Out of This World - Rega's Apollo CD Player Offers Cosmic Value for Money!

This episode sees Mike and David waxing lyrical about Rega's often-overlooked budget silver disc spinner - and wonder why the world wasn't listening when it was introduced.
Despite offering really strong sound and excellent build quality at a surprisingly low price, it hasn't set the hi-fi world on fire - not least because streaming is now flavour of the month.
The guys sing its praises and reckon it's a great affordable silver disc spinner. And what's not to love about its zany cantilevered top-loading design?
Each episode of Hi-Fi Riff features Mike and David's unedited, unexpurgated views about all manner of weird and wonderful hi-fi designs.
Business executive Mike has a wealth of knowledge from previous hi-fi retail experience, and David has written about hi-fi for thirty years. Now Editor-in-Chief of StereoNET, he's picked up a few things along the way.
So relax and enjoy some one-take hi-fi riffing - and please leave your comments below. And don’t forget to hit the Subscribe button, this one goes up to eleven!
The eighties-tastic title tune is called ‘UFO/Mike’s Jumper’, and used with the express permission of our old pal and rights holder Simon Lythe.
Follow Hi-Fi Riff on Instagram here: hifiriff

[@512bb]

Oh my God, my first car was the TR7 ( The shape of things to come ) in 1976...And it was superbly reliable to boot! Thanks for the honorable mention. ou made my day

[@stevehollingbery9744]

Another great riff guys. Yes I have that exact model, it replaced a very old Marantz CD63 mk2 KI. No slouch itself. What a great musical sound it has….never mind all the HiFi stuff, well done Rega. P.s I run it through my Qutest too.

[@The_Original_Geoff_B]

That's what I replaced, too 🙃

[@scottdavis0801]

I'm getting one of these tomorrow. I am very, very excited. I own the Magnavox cbd 650, which I got the other day for nothing, and it simply blew me away. So I've been looking for a used one of the Apollo players for awhile! I haven't heard anything bad about Rega on reviews ever. ❤

[@thepickyaudiophile]

I love me some Rega Electronics! In fact just buying my second Rega DAC, which go for ca. 160 punds used and for my money knock the pants of my P3/exact combo with a good digital front end. Does not embarrass itself in the company of the Aethos, Nautilus 805/Dynaudio contour 20. If rega ever make a DAC that matces something like the Aethos, I’ll be first in line 😀

[@kjbunnyboiler]

Excellent guys👍👍

[@richardparnell6551]

Great riff. As an average audio enthusiast rather than someone who can listen to lots of different equipment, I had assumed that the DAC chip itself would be the limiting factor in sound quality. It is interesting to learn that the overall quality is driven by the sum of the parts rather than one in particular.

[@MrVinylista]

Thanks Richard - it's absolutely the case that everything counts. So that means a high quality low jitter CD mechanism, decent non-noisy power supply, good DAC and proper analogue output stage - all in an anti-vibration case with good ground paths. Anything not right in respect of the aforementioned will let the side down and spoil the sound. The DAC is important, but it's certainly not the sole determinant of sound quality. That's why it's so important to audition something before you buy it, rather than going off specs, DAC types, etc.

[@evowhite777]

​@@MrVinylista - Excellent advice and SPOT-ON Sir😊

[@SimonTroll]

.. did just that a year ago, same model as you were juggling. Dusted off my old CDs and now listening to whole albums again! Managed to source one from my local dealer who had had a customer traade one in, so I got it for a good price. Totally agree about the imaging and detail and it has that naturally warm presenatation like my RP3. I'd heard that Rega were concentrating on their higher end models now, so any DACs they source will go into those models I'd guess.

[@Hi-FiRiff]

It's a lovely piece of Hi-Fi. I hope you are enjoying it.

[@roryyoung6192]

Great sounding player- I bought one brand new from the nice guys at Audio T in 2017, but I had nothing but problems with it. It went back to rega 3 times and they eventually changed everything inside but when I got it back it went wrong again. I gave up and sold it on. A real shame as it's a cracking player.

