NAC282 and Rega Aria Positioning

My Aria is in a sideboard on its own as far away from the rack as the 1m long interconnect will allow. I once tried it on the rack near power supplies and vinyl replay sounded like a duvet had been put over the speakers. 

Interesting. Looking on Rega's website, it seems the Aria is mains powered (not like some small Rega boxes, which are 24v DC powered).

Rega say 115V AC or 230V AC - I will guess that perhaps a switch mode PS could be involved here....? Which might explain the OP's findings.

Conclusion is clear. Further (obvious..?) option might be a Naim Stageline.

Thanks to Drew and Ian.

I rang Rega a moment ago and they confirmed that the Aria has a toroidal power supply. Sigh of relief as I have a dedicated spur. So it just doesn't keep magnetic fields out or in very well. Put it as far away as possible even if you have no hum as was the case for me. 

I keep my Aria away from the amp - it actually sits on the bottom shelf, because it looks good there

The Aphelion is a good cartridge
So good with RP10 that I often wonder if Aria is good enough for it.... Of course there is the urge to try Rega iOS.

But then again every time I listen to my RP10 / Aphelion / Aria I'm always amazed how well it sounds...

The Aria is a great phonostage. I think I'd have to spend a lot more to better it and as I find vinyl better than my NDS I have no intention of upgrading. I'm currently using an old Chord Solid interconnect with it too

Drewy posted:

The Aria is a great phonostage. I think I'd have to spend a lot more to better it and as I find vinyl better than my NDS I have no intention of upgrading. I'm currently using an old Chord Solid interconnect with it too

Good point - Aria beats my NDX + nDAC + 555PS. So also very little incentive to upgrade. I use Chord Signature Tuned Aray from Aria (RCA > DIN).

I use the Rega interconnect which is the same as the cable they use on their RP8/10 arms. Not quite the price of the HiLine or Superlumina. 

I inherited a Thorens TD124 Mk2 with iron platter and Thorens arm. Currently it is with Loricraft who have refurbished it and say that they are very pleased with it after fitting new bearings to motor and spindle. They are making a plinth and arm board to which I will fit the RB808 arm off the RP8. Their plinths use the same technology as their Garrard 501 - the mushrooms are replaced with squash balls and the arm board mounts on the TT surround rather than being screwed to the TT chassis. When the extra racks arrive I will have the two side by side and use the MM input of the Aria. It may cope with a MC cartridge even with an iron platter according to some.

The Rega IOS Ref phono stage looks interesting. It has a 17.5 kg weight, much better mains lead and possibly the IC.

I am about to try a HiLine and Superlumina between the DAC and the 282.

Adam Zielinski posted:

Drewy posted:

The Aria is a great phonostage. I think I'd have to spend a lot more to better it and as I find vinyl better than my NDS I have no intention of upgrading. I'm currently using an old Chord Solid interconnect with it too

Good point - Aria beats my NDX + nDAC + 555PS. So also very little incentive to upgrade. I use Chord Signature Tuned Aray from Aria (RCA > DIN).

How much better than the Rega Couple 2 is the Chord Signature?

Filipe posted:

How much better than the Rega Couple 2 is the Chord Signature?

Never compared them, so cannot advise here.

I tried TQ Black Diamond (RCA - RCA) and I preferred Chord (mind you this one is RCA > DIN so one must also bear that in mind).

Adam Zielinski posted:

Filipe posted:

How much better than the Rega Couple 2 is the Chord Signature?

Never compared them, so cannot advise here.

I tried TQ Black Diamond (RCA - RCA) and I preferred Chord (mind you this one is RCA > DIN so one must also bear that in mind).

Hello Adam

Thank you for your feedback.

Do you use the basic Rega power lead? If not do you have some suggestions?

Like you Filipe I use the Couple 2 RCA to RCA between the Aria and the 272 and have often wondered what difference something like a decent Chord interconnect would make. So I'd be interested to hear if anyone has made that upgrade.

Filipe posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

Filipe posted:

How much better than the Rega Couple 2 is the Chord Signature?

Never compared them, so cannot advise here.

I tried TQ Black Diamond (RCA - RCA) and I preferred Chord (mind you this one is RCA > DIN so one must also bear that in mind).

Hello Adam

Thank you for your feedback.

Do you use the basic Rega power lead? If not do you have some suggestions?

I use a Rega-supplied mains lead for the RP10's power supply unit and a Naim PowerLine for the Rega Aria. If I recall they had their Live and Neutral pins reversed, but being in Europe that's easy with shucko-type sockets. I obses  a little bit about all the equipment being phase-correct

I have also had good results with a Polish-made Enerr Violet mains leads. Very fast and well-paced cable. But ultimately PowerLine won the day.

