Rega AYA
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Overview
Developed over ten years by a team of Rega designers headed up by their founder Roy Gandy, the AYA loudspeakers promise to deliver a detailed, balanced performance no matter which genre of music you decide to play. Using Rega designed, handmade drivers, coupled with a ZRR high-frequency tweeter and a new crossover, their engineers have fine-tuned every aspect to deliver the best possible performance. The sculptured cabinets and stand create an attractive, floating effect which adds to the unique appearance.
This article discusses the Rega Aya floor-standing loudspeaker and why it's unique design and small size will appeal to many music lovers.
Company History
Rega is an exciting company. Beginning in 1973, they made their name designing some of the world's best tonearms and turntables. Their founder, Roy Gandy, has made a career by taking a different approach to audio design. When most turntable companies were concerned with making their tables as heavy and dense as possible, Rega took the light and rigid path. This approach to turntable design has won Rega multiple awards for sound quality and they have some of the most devoted followers in all of audio. Since the 80s, Rega has also designed and manufactured other audio components such as amplifiers, speakers, and CD players. Rega takes a unique attitude to every product they design, just like with their tonearms and turntables. They never follow the trends but work to make improvements using any method to yield them. This generally results in Rega’s products having a unique look and design that is very distinguishable from everything else on the market. From the awe-inspiring Rega P10 turntable to their Saturn MK3 CD/DAC player, Rega constantly challenges the norms in what makes a great audio design.
The AYA, like almost all Rega products, is 100% made in England which is pretty special in today’s world where many respected speaker makers have moved production to China.
A Unique Approach To Floorstanding Speakers
Less-faced facts: Materials have become expensive in the last few years. Companies like Rega have noticed that the price of materials like MDF and natural wood veneers has risen well past their viability as building materials for affordable high-end speakers. Ten years ago, Rega searched for an alternate material offering even better damping and resonance performance while keeping manufacturing costs in line. After a decade of research and testing, they decided to make their new enclosure out of fiberglass-reinforced cement.
Anyone who has worked with cement will know it is a very dense material, which works great when you need a dense, non-resonant enclosure. But cement can be brittle and often cracks and breaks apart. To remedy this, Rega perfectly blended fiberglass with cement to mold an enclosure with the density for a non-resonant cabinet and the structural integrity to last for lifetimes without cracking or breaking. Using GRC(glass-reinforced cement) makes the molded enclosure much lighter than cement alone, making the finished product's weight much more manageable. In fact, at 31.1 lbs, the Aya is very light for a floor-standing speaker. Rega can also mold the enclosure into their desired shape without forcing wood or MDF into this shape.
The front baffle is made from MDF and vinyl wrapped in a brushed aluminum finish that matches the GRC enclosure well. Then, they designed a plastic insert faceplate that holds the drivers. Designing the front baffle this way is vital as the different materials have different resonant characteristics. This will make resonance transfer between these materials much less than if they used MDF for all panels. This results in a light, very stiff enclosure with excellent resonance control. You will hear the drivers, not the cabinet, which is crucial for accuracy and transparency. And when you rap your knuckles on the cabinet, you can certainly tell it is one inert box! Rega is so proud of this design that they also cover the Aya with a limited lifetime warranty against manufacturing defects, which is excellent.
Small In Stature, Huge in Visual Appeal
When choosing a speaker for your home, it is very important that you like the way they look. But even more important than visual appeal is that the speaker is sized right for your room. The Rega Aya is a small speaker for a floor-stander. It will fit into any room at 10.2 x 34.3 x 8.5 inches. This is very important as many live in smaller apartments or homes, limiting speaker choices. Most people in this situation will look at stand-mount speakers due to their smaller size. This is where the Aya excels as it is as small or smaller than many stand-mount speakers once on the stands, and they weigh about the same. This gives music lovers an actual floor-standing speaker that will work where most won’t. Aya’s look and build give users a unique experience compared to many on the market. The Aya is front-ported to allow more adaptability with room placement. You can put them closer to the front wall without any of the room boom effects of rear-ported speakers.
Rega's feet for the Ayas seemingly allow the speakers to float over the floor. This gives the speakers a cool room appeal and prevents resonance from transferring from the speakers to the floor. These feet also tilt the speakers back, allowing better vertical dispersion and time alignment. This will make the speakers sound taller than they are and allow better realism. The high-quality binding posts are integrated into the metal foot section, allowing banana or spade connections. There is no bi-wiring or bi-amping ability with the Aya, but with good amplification should not be needed anyway.
Rega Designed Drivers, Special Crossover Design
Since Rega began designing speakers, they have mostly used their own drivers. This allows Rega to have full control over both the parameters and the overall quality of the drivers used in their speakers. Designing the drivers themselves for a speaker model allows the Rega engineers to focus on perfecting the drivers so that they work in the GRC enclosure. Also, the engineers can design each Aya driver to work seamlessly together through the audio band for better realism.
Rega chose to use their ZRR tweeter in the Aya. This tweeter's Zero-Rear-Reflection technology uses a large hole in the pole piece to vent the tweeter's back wave. But unlike other tweeters that simply dampen and reflect part of this wave back into the tweeter, The Rega design allows these waves to “bounce” off of a specially shaped rear chamber that allows no reflection back to the dome itself. Without these reflections, the tweeter is more accurate and less distorted. More music, less noise!
