Rega Saturn MK3 CD Player

The Saturn Mk3 verdict from the Ear Review

"The Saturn Mk3 is inevitably more expensive than its predecessor but its ability to bridge the musical divide that so few digital sources can match means that it is exceptional value. It is also well built and has Rega’s enviable track record for reliability and service back up behind it. If you want to hear the heart and soul of your CD collection and carry on enjoying it for many years this is a very hard act to beat"

Key Features

• Uprated Wolfson WM8742 DAC
• Complete Rework on Analogue and Digital Outputs
• Enhanced digital power supplies
• USB 192 kHz - 24 bits asynchronous
• Solaris Remote Included
• Top Loading Mechanism
• Lifetime Warranty Against Manufacturing Defects
• Matches perfectly with the Rega Elicit integrated amplifier

The brand new Rega Saturn MK3 - A hot contender is now on the market for your listening pleasure. Like all current Rega electronics, Saturn has now had a facelift (re-housed) to now fit in line. The previous Saturn was quite a statement, with wonderful audio playback, a very unique-looking design and a great addition to any higher-end system. What really makes the Saturn special is it's essentially two products in one, it has its very own independent DAC circuit and a high-specification CD transport which can be controlled via the Solaris remote that comes with the Saturn. A nice thing to note is that this will go hand-in-hand with Rega's upcoming Elicit MK5 integrated amplifier.

The Rega Saturn MK3 uses a brilliantly engineered Wolfson WM8742 digital to analogue converter ICs. If you're wanting to get into more depth on what makes the Saturn good and we quote that it uses a "high stability master clock and high capacity power supply located in the CD circuitry. high-performance PLL digital interface receiver, isolated digital inputs and high-performance power supply architecture in the DAC circuitry. Signal switching between the CD and DAC functions is performed in the digital-to-analogue converter stage. The signal path of the CD section in CD mode is kept to a minimum." Rega's engineering at its finest.

Rega has used the same DAC USB input from their DAC-R which has been improved with Asynchronous operation and sample rates of 44.1 to 192 kHz. The USB input does use the dedicated drivers in your computer which enables the user to have full ASIO operation which will eliminate signal degradation which is what you tend to find in the stock Windows drivers.

When it comes to sound quality, you will be very familiar with the sound if you have heard/owned Rega's previous Saturn-R. An upgrade over the previous Saturn is that the build process has been refined and introduced stricter production tests and checks have to improve its reliability even further.

We at Hifi Gear believe for the price, this is such a strong competitor in today's market, the old Saturn-R was such a statement and done very well, the simplicity of use, the jump in performance if you're wanting to upgrade and of course, the looks, fits in any stacking / integrated systems you have at home.