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Rega Ania Pro
The latest member of our Rega MC cartridge range the Ania Pro uses our advanced Vital profile nude diamond stylus. This profile is designed to extract as much detail from the vinyl surface as possible. The Ania Pro delivers tight bass warm mid-ranges and accurate top end frequencies to offer a well balanced and detailed performance.
Listen like a Pro
Using our unique hand-wound micro coil found in the rest of the MC range, the Ania Pro is housed in a unique PPS highly rigid body, ensuring accurate construction and Rega’s three point fixing method which offers the optimum connection to the head-shell while automatically setting overhang. The new body is protected by a CAD designed, red rigid cover to protect the internal fine wires, making handling when fitting, safe and risk free. The Ania Pro features a super high-powered, neodymium magnet and a coil meticulously hand wound on to an iron micro cross. This miniature assembly allows us greater freedom to track the vinyl groove guaranteeing even more detail is extracted from the vinyl. All of these features combine to deliver a balanced and dynamic performance that will engage you with your vinyl like never before. The Ania Pro is the perfect partner for the Planar 6 and Planar 8 turntable with a factory fitted option available for both. Please ask your retailer for details.
Key Features
- Vital profile nude diamond
- Aluminium tapered cantilever
- Iron micro cross assembly
- One of the worlds smallest MC generators
- Cutting edge high power Neodymium magnets
- Coil constructed from 0.018 mm fine wire
- Lifetime warranty against manufacture defects
Rega’s Moving Coil cartridge design is unique in its approach to achieving an ultra-low mass generator which is undamped (no tie wire) using a unique rhomboid pivot for the cantilever powered by a purpose designed, exclusive to Rega, Neodymium magnet system.
This type of design requires a zero-tolerance engineered cartridge body which is Rega’s area of expertise and with the Apheta 3 and Aphelion products these bodies are machined from one piece of the highest quality aluminium. This is a difficult and expensive process requiring all of Rega’s forty-four years of experience to achieve. In particular, the “zero” tolerancing of the body is required in the alignment and dimension of the pivot pad mounting hole and the magnet mechanism mounting hole relationship.
The Ania Pro body uses a unique polymer/ 40% glass combination called Polyphenylene Sulphide (PPS-Fortron). The special attributes of this material are its hardness and stability in shape and dimension post moulding, both critical for the performance of Ania. Now came the challenge. Rega designed and prototyped using SLA systems in just a few months, proving the validity of the design direction.
The next step was to design a production mould tool capable of extreme accuracy and long life. PPS is a difficult polymer to mould and requires special attention to how the mould tool operates. Couple this to an almost un-mouldable complex shape of the Ania body and a very considerable challenge faced the Rega engineers and the toolmakers chosen. The toolmakers are of the highest technical skill level, using the most accurate Swiss EDM CNC machines, their regular customers being the military and medical industries, routinely working down to a micron (one thousandth of a millimetre). To achieve this intricate body shape required the most complex high pressure injection mould tool that Rega has ever designed. The tool has eight major parts, four of which must move in perfect synchronicity with each other to achieve each cartridge body. The design and manufacture of this “work of art” took an entire year to produce and was made exclusively by the most senior toolmaker requiring all his lifetime of artisanal experience.
Combine this special PPS body with its high specification stainless steel inserts, a unique rhomboid pivot system, a tried and tested high performance, diamond tipped elliptical stylus cantilever with low mass moving coil generator assembly and you have new market leading musicality, performance, speed, clarity, and detail as never before at this price.
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Professional Reviews 90/100
Nicely Roasted
Sound Quality
91/100
Build Quality
85/100
Features Usability
82/100
Value for Money
92/100
The Ania Pro pairs clean, extended bass with a warm, fluid musical character, bringing vivid timing, open detail and persuasive three-dimensional imaging to vinyl. The Ear found it especially dynamic and coherent, while HiFi Choice highlights its forgiving civility with less-than-perfect pressings. A compelling MC upgrade for engaging, rhythm-led systems.
What Reviewers Are Saying
Pros
Delivers clean, powerful bass, lively dynamics and strong rhythmic timing.
Combines open, detailed mids and treble with a coherent, deep and convincingly three-dimensional soundstage.
Warm, forgiving presentation makes rougher pressings more enjoyable without sacrificing fluid musicality.
Three-point mounting simplifies alignment and optimises fit on compatible Rega tonearms.
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Cons
Its warm balance slightly softens fine-detail retrieval and is less composed with very dense, complex recordings than Rega’s Apheta models.
The 0.35mV output may challenge systems with limited moving-coil phono gain.
SOUND QUALITY PERFORMANCE 91/100
The Ania Pro is consistently described as warm, coherent and musically energetic, with strong bass weight, open mids and a clean extended top end. It trades a little ultimate resolution and composure on densely layered recordings for a more forgiving, fluid presentation than Rega's costlier Apheta models.
Overall Sound
92/100
Hi-Fi Choice hears added warmth and civility alongside a fast, fluid and rhythmically convincing character. The Ear found a substantial rise in refinement over an MM reference, praising its immediacy, dynamic energy, powerful clean bass and highly coherent musical presentation.
Tracking Retrieval
89/100
The Ear praises the cartridge's retrieval of fine and low-level detail, while Rega's design material describes groove-tracing benefits from the miniature generator assembly. Hi-Fi Choice notes that fine detail is somewhat softened by the cartridge's warmth and that very complex material is not resolved quite as clearly as through the Apheta range.
Soundstage Imaging
92/100
The Ear reports a deep, solid and vibrant soundstage, with voices projecting convincingly from the mix. It also describes stronger image solidity, realism and a more engaging three-dimensional presentation.
FEATURES USABILITY PERFORMANCE 82/100
Tonearm compatibility / system fit.
Tonearm Compatibility
82/100
At 6g and with a conventional 1.75-2.00g tracking-force range, the Ania Pro should be physically manageable in many suitable moving-coil tonearms. Its 0.35mV output and specified 100-ohm loading mean it needs a capable MC phono stage or sufficient integrated-amplifier gain; Hi-Fi Choice specifically flags limited-gain systems as a potential issue.
Assessments of Build Quality, Usability, and Overall Propositions.
Build Quality
85/100
Rega specifies a rigid, dimensionally stable PPS-Fortron polymer and glass body, formed using an unusually complex injection-moulding process. This points to carefully considered engineering, although the listening reviews provide little direct comment on fit, finish or long-term durability.
Value for Money
92/100
At the reviewed £750 price, Hi-Fi Choice says there is little that can decisively better it, and considers its warmer, more civil presentation an attractive alternative to the discontinued Apheta 2. It gives up some of the Apheta 3's immediacy and resolution, but the review regards that trade-off as highly competitive at the lower asking price.
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Authorized dealers for Rega Ania Pro
- Absoulute Audio plus Video — in-store — Aiken, South Carolina, United States (website)
- In Living Stereo — in-store — New York City, New York, United States (website)
- Resolution A/V — in-store — New York City, New York, United States (website)
- The Music Room — online and in-store — Erie, Colorado, United States (website)
- 3mA Audio — online and in-store — Houston, Texas, United States (website)
- A Tube High Fidelity — online and in-store — Almere, Flevoland, Netherlands (website)
- Accent On Music — in-store — Mount Kisco, New York, United States (website)
- Acoustic Sounds — online and in-store — Salina, Kansas, United States (website)
- Acoustic Streams — in-store — Lower Drift, England, United Kingdom (website)
- Acoustica — online and in-store — Chester, England, United Kingdom (website)
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