January arrival : Mercury & Solis

Rega’s Reference level Mercury and Solis pre / power amplifier combination has been on the cusp of being produced for what now seems like an eternity. They were shown, but not played, at both the 2024 and 2025 Bristol HiFi shows.

We were brought some pre production examples about a year ago and, whilst we placed an order for a demonstration set at the time, it was more out of a sense of obligation than of fully fired-up commitment. In the meantime, our other upmarket products have been continuing to fill their own space in the world and we had a sense that, just maybe, Rega was better placed as a high achieving mid tier audio brand, where they excel, than as a fully high end one.

We discussed our misgivings with Rega and they suggested that we should have a listen to the final production version before finally committing. Accordingly, a Mercury and Solis arrived for us to audition. We are, I think, an unusually democratic business and, in my dotage, I’m edging towards being more of an observer than a participant. It’s fun to watch our small but dedicated team agonise about such things.

It’s an even more interesting experience to walk into a room full of people who are are in the process of having their socks well and truly blown off by something that they REALLY want us to stock. The enthusiasm for Mercury and Solis was palpable and far more how the business of audio retail ought to be.

You may gather that the final draft of Mercury and Solis is considerably more appealing than the ones that we heard a while ago. That’s the ones that I rather tartly described in a previous report as being like a larger Aethos. Now equipped with an excellent digital input that includes USB for the first time on a Rega amplifier, the Mercury makes a powerful case for itself.

Sound quality is the thing and we unanimously think it’s magnificent. The Solis power amp has, subjectively, almost limitless levels of ‘grunt’. The combination is fresh, clean, open, dynamic and colourful with an unusually high level of neutrality. It plays well and musically at high and low levels plus all the ones in-between.

This is a very high value £14,000 combo that really looks serious too. Rega’s current in-house designed aesthetic has been applied to impressive effect. Build quality and finishing are top notch and in keeping with the Reference moniker. The metal handset is an appealing thing too but it now uses a different set of IR codes (the same as the new Brio) so any existing Rega CD users will need to adapt to losing an effective system remote control.

Our own Mercury and Solis are now here and available for auditioning. An open day will be arranged soon. Fresh from the box these units sound reassuringly similar to the demonstration set that has just left the premises, fresh from having reignited our enthusiasm. These will make a lot of sense of either Rega’s own stunning Aura phono stage or innumerable high quality digital sources such as the Innuos Stream 1 and Stream 3 players or stand alone network players from Linn or Naim.

Well done Rega!

 

 

Introducing Gold Note

 

This Italian brand has been on our radar for some time. Or, more accurately, Andy has kept bumping into their PH10 phono stage. Finally, we cracked, borrowed some examples from the range and now we are Gold Note stockists. The £1700 PH-10, pictured above with the optional £1200 PSU-10 really is a something of a cracker.

It features two turntable inputs both with MM and MC facilities and even allows you to select different replay curves to suit older recordings. Best of all, it sounds great!

Strengths are enormous soundstage, impressive bass with depth and clarity. Unsurprisingly the PSU-10 improves matters but the stage is very compelling even when used on its own. The Gold finish is optional, along with silver or black. Ironically, our first Accuphase owning customer opted for black because it looked so good next to his Accuphase kit!

Beyond the PH-10 and PSU-10, we also have their nifty half width CD-5 CD player which is probably best as a digital transport and very compatible with, say the Rega Brio amplifier.

 

Meze range refreshed

Meze headphones have been a signals favourite for quite a while now. Their stalwart Classic 99s are the latest to be updated. The new and improved Classic 99 2nd Generation ‘phones now come with a self powered USBC DAC adapter so can be used directly with most serious phones, iPad’s etc. This feature is extended over much of the current range.

Prices of the original, still excellent, Classic 99 are now at clearance levels. Stocks are limited. We have the entire Meze range on demonstration right up to the £3748 Elite Tungsten. Feel free to drop in for a listen.

 

Inflation reversed @ Naim

Naim have taken the unusual, but not unique, step of reverting to the original launch pricing for the 200 and 300 series of New Classic products. Click on the above image to see the revised pricing.

 

DELA Switch enthusiasm continues

We’ve had a modicum of success selling the DELA S5 switches. We have the cheaper S50s too but, despite them both offering the ability to slow network speed by port, the better overall performance of the S5 has been appreciated. The upshot is that there has been a gentle stream of traded older Melco switches coming through.

We’ve been offering a special deal with ADOT Ethernet to SFP converters along with a basic Direct Attached Copper cable. This allows users to benefit from the advantage of having the SFP socket on the switches.

Dropping speed has proved to be a significant factor in improving performance with all streaming devices, including the new Innuos ones. The older switches have a more limited range of adjustment than the new DELA ones, but it’s still worthwhile to use the 100 base ports.

Feel free to quiz us over the phone. Therapy remains an option. . . .