Rega Saturn Cd Player

The Rega Saturn CD Player with Remote included - Single-box perfection, more effortlessly musical than any player. The pursuit of perfection is not for the cheap and pecunious. The pursuit abides by the law of dimishing returns - an economic principle stating that as investment in a particular area increases, the rate of profit from that investment, after a certain point, cannot continue to increase if other variables remain at a constant. If you're into cars, hi-fi and agriculture, you already know what it's about. As counterpoint however, the pursuit of perfection, of quality, of greatness, they are not about the money. They are about character and that transcends money! Rega's Saturn CD player is the less-compromised implementation of their outstanding $1195 Apollo. At $2595, it costs 140% more. Expectedly, it is not 140% better. Yet for those who worship at  the altar of musical completeness, they will not mind paying a premium, the Saturn is Rega's best CD player ever. Rega's original Planet made a huge splash back in the late 1990s as the CD player for people who don't like CDs. Its successor, the Planet 2000, somehow failed to capture the same magic as the original, probably because it sounded more like good digital rather than digital doing its best analog impersonation. The company also released various transport/DAC combos over the years, but they carried significant price premiums over single-box players and were more cumbersome. Part of a Rega disc player's appeal is its simple design. Customers simply don't want two boxes. The Saturn solves those problems by packing the performance of the company's previous-generation separates into a single chassis. Of course, there's clever engineering at work here. Instead of using an off-the-shelf operating system, the company took the unprecedented step of developing their own (in collaboration with another, top secret, UK firm) that is shared by both the Saturn and the Apollo. The resulting system analyzes each disc and optimizes the laser's tracking position and focus spot size for optimum data recovery. In addition, the advanced control chipset offers more memory—a whopping 20MB—for seriously excellent error correction. How does the Saturn justify its 140% price premium over the Apollo? By improving on the Apollo through a process of maximizing operational musical yield - focusing on noticeable musical improvement. For instance, the Saturn occupies a more substantial chassis which contains large visible heat sinks (which never even get hot) and a much larger transformer with separate windings for audio, digital and display circuits. Two parallel-connected Wolfson VM8740 DAC chips crunch the numbers, backed up by a low-jitter master clock and Class A analog output stage. High-quality parts from Nichinon and Evox are used throughout. In typical Rega understatment, you can't see most of them but you'll hear all of them in the Saturn's stunningly detailed yet cohesive sound. This is not one of those players that makes you say, "Wow…listen to all of the detail!" Instead, you will simply be aware of hearing more of the performance. The Saturn is more immersive, more effortlessly musical than any player in this price range. Frequency response was extended in both directions. The treble was clean, smooth, and detailed, but also so natural that the experience of listening quickly becomes soothing. The same was true of low bass—layers of information were present rather than a mere suggestion. Vocals had the breath of life. None of this would be noteworthy in a $10,000 disc player but the fact that a $2595 machine gets all of this so right is something special. The item for sale is new in original box.  The box was opened today for inspection prior to posting it for sale at Pricetronic.