SimAudio Moon Equinox vs. Rega Saturn
Comparison between the venerable Moon Equinox CD Player:
http://www.simaudio.com/moonequinox.htm
And the relatively new and Hyped up Rega Saturn:
http://www.rega.co.uk/html/Saturn.htm
Which one is better? Well, I suppose that is for you to decide, with your ears, but if you want my opinion, read futher.
The Moon Equinox unit that I demo’d has only unbalanced RCA outputs along with digital outputs. Looks beautifully made, with aluminum everywhere and steel top and bottom. It is a front loading player with the hump on the top to make it stand out from the crowd.
How does it sound? Pretty good. I would say that for a $3000 player it does the job admirably. It certainly has my vote in the looks department, and without having tried the Rega Saturn, I would have walked away happily with this CD Player were I shopping for one. However, I had both to listen to.
The Rega wasn’t as magnificent in it’s looks, and just resembled the Rega players of the 2000 series previous. The Unit I had was Black, with Balanced XLR as well as RCA outputs. I tried both… noticably so, the XLR sounded better, and this is coupled with a Linar Audio Pre-2, which may mean that the Linar’s balanced circuitry is superior to it’s unbalanced.
Comparing the Rega with the Moon, I would have to say hands down, the Rega is a much better player, and at less money. Sitting around $2500 or so, its not only cheaper, but offers more features, and better sound. Jazz and Classical had more depth, and it handled the top end with much more grace than the Sim did. Explosions in Tchaikovsky’s 1812 had more definition and punch with the Saturn. In short, it did just about everything better, which is quite the feat and the price. It completely knocked out the Monarchy M24 and Krell.
The Rega Saturn is damn near one of the best players I’ve heard anywhere short of $5000, in fact.