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Best Stereo Amplifier for Purists 2024 - What Hi-Fi?
Five Stars – What Hi-Fi?
Best Buy Award – the-ear.net
"A Stunning Upgrade," Featuring Award-Winning Amplification Circuitry
The Elex MK4 is a high performance stereo integrated amplifier designed to deliver the purest musical performance with your analog and digital gear.
The MK4 builds on previous Rega designs using the company's multi-award winning class A/B power amplifier circuit which delivers an impressive 72W per channel into 8Ω loads (90W into 6Ω). For convenience and great sound with your digital gear, the Elex MK4 includes a Rega DAC circuit with two digital inputs. A high quality headphone output located on the front panel makes private listening a joy. The brand new case matches the rest of the Rega range and provides improved heat dissipation by using the entire case as an ultra-efficient heat sink.
"Revealing and Faithful… Terrific Amp"
"The successor to our multi-Award winning Rega Elex-R, one of our favourite amplifiers of the last decade, is thankfully far from a disappointing sequel," reports What Hi-Fi?, which named the Aethos its Best Stereo Amplifier for Purists 2024.
"Revealing and faithful, it's capable in ways far beyond our expectations at this mid-tier price point. The elegant, confident way it delivers music is something that’s very rare at this level. The addition of digital inputs (at last!) and a headphone port is a great step in the right direction too, giving customers more flexibility in how they listen to this terrific amp."
"Assured, Elegant, Capable"
"An assured, elegant and capable performer that cuts to the heart of the music, this Rega amplifier is a stunning upgrade," notes What Hi-Fi?, February 20, 2023, which gave the Elex its highest rating of Five Stars. "The elegant, confident way it delivers music is something that’s rare at this level. If you take the time to partner it carefully, this stereo amplifier will work wonders."
"The Elex Mk4 is a very, very musically satisfying amplifier that will keep you entertained for as long as there are tunes to play. The Rega Elex Mk4 is a hi-fi bargain, of that there can be no doubt," reports Jason Kennedy, the-ear.net, January 31, 2023, which honored the Rega with a Best Buy award.
Beautifully Integrated DAC and Digital Circuitry
The Elex MK4's built-in DAC is based closely on the hugely successful Rega DAC-R circuit. The galvanically/optically isolated digital inputs utilize a Wolfson S/PDIF receiver IC to provide exceptional detail and clarity from any connected source. Output is provided by a Wolfson DAC and Rega designed discrete line-driver circuit. Rega engineers worked exceptionally hard to ensure that the analog side of the circuit is not affected in any way by the introduction of digital inputs.
Rega-Designed MM Phono Stage
Digital excellence is just one part of the story, of course. A high performance Rega-designed integrated moving magnet (MM) phono stage is carefully built into the circuit. The RIAA equalization has been split into two stages to minimize interaction. Polyester capacitors have been used in the signal path and polypropylene capacitors are used in the RIAA equalization circuits.
Award-Winning Amplification Circuitry
Rega engineers have re-engineered the entire Elex circuit board for the MK4 to optimize performance. The MK4 builds on previous Rega designs by using the company's multi-award-winning Class A/B power amplifier circuit to deliver a powerful 72W per channel into 8Ω loads. This power is provided by a quiet multi-stage linear supply, while power supply circuitry for the digital and analog sections are galvanically isolated.
Carefully Designed Headphone Output
Enjoy private listening with your favorite pair of headphones. Rega engineers have taken great care to incorporate the headphone output on the Elex MK4. This has been configured so that the speaker switching is performed by the output mute relay to avoid obstructing the signal path, ensuring no loss of performance when it is not in use.
Circuit Protection
The Elex MK4 includes thermal cut-out, DC protection, and short circuit protection to prevent the risk of damage from excess heat, excess current, or a short circuit.
In the unlikely event that the amplifier reaches a temperature liable to cause internal electronic damage, a thermal protection sensor will shut the unit off or disable speaker output.
One of the design requirements of the Elex MK4 was to keep the capacitors in the signal path to a minimum to prevent unnecessary sound degradation at this crucial line level stage. To achieve this requirement, the output of the power amplifier is DC coupled. In the unlikely event of a circuit failure causing any one of the above outputs to produce an excessive DC voltage, the DC protection will activate within milliseconds, protecting any connected device.
If the speaker leads are shorted, the fold back short circuit protection will protect the output stage from excessive currents. This protection circuit is not placed in the audio signal path and therefore does not affect sound quality.
Bringing Your Music to Life
The Elex MK4 is capable of driving difficult loudspeakers with ease and will integrate perfectly into any audio system by offering a wider range of connectivity options. In addition to the line level, digital inputs, and a high quality moving magnet phono stage, you will also find Pre-out and Record Out functionality alongside a headphone output. Special attention has been paid to the selection of key audio components. Discrete circuitry, high quality relays, polypropylene capacitors, and Sanken output transistors are used throughout the design.