[@MrVinylista]

Shame. I've had this one for a good few years now and never had any probs. Sorry to hear about yours.

[@roryyoung6192]

@@MrVinylista it may have been a friday afternoon production but no end of errors and screen issues. Shame as its a fantastic sounding player

[@mrkitewine7700]

I’ve demo’d the Apollo on 2 occasions, and both times it had issues with freezing and becoming unresponsive and needed to be rebooted to get it working again. It was a great shame because that put me off buying what is otherwise a great sounding and looking player

[@fabieneldridge3414]

I have started looking at the S/N ratio , the higher it is the Better sounding the CD player is ! Go from 100 S/N to 110 S/N and you can clearly hear a Big difference. The Quality at 110 is so much better and it seems that receivers ect do the same? Nice looking CD player !

[@MrVinylista]

Signal-to-noise ratio is of course an important factor, but not in-and-of-itself a key determinant of sound quality. The higher the better, but other things have to be right too for something to sound good. And even then, the correlation between sound quality and lab measurements is complex and not always directly causal. For example, I've heard some amps that measure less well than others but sound better. Valve amps in particular have large amounts of even-order harmonic distortion yet many sound better than solid-state amps that measure better. Also, vinyl LPs have far poorer S/N ratio, distortion, etc., but can sound superior even to hi-res digital on a really good turntable, in my view. I know we have some very tech-savvy viewers who might like to add to this thread...

[@williambrown7484]

The Apollo CD player hasn’t been available from Rega for more than a year. In mid-noughties when I purchased the original Apollo it stood out from the competition and definitely much more musical and listenable to than my old Rotel 965BX. I’m now using the Saturn-R, noticeable step-up again.

[@dean6816]

Love that Rega form factor! Would look much better on top of my Rega Brio than my Rega Dac r (that has twin wolfsons BTW)

[@tengkukamil3951]

Another real value for money dac to consider is the Meridian Director which you ought to review,Dave and Mike

[@tombillard5264]

always a classic appearance wise

[@sbatty65227]

Our kid has the Apollo and waxes lyrical about it. Didn't realise they'd discontinued it.

[@chriswills9437]

run out of Wolfson chips... From Rega´s Paul Darwin on 24.7.22 ´´Regretfully we have had to announce that the Apollo CD player will no longer be manufactured due to the unavailability of key Global Silicon control chip sets. We are disappointed as we were not given final purchase opportunities and have been unable to secure supplies form any other sources despite months of procurement efforts.´´

[@thedarkdefender7780]

@@chriswills9437 I think it was the software needed for it, not the DAC chip.

[@alanwilson307]

I have a rega 35th anniversary cd player and I have not heard another player for around the same price that has that same musical toe tapping analog sound the rega seem to get out of their players, my only gripe is they are sensitive and tend to skip with lots of bass heavy music when you wind the volume up, that is really annoying, but apart from that they can be really nice sounding machines

[@rickp6731]

Nice review ! Could you all review the new Qualio Audio IQ Loudspeakers designed by Cube Audio ? Thank You

[@menfallinloveandwomenmakeplans]

Socket botherer - brilliant. I wish I had thought of that one. I have been trying to think of a nickname for David. Given his interest in cars, what about Delorean Dave or D type Dave? On the other hand, with his TR7 in mind and continuing the theme of back panels, what about, Big Black Back Bumper Botherer? Needs further work. I'll get back to you.

[@MrVinylista]

No rush!

[@mikeyevs]

Thought you liked Rush.

[@thebestoffools]

I just bought the new Elicit Mk5. The onboard dac is very good. Rega makes great integrated ampliers as well. They seem to be a well kept secret as you rarely see them reviewed. ❤

[@xstensl8823]

dito here for my new Elex, i will still buy this as a companion piece. the old oppo is eating disc.

[@scottlowell493]

Yeah, it does it's best to sound warm and analog-like. Maddending lack of error correction.

