Recently got a Rega Aria phono amp, and it’s outstanding

[AVLRobert]

I already have a Rega Elex-r amp with a built in phono, and I owned the Rega Fono MM (the second version for years, and the third for a short time), and the Aria blows all of them away. I got a used mk1 for a great price,and so glad I did. I’ve read comments where people say that the MM portion of the Aria is pretty much the same as the built in in the Elex, or no better than the Fono, but that is definitely not true. Maybe not night and day, but a huge step up. Dead silent backgrounds, big, lush sound with plenty of detail. Plenty of air around everything, and easy to imagine the recording space. Wasn’t sure if it was worth upgrading as I was just going to be using the MM section (for now), but super glad that I took the plunge. My deck is a highly upgraded Rega RP3 (all the top of the line Groovetracer upgrades) with a Rega Exact II cartridge.