Rega

The CD player and at the same time the Saturn MK3 DAC from Rega are designed and constructed in such a way that they can occupy only the upper position in any rack. The novelty was compared with the flagship Rega Isis CDP CD player; the style migrated from the Saturn-R model.

The player is equipped with a new digitally controlled servo drive that accurately reads information from the disc and transmits it to a digital-to-analog converter. The DAC in the player is made on Burr Brown PCM1794 chips operating in dual parallel mono mode, and does not have built-in amplifiers. The output filter of the Dac is built on discrete elements operating in Class A, as are the analog output stages of the Rega ISIS.

Rega's Valve Isis CD player differs from most similar models from other manufacturers primarily by having an output tube buffer stage. It is made on ECC82/12AU7 lamps and a transformer necessary for the implementation of balanced XLR output. Actually, the presence of lamps in the player's circuit is reflected in its name.