[@RonRivet]

Most of my stereo gear is from Rega which includes the excellent Rega Apollo r as well as the Dac r.

[@MrJonnyboy43]

The Cambridge audio product using Wolfson dac chips is the CXN V2 streamer I think you meant. The new MXN10 streamer uses ESS sabre dac chips - sorry not being a smart arse but I own both

[@mikeyevs]

Yes, I realised my mistake when I was re watching the video today. You are quite correct. Many apologies. Mike

[@markwherry]

Been following you guys for a while, sadly we’re of the same era as I was reminded of again during the reminiscing of the TI-30 😊. After being HiFi less for 35yrs it’s you idiots fault that I’m now awaiting delivery of a pair of AE1’s. Just have to decide on a streaming source. Good job my missus can’t find you 😂

[@Hi-FiRiff]

Active AE1's?

[@markwherry]

@@Hi-FiRiff Yes, in walnut with matching stands as apparently that colour sounds better 😁

[@peterclarke6680]

Absolutely awful reliability I have had 2Apollos in the last 6 years both models gave up after 18 months or thereabouts. Discs failed to be read skipping issues not loading the list went on. I came away from Rega and purchased a rotel tribute cd player which has never skipped a beat faultless performance. Now the bit that hurts the Apollo when it was working was absolutely amazing with an analogue sound and so musical definitely better than the rotel. I am hoping that the new Apollo addresses the issues of the previous version as I for one would certainly buy one.

[@naradaian]

The laser unit replacement costs about 50 to replace and fit - i have a rega planet which has got thru 3 since new - buying a new player instead of replacing a laser is daft

[@peterclarke6680]

@@naradaian yes makes sense bud £50 to fix a stellar cd player wished I had known that earlier ahh well guess I will be hunting a second hand Apollo. Thanks for sharing that info @naradaian 🙏

[@tonyjedioftheforest1364]

Great review guys, this is on the top of my wants list for a new CD player but would it be worth waiting for its replacement do you think?

[@mikeyevs]

I'm tempted to say just buy one of these! Not only will you definitely enjoy it, but it will undoubtedly deprecate very little, if at all, making a potential upgrade very affordable. Mike

[@tonyjedioftheforest1364]

@@mikeyevs thank you.

[@williamhopper6602]

Wishing i could purchase this in America

[@Ricky-cl5bu]

A socket botherer 😂😂😂

[@christophermaley6822]

Ah I see Andrew Strauss has got into HiFi now after his cricket career ??

[@nickevans3190]

Another nickname for Mike is a Backpaneler 😂😂😂

[@mikeyevs]

Oy!

[@MrVinylista]

I say, steady on old chap!

[@mikechivy]

What a fucking deal!

[@The_Original_Geoff_B]

I treated myself to one of these about 6 months ago, to replace the Marantz CD63 KI Signature I had been using for around 30 years. The sound improvement was (as you might expect) pretty significant. It sits alongside my Planar 3. There were three things that were a *tiny* bit disappointing : First - the remote control is rather limited, and you can't control the volume setting unless you have a matching Rega amplifier. Second - The display can't be dimmed. It is either on or off. Third - the corners on the little recess where you put your fingertip when raising the lid were VERY sharp. I actually cut myself on them The first 2 I can put up with, although the volume issue can be annoying. The third - really, those sharp corners shouldn't be on a product in this price range. It took me 20 seconds with a jewellers file to fix it, so why don't Rega do this? On balance, though, I bought it for the sounds it makes. Therefore I'm happy (now that I won't be left with scarred fingers), especially as I had £100 taken off the price because of some marks on the front face. It was only a couple of days later I realised there was still a thin plastic film in place - the marks came off with the film. Added bonus 👍

[@firstnamelastname6038]

Can't tell if they're legit or taking the pi$$

[@geoffadams590]

Another spiffing Riff. Or should I say Ripping Yarn? lol. I've owned many different CD players over the years - starting with the Marantz CD45. Naim, Linn and so on - but I have never owned a Rega player. Mmmmm maybe......

