Rega Apollo CD Player

Here we have a nice example of the Apollo CD player from British specialist Rega Research. It comes in very good condition, complete with original factory packing, remote control, manual, mains lead, and of course our standard 3 month warranty.
Rega Say….
The Apollo is housed in our latest custom half-width case to match the Brio amplifier. The top-loading mechanism offers ease of use and unrivalled reliability.
The output amplifier of the Apollo uses the high specification Wolfson WM8742 digital to analogue converter, the same integrated circuit found in the multi-award winning Rega DACs.
The Apollo uses ‘digital’ power supplies feeding the CD processor, optical block and laser diode amplifier. This is achieved by using the same high performance, low noise power supplies found in the same location within the Rega reference CD player. This vastly improves the playability, error correction and the ‘inner core’ processing of the digital CD ‘spinner’ part of the Apollo.
The discrete output amplifier has a THD of 0.0025%, whilst at the same time improving the overall sound quality of the output amplifier.
The user interface is controlled by using a dedicated display micro-processor, which eases the workload on the main control processors giving an improvement in the control code stability, usability and improved speed of initialisation of the disc being played.
A new dedicated CD remote handset is supplied as standard which also has the advantage of Rega amplifier functionality.
To the best of our understanding, there have only ever been five large multinational companies with the technology and knowledge base to develop the remarkably complex operating software for CD players. Development of this software and chip-sets to operate CD transports was generally curtailed in the 1990’s. After this time, all development effort was directed towards the design of DVD players and other advanced formats.
Rega and other specialist hi-fi manufacturers were totally reliant on companies like Sony and Philips to supply transports and their operating chip-sets. In 2003 Sony stopped supply and sent the specialist hi-fi industry into a flurry of activity in search of feasible alternatives. Many manufacturers were able to resource their supply from Far Eastern companies.
Rega worked hard to locate a British software company who were developing a totally new disc operating system. A system, which was highly advanced, even in the early development stages.
Rega was the only manufacturer to develop the unique new disc operating system. Due to ever increasing computer processing power and memory capacity, it was possible to build in an enormous increase in memory capability. This allowed the data retrieval to meet the original CD ‘Red Book’ specifications without compromise to the musical performance. All previous chip-sets were unable to achieve this due to their limited memory and signal processing capacity.
Rega’s British designed chip-set delivers superior error correction and signal processing capacity. This enhances the sonic performance of the player and delivers a unique level of musicality.
Specifications:
DAC: Wolfson WM8742
Line Output Maximum Level: 2.15 V (minimum load impedance 10 kΩ)
Digital Output Maximum Level: 0.5 V (load impedance 75 Ω)
Digital Sampling Frequency: 44.1 kHz
Dimensions: 215 (W) x 340 (D) x 90 (H) mm
Required space for operation (lid fully open): 215 (W) x 340 (D) x 165 (H) mm

For a review from Hi-Fi Choice magazine please click here