB
• Rega custom designed and CNC machined aluminium case work
• High quality anodised finish
• Aesthetic high gloss black facia and lid
• CNC machined matching remote control
• Dimensions  W 434mm x D 350mm x H 112mm
• Dimension needed to operate  W 434mm x D 350mm x H 200mm
• Weight 19.5Kgs