[@robertgough5804]

Got a 2nd hand naim cd5 si it does it for me. Just like lp 12 such a leap over rp3. I wish i liked the rega sound but i dont! Once naim gets to you nothing else matters

[@sbwlearning1372]

It's a funny hobby isn't it? I went large in upgrades over the last few years I was desperate to hear naim gear as it is so beloved. Found it unlistenable and underpowered. Went tube preamp and class D 600 wpc. Found Rega and Creek amps to have a lovely tone but like nearly every "old school" amp manufacturer very stingy with the watts.

[@rachelwilliams9749]

When my Audio Alchemy CD Player (beautiful, slightly dark sounding sound [I liked]) stopped working after 15+yrs (bought after listening to (then) Rega Saturn [way too harsh, but rocked] & "Mag favs" like Marantz CD63 [terrible/dead] - eventually I went CD Player/Transport+Dac evaluating to £2K+... they all sounded "grey & limp" (inc. Naim cd5si), apart from the 2-box Rega (forget name) that sounded "well-separated musical strands, airy & ethereal with some colour, but appeared to lack balls". The dealer suggested it's little brother, the Apollo, "as a stop-gap" whilst I decided whether to go hi-end CD, streaming or not... When the Apollo was delivered I was blown away by it's musicality & listenability straight out of the box (& being a Cirkus SondeK/Armageddon/Aro/Dynavecter XXMkII vinyl person that say's something) - especially it's ability to sense/present each individual piece of music's "own groove" - i'll call that "Timing+" An excellent & "liveable with" CD Player.

[@Baldieman1]

Strange how we all differ.I had a Naim Cd5i ,but the laser packed up after 2 years.I was quoted approx £300 to fix it.I wasn't being ripped off like that,so I "compromised" and bought an Apollo,not expecting to be blown away by the upgrade in sound for roughly half the price!Have had some probs with it,but Rega have always been happy to help,but the the Naim wasn't faultless,wht with the lasr andvery badly aligned swing out drawer.I hope Rega do replace it with the new model soon.

[@krihanek117]

How about ripping to FLAC and just buying the DAC. Seems like spending big money on a transport is a waste.

[@jackfalco5351]

Buy an Aries dac

[@samuelreggio1611]

I love mine. Run it into a Border Patrol DAC and it’s a warm, rich sound getting me like 80% of the way to the vinyl experience. Sad they discontinued it!

[@r423sdex]

Does it play the music that is on the disk. Its the only job it has, no noise, no distortion. If it does that then the title is correct. Is there any measurements of its performance ? And dont say its musical, as it makes no sense. But thanks for the video. Imagine if you get one and it doesn't work !

[@MrVinylista]

You can still buy one new with a 12 months warranty, and if you buy used then Rega have good after sales support. I've not heard anything bad about the reliability of Rega CD players, by the way.

[@r423sdex]

​@@MrVinylista the term " it just works" was used in the video. Not good if it doesn't !

[@michaelb9664]

It’s very hard to find any true performance measurements for Rega products in general. Imagine buying a car with no clue to it’s BHP, torque, 0-60 or MPG.

[@offraed6156]

Heard it humbled by an early 90s Arcam Alpha+ CD player. I was interested in one of these but heard it in a showroom set-up including a Rega amp and a fairly expensive pair of speakers (can't remember the brand). Heard the Saturn in the same system, which was a bit better. Then an old Arcam Alpha+ CD player which was more revealing in the same system. Heard the Apollo at home with a valve amp and Living Voice speakers. Arcam Alpha + player was notably better on modern music and an £1100 Puresound CD player was way better on classical music. The Rega stuff is OK but nothing special.

[@mikeyevs]

That's why it's so important to listen to the equipment before you buy it. I certainly wouldn't discount anyone's opinions if they have heard for themselves. 👍 Mike

[@MrVinylista]

I respectfully disagree. I did a 6-way group test of mid-price CD players for Hi-Fi Choice a few years back and it beat all of them except the Musical Fidelity M3sCD, which cost twice its price. It's clearly better than 'okay', to my ears at least.