The PSU is plugged into a different circuit and the Aria is plugged into the same, dedicated one as the Naim boxes.

S3 posted:

Like you Filipe I use the Couple 2 RCA to RCA between the Aria and the 272 and have often wondered what difference something like a decent Chord interconnect would make. So I'd be interested to hear if anyone has made that upgrade.

As I wrote above - I like how a Chord Signature Tuned Aray sounds. Dressing it is a bit of a challenge - quite a stiff cable (actually two cables).

Thanks Adam

After blowing the SCDR internal fuse while fitting the loan Powerline I decided to put the Powerline on the Aria while waiting for fuses to arrive from Naim, having now used the spare.

First impressions are that base seems cleaner, and it's an overall an improvement. Next week I am getting run-in Isotek Elite and Optimum after the Bristol show is over. May try those with the Aria and try again with the PL in the 282.

Filipe, sorry to hear of the blown fuse.  As I'm sure you now know, the Powerline IEC end must be inserted carefully - the resistance is very high so needs to be pushed in further even after the first initial resistance.  This is because the jaws are made as tight as regulations allow thus ensuring the most secure connection.  However, if you don't push beyond the first resistance then the jaws aren't properly clamped on the socket pins and will arc, which can take out the fuse.

Oh, and only ever handle the IEC end by the main part of the body - the rear section must not be held or pushed otherwise it can't push back and decouple from the main body.

Richard Dane posted:

Filipe, sorry to hear of the blown fuse.  As I'm sure you now know, the Powerline IEC end must be inserted carefully - the resistance is very high so needs to be pushed in further even after the first initial resistance.  This is because the jaws are made as tight as regulations allow thus ensuring the most secure connection.  However, if you don't push beyond the first resistance then the jaws aren't properly clamped on the socket pins and will arc, which can take out the fuse.

Oh, and only ever handle the IEC end by the main part of the body - the rear section must not be held or pushed otherwise it can't push back and decouple from the main body.

Richard

Thank you for the advice. My dealer just told me that it happens sometimes without saying anything about high resistance and arcing if not properly seated. I did read the stuff about handling by the metal body. I did suspect that it was something to do with the PL.

It's doing a great job in the Aria. I asked Rega about using a better power cord and they said it might help, whereas I would say it is a must.

In the last two weeks I have added PowerLines to the pre and power amps. These have much improved the sound of the entire system. 

I also experimented with the Chord Chorus, Anthem Reference and Signature Tuned ARAY. I started with the Powerline on the Aria using my Rega Couple 2 interconnect, before switching it to the SuperCap DR of the 282. At that point I used a demo Isotek Premier. 

Like others I found that the musicality was missing with the Chord ICs. The Anthem was interesting, but the good soundstage was created at the expense of Naim type musicality. The Signature was the best, but it still messed up "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", two of my problem LPs.

Cutting a long story short, I reverted to the Rega basic power cord, which was a bit better and then the Rega Couple 2 IC. The result was really good. There was still some distortion on some of the instruments, which was the reason I have been trying to sort out the vinyl side.

Today I picked up a third Powerline on loan and an Isotek Elite and Optimum. The PL is now on the XPSDR and the Optimum on the Aria. "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" now sounds the best it ever has (every instrument and voice really sings now) and is difficult to fault. I'm going to try the Rega Reference Power Cord in the hope that Rega find this really good with the Aria (it costs £95).

The main point of this post is to make the point that power cords are just as important as ICs in determining the SQ, and mega bucks does not necessarily buy SQ. It makes sense to me to use  Rega power cords and IC with a Rega TT and cartridge, just as one should use PLs and HLs/SLs with Naim.

My dealer is hoping to get a HiLine RCA x 2 to DIN and a Sarum Tuned ARAY just for completeness of the testing.

Adam Zielinski posted:

Drewy posted:

The Aria is a great phonostage. I think I'd have to spend a lot more to better it and as I find vinyl better than my NDS I have no intention of upgrading. I'm currently using an old Chord Solid interconnect with it too

Good point - Aria beats my NDX + nDAC + 555PS. So also very little incentive to upgrade. I use Chord Signature Tuned Aray from Aria (RCA > DIN).

the Aria needs a record player

Robiwan posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

Drewy posted:

The Aria is a great phonostage. I think I'd have to spend a lot more to better it and as I find vinyl better than my NDS I have no intention of upgrading. I'm currently using an old Chord Solid interconnect with it too

Good point - Aria beats my NDX + nDAC + 555PS. So also very little incentive to upgrade. I use Chord Signature Tuned Aray from Aria (RCA > DIN).

the Aria needs a record player

That's what I was getting wrong....

It has an RP10/Aphelion