Intro
Contents
Rega makes turntables, amplifiers and CD players known for their excellent price-performance ratio. The fifth incarnation of the Elicit confirms this once again, emphatically.
This amplifier participates in our multitest of amplifiers. You can listen to the different amplifiers and compare them in our video. But that doesn’t tell the whole story of the Elicit.
The Rega Elicit MK5 is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The performance that Rega delivers with this Elicit is impressive for this segment of the market. Does it come without any caveats? This review attempts to add some nuance to that performance.
Most noticeable is the huge stereo image projected by the Elicit. The listener is offered much insight into the music within that image. There is a lot of detail to the sound, due to a particularly quiet background, but also because the emphasis is on the upper midrange and highs. This makes the Elicit sound fresh.
The amp is very fast in transients, which is the dynamics of keystrokes on a piano or a tap on a drum. As a result, reverb is also short. The dynamic range is large, there is quite a difference between quiet and loud passages. What does stand out is the pacing, the amp is stepping through the music energetically and with ease. The Elicit also holds an iron grip on the speakers.
The Elicit has capacity to spare to deliver power when needed, that is for sure. Like a lightweight boxer, the amp darts around you continuously and punches hard when needed. When you are playing music, this amp is demanding your attention continuously, it distracts you if you want to play background music while doing other activities.
A real downside is the volume control on the remote control. The steps are too large, manually turning the knob on the unit itself gives a more accurate tuning.