Rega chose their MX-125 5” midbass driver for the midbass driver in the Aya and a 7” RR7.8 mid/woofer reinforces the bass region. These two pulp cone drivers are loaded into the GRC enclosure in the same airspace, and these drivers are aligned on top and below the tweeter, respectively. The crossover is simple and uses good-quality components to crossover the two woofers to the tweeter. Then Rega chose to use an enclosure-mounted band-pass filter to allow the 5” mid-woofer to play upper midrange up to the tweeter and the 7” woofer to produce the lower bass. So technically, both drivers receive the same music information. Still, due to the tuning and band-pass filter, their response works together to produce a flat, musical response from the bass into the upper midrange and treble, where the tweeter takes over. This keeps the crossover simple for less loss and allows Aya's unique enclosure and filter design to tune the drivers acoustically. While Rega calls the Aya a 2.5-way design, it combines electrical with acoustical methods to achieve its goals.
The Rega Aya is a 6-ohm speaker design that is friendly to just about any amplifier on the market today. At 89.5dB efficiency, they aren’t the most efficient speakers on the market, but in real-world use, we have seen great results from smaller integrated amplifiers with the Aya. At this year's Audio Advice Live show, we first heard Aya in The Sound Organization's great room. The great Rega Elicit MK5 integrated amplifier was powering them. We were impressed with how easily the Elicit MK5 powered the Aya’s to satisfying levels without breaking a sweat. When we tested the Aya in our test room at Audio Advice, we found that the Aya is best suited to high-quality integrated amplifiers or receivers. The Aya is a speaker that will reward you as you move to better and better amplification. Yes, any amplifier with a good quality power supply with power that Aya to satisfying levels. But as you upgrade your power, so will the sound coming from the Aya.
Rega does not post the specifications of the Aya's frequency response, but testing has shown that the bass goes down to a -3dB point at 40Hz. This is very respectable performance for a speaker of its size, and only true bass lovers will need to add a subwoofer. We ran the Aya in our test room with different amplifiers and setups, and we rarely felt the need to add a subwoofer.
Our Take
We were excited to get the Aya back to our test room from the show at Audio Advice Live. Setting it up was quite easy, and we first tried the Rega Brio integrated amp then the Rega Elex MK4 integrated amplifier up to the Aya. The Aya did clearly show the difference between these two which told our ears, the better power and source you feed them, the better they will sound. Make no mistake though, the little Brio drove them quite well.
We did find the Aya sound is greatly influenced by where you position them. In our space, we tried them about 2’ off the front wall at first and felt they were lacking in bass. But by moving them closer to the wall behind them, the bass was dramatically improved and they came to life. What was most interesting was the image they produced in either position. With the Rega Aya being relatively short, we were expecting a lower soundstage. The tilting they have done worked its magic and they had a sound that felt like it was above the top of the speaker with super precise imaging. Even close to the back wall with a cabinet in between them they still produced a spectacular sound stage.
We tried a variety of music from classic rock to jazz and classical and the thing they jumped out the most was the dynamics this speaker can portray. When the music is engaging, they really make you want to tap your toes, which is one of the hallmarks of Rega sound.
One of our favorites was the brand-new album by Charles Mingus Charles Mingus Centennial Sessions Vol. 2 on Qobuz where the sound from the Aya’s was lively and soulful. The treble was detailed without any harshness. The midrange had great detail while giving instruments their room to shine. These speakers are engaging to listen to and reward with a lively and impactful sound. The soundstage was impressive as it had more depth and height than some far larger speakers. And talk about precise location of instruments and dynamic snap, the Aya does that like nothing we have heard for their cost.
Conclusion
In our opinion, the Rega Aya is a beautifully designed and built speaker system. It offers a unique look like nothing else on the market, is sized to fit where other floor-standing speakers can’t, and uses newer building material technologies to increase performance while keeping costs in check. For its price and size, the Rega Aya makes for a viable floor-standing option for people who thought only a stand-mount speaker would fit in their room. They will produce far more bass than most bookshelf speakers that would take up the same space with amazing imaging and dynamics. And the Aya draws attention wherever it is placed, thanks to its high-tech design and unique looks. And if you are just starting out and want something really good the Aya, with a Rega P3 turntable and Brio integrated amp, will make some pretty incredible sound for the total investment cost. If you are in the market for a new speaker system and think the Aya might be the right fit, call, text, to chat with us at Audio Advice to see if the new Rega Aya is the right speaker for you.
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Details & Specs
| Model | AYA |
|---|---|
| Design | Band pass enclosure |
| Cabinet | Glass reinforced cement |
| Reflex port | Front ported |
| Drive Units | Rega ZRR high frequency Rega 5" MX-125 bass mid Rega 7" Bass driver RR7.8 |
| Impedance | 6 Ω |
| Sensitivity | 89.5dB |
| Power handling | 110W per channel (dependent on amplification) |
| Dimensions (W x H x D) | 10.2 x 34.3 x 8.5 in 258 x 871 x 215 mm |
| Weight (each) | 31.1 lbs 14.1 Kg |
