Rega Valve Isis - Valve CD Player

Valve Isis CD Player
The Isis Tube shares the digital and USB sections of the solid state version but the analogue stage is valve based with passive filtering. This stage uses two 5814A (ECC82/12AU7) triple mica triodes driven by the revolutionary Wolfson WM8741 DAC. The output buffer and transformer stage use two ECC88 (6DJ8/6922) triodes. This, as with the solid state version, is an unorthodox design.

The aim was to take a different approach than “let’s put in tubes that give a warmer sound” and to use industrial tube circuits to build a well-made tube CD. Every component in the digital and analog signal path was chosen very carefully to ensure signal integrity.

Careful PCB design ensures isolation not only of the digital and analog sections but also of the motor, display and user interface processor.

All critical capacitors have been bypassed with polypropylene or polyester capacitors. Additionally, even the high value electrolytic capacitors have been bypassed with audio grade electrolytic capacitors.

Power supply impedances in the DAC are kept very low by using solid polymer capacitors. All power supplies use custom Rega K-Power capacitors, along with fast diodes used in all power supply rectification. Isis uses improved and optimised control code for the processor and display control. This speeds up initialisation by providing a tighter control interface between the micro and the CD processor.