The original Rega Elicit arrived on the scene way back in May 1990 and over the years we've seen a few iterations of this stereo amplifier pass through our test rooms. Now, 32 years later, we're onto the MK5 version which also happens to spring a couple of surprises.
It's the first Rega amplifier to use a dedicated DAC circuit designed by the company. Rega wanted to give the Elicit MK5 greater flexibility and to this end has provided one optical and one coaxial digital input to connect external sources.
Other connections include four line-level inputs, a Record input/output, Direct input and pre-amp output. There's also a moving magnet phono stage for hooking up a suitable record player.
The MK5 also sees a 6.3mm headphone socket included on an Elicit amp for the first time - it's been designed so switching is carried out by the output mute relay, to keep the signal path free from interference.
Inside the custom-built case, which brings the design more in line with current Rega amplifiers, are high-grade relays, capacitors and transistors. You'll also find the company's Class A/B power amplifier circuit which is a design that's used in other Rega amps. For the MK5 it fires out 105 watts per channel.
The Elicit MK5 also shares a number of design features we first found on the five-star Rega Aethos. For example, it uses the same discrete FET based pre-amplifier circuit with the addition of a high-quality Alps volume potentiometer.
The Rega Elicit MK5 is on sale now for £2000.
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