Rega Reference Mercury Pre-Amplifier
Our price:£6,950.00
What HFL Thinks
Rega Reference Mercury Pre-Amp – Another classic name in the British HiFi, arguably best known for their range of fantastic turntables but also offering a broad range of product from amps, dacs, cd players and speakers that all perform way over what their modest price would suggest but always guaranteeing an extremely musical listening experience. Please check back shortly as we write our thoughts on Rega’s fantastic range of HiFi equipment.
MERCURY PRE-AMPLIFIER REF NEW
The main development objective for the Mercury was to create a no compromise audio pre-amplifier. The Mercury is hand crafted to reveal the true potential of your hi-fi system thanks to an ultra-low noise floor which delivers exceptional dynamic range. The Mercury pre-amplifier, like the Solis, is the culmination of almost four decades of Rega electronics engineering experience in solid-state amplifier development.
The Art of Silence
Capturing the detail in a quiet performance is key to delivering an engaging sound. A well-engineered “clean” pre-amplifier preserves all those subtle details instead of masking them with unwanted noise. This fully featured reference pre-amplifier offers great flexibility and usability with the convenience of a high-performance DAC, discrete headphone amplifier, and a full colour IPS display.
Amplifier Circuit
Throughout the signal path, the Mercury uses a discrete, differentially driven, fully symmetrical, high linearity and bandwidth common base voltage amplifier. Each stage uses high current drive capability, complementary Class A output stage amplifiers. This form of symmetrical amplifier circuit topology will provide the necessary voltage and current drive to enable the Mercury to perform with the minimum of distortion. Critical amplification stages use Linear Systems ultra-low noise FET (Field Effect Transistor) transistors in the differential quad pair input stages. This is the same circuit topology as used in the second stage of the Aura MC amplifier. The Mercury uses the Alps Blue Velvet RK27 volume control (as used in the Osiris amplifier), however, this is paired with symmetrical common base driver stage amplifiers. The main outputs are DC coupled to eliminate output coupling capacitors. These outputs are appropriately DC protected by the protection circuitry. Rega has taken circuit design leads from the Rega reference range and Saturn CD player’s post DAC analogue filter stages and implemented this topology using the symmetrical common base driver stage circuitry. This means the signal path from the analogue output of the DAC’s ICs to the output of the pre-amplifier is entirely symmetrical.
Power Supply
The Mercury uses a generously rated toroidal transformer feeding a linear power supply. The power supply is a discrete, symmetrical tracking power supply, using fast diodes and low noise voltage reference. Each stage has its own localised capacitance, multiplier power supply and LED referenced current generators for voltage references. To maximise headroom, the Mercury uses a higher-than-normal power supply voltage, which is 60% higher than normally found in such a pre-amplifier.
Signal Path
The pre-amplifier uses the Alps Blue Velvet RK27 volume control. The balanced inputs and outputs both use the symmetrical, common base, discrete driver circuitry. High-quality relays and Polypropylene/audio-grade capacitors are used throughout the signal path.
Key Features
- Fully discrete symmetrical circuitry in the core signal path
- High performance DAC with S/PDIF and USB inputs
- Galvanically isolated asynchronous USB input
- Discrete headphone amplifier
- Full colour IPS display
- Custom backlit Orbit remote control
- Standby mode
- Lifetime warranty against manufacture defects
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