Rega Aphelion 2 MC Cartridge Announced

The new Aphelion 2 phono cartridge was mentioned at the recent Bristol Hi-Fi Show, but now Rega has gone fully official with the news.

Marking the British brand's fourth-generation of its handmade MC cartridges, the Aphpelion 2 boasts the company's latest "fine line type" nude diamond profile. This is the same profile as seen on the Apheta 3 but taken to "the next level" and fitted to a Boron rod cantilever. The Aphelion 2 has a quoted mass of 6g and features a neodymium magnet and a hand-wound coil over an iron cross. All of this is encased within a single-piece, black anodised aluminium body.

Requiring a 1.9g tracking pressure, Rega's cartridge design hands it bragging rights to being "one of the world's smallest MC generators". Additionally, the Aphelion 2 is undamped thanks to a rhomboid pivot suspension pad for the cantilever that, Rega says, allows the stylus greater freedom to track the vinyl groove.

The Rega Aphelion 2's spec sheet states a 100 ohms input load impedance and output of 10 ohms, the nominal output voltage is 350μV with channel balance ≥ 10μV and ≥ -29dB is the quoted separation.

Rega's flagship turntable, the Naiad, will now come with the Aphelion 2 as standard with the Planar 10 and Aphelion 2 bundle priced at £6,219. The latter saving you £529 compared with you buying the turntable and £3,149 cart separately. It's good to see that the latest Aphelion has kept the same RRP as the outgoing one.

For more information, check out Rega.