[@offraed6156]

@@MrVinylista I am sure you can find many CD players that the Rega Apollo will sound better than. What I said is that against a new Puresound CD player I listened to and an old Arcam Alpha + CD player, it did not surpass those players. My own amplifier is very revealing and the speakers even more so. From my experience, I would not trade what I have for one.

[@MrVinylista]

@@offraed6156 Fair enough, if it doesn't surpass the Puresound and Arcam in your system then I think you're absolutely right to give it a miss. I think system synergy is a huge issue and at least partially explains this - and personal taste of course. Thanks for you thoughts.

[@evowhite777]

@@MrVinylista Agreed. Put mine up against a friends hippo erm sorry oppo UDP 205 bla bla player in HIS system - guess which one "He" thought sounded better via cd clue,it WAS NOT the 205? When i relayed this story to my then local hifi retailer they said.. "The Apollo cdp is the best sounding player they sell for under a grand"...! And this was when it was at "£629.00" it`s then rrp....real story folks but this gets better. I`ve now got a Synergistic Research Black SR Quantum Reference 20x5mm:(Slow Blo)T250mA fuse in its rear end aaaaaaand... ..W-O-W Unbelievable who would've thought,how DETRIMENTAL the ordinary fuse is in a hifi component?! Thanks for this Great channel Dave & Mike you guys rock and I`m glad to be a "Riff-raff",keep up the good work please 👍 PS. I`ve had mine since 2019 and not had ANY issues so anyone that has may be just "unlucky" or not using a cd lens cleaner,which this player NEEDS.

[@josephfuller7008]

When is Mike going to unload on Price. The cute little back handed remarks are getting long in the tooth.

[@yippie6862]

Why review something that has been recently discontinued? Most of us can't even buy one.

[@MrVinylista]

It is still for sale in some major hi-fi retail outlets, and is a bargain.

[@yippie6862]

@@MrVinylista That's probably true in the U.K.. However, finding it difficult to find one here in the USA. Anyways, thanks for the review. My hope is that Rega comes out with a suitably priced replacement. One can hope.

[@geoffadams590]

Personally I don't think reviewing potentially unavailable equipment is a problem. I actually think this channel is excellent for two, nay three reasons: 1) They review new, recent and old gear - some of which takes me back to a rose-tinted nostalgic place (eg Diamond speakers, which I bought new in early 80's and still use now). I need it at my age. 2) David Price, who I believe is a brilliant audio journalist. My many years of HiFi World reading woke me up to another side of the usual stuff available. 3) Mike Evans. New to me, but an absolute blast by all accounts from here. And clearly knowledgeable in the retail sector side of things.

[@yippie6862]

@@geoffadams590 It's only a problem if it gets you excited about the product but then you can't find one to buy. ;) Absolutely agree with you on your 3 main points.

[@neilrobinson9806]

Tr 7s were crap

[@mikeyevs]

I'll let David comment on that! 😁 Mike

[@ronlysons6750]

@@mikeyevs No he's right, they were crap. Back in the day there was no shortage of crap cars But the TR7 was near, if not top of the list.

[@mikeyevs]

@@ronlysons6750 when we were 18, David had a TR7 and I had an X1/9 and when not talking about Hi-Fi our time was spent arguing about which was the best (it was the X1/9 of course!). Mike

[@ronlysons6750]

@@mikeyevs The Fiat had the better engine, I think it was a Single OHC 1500cc. A better engine than they use today. I think the Fiat 128 may have have the same engine. I was a mechanic at the time and for some reason I liked the Fiat engines. Most cars were still push rod at the time. They should bring it back. The CD player sounds nice, but streaming is so good these days, I won't be buying another CD player at any price.

[@MrVinylista]

@@ronlysons6750 "Fix It Again Tony"

[@guystewart9554]

haven't found a DAC for twice my budget that would pull me away from the Wolfson.