Rega - Ania Pro Moving Coil Cartridge

The Ania with a Vital nude profile and a tapered cantilever — a stylus upgrade, not an electrical one.

All four Rega moving coils share a hand-wound micro coil built on an iron micro cross, a high-powered neodymium magnet, and an undamped suspension using Rega’s rhomboid pivot — no tie wire and no foam damper, which is unusual and very much a Rega signature. They also share their published electrical figures: 350µV output, 10Ω output impedance, 100Ω recommended load and separation better than −29dB. What separates them is the stylus, the cantilever and the body.

The Ania Pro sits directly above the Ania and the honest description of the difference is that it is a stylus and cantilever change. Rega publishes identical output, output impedance, load impedance, channel balance and separation for both, so anyone implying the Pro is a different generator is overselling it.

What does change matters, though. The stylus becomes a Vital profile nude diamond — a fine contact geometry with a much narrower contact patch than an ellipse — and the cantilever becomes a tapered aluminium tube rather than a parallel one, which stiffens it where the bending loads are highest while keeping tip mass down.

It is offered factory-fitted on the Planar 6 and Planar 8, and comes with a red rigid cover.

Features

• Vital profile nude diamond stylus
• Tapered aluminium cantilever
• Identical published electrical figures to the Ania — the upgrade is the stylus and cantilever
• Red rigid protective cover
• Factory-fit option on the Planar 6 and Planar 8
• Hand-wound micro coil on an iron micro cross
• High-powered neodymium magnet
• Undamped suspension using Rega’s rhomboid pivot — no tie wire, no foam damper
• 350µV output into a recommended 100Ω load
• Rega three-point fixing — sets overhang automatically on a Rega tonearm
• Made in England with a Lifetime Limited Warranty

Specifications

• Type: Moving coil cartridge
• Output Voltage: 350µV nominal
• Output Impedance: 10Ω
• Recommended Load Impedance: 100Ω
• Recommended Settings for Adjustable MC Stages: 100Ω impedance, 1000pF capacitance, high gain. On a Rega phono stage that means the gain switch in the On position. This is Rega’s own published recommendation for adjustable moving coil stages, which is more guidance than most manufacturers give
• Stylus: Vital profile nude diamond. Vital is a proprietary fine-contact geometry; Rega publishes no radii for it
• Cantilever: Tapered aluminium
• Coil: Hand-wound micro coil on an iron micro cross
• Magnet: High-powered neodymium
• Suspension: Undamped — no tie wire and no foam damping, using Rega’s unique rhomboid pivot for the cantilever
• Body: PPS (polyphenylene sulphide), rigid
• Protective Cover: Red rigid cover
• Tracking Force: 1.75 – 2.00g
• Separation: Better than −29dB
• Channel Balance: Better than 20µV. Rega expresses this as a tolerance bound using a greater-than-or-equal sign, which reads backwards — a smaller deviation is better. We reproduce Rega’s own notation rather than reinterpreting it
• Weight: 6g
• Fixing: Rega three-point fixing. The cartridge has the two conventional rear holes plus a third at the front, and Rega is explicit that the front third fixing is for use on Rega tonearms only. Fitted to a Rega arm this bolts the cartridge rigidly into a fixed position and, in Rega’s words, automatically sets overhang — no sliding adjustment and no protractor required. On a non-Rega arm the two rear fixings are conventionally spaced and are what would be used, but Rega publishes no compatibility statement for other tonearms and we are not going to make one on its behalf. Ask us if you are unsure about your arm
• Mounting Guidance: Rega’s own guidance is worth passing on. It recommends a dealer fit the cartridge; it says to use only the supplied 90-degree allen key, which is designed to reduce the risk of overtightening; and it warns that incorrect mounting hardware will destroy the internal wires. One point catches people out regularly: the three-point spacer in the box is there for packing purposes only and must not be used to mount the cartridge. Rega adds that the amplifier should always be switched off when connecting a cartridge, and recommends a Rega torque wrench for best results
• Servicing: Rega publishes no exchange or rebuild scheme on its own website, and no statement that there are no user-serviceable parts. In practice a rebuild or exchange is handled through the distributor via your dealer — talk to us rather than to a third-party retipper, since Rega’s warranty names unauthorised modification as an invalidating event
• Origin: Made in England. Rega Research Ltd, Southend-on-Sea, Essex
• Warranty: Lifetime Limited Warranty against confirmed manufacturing defects. It expressly excludes wear and tear and parts considered consumable — so a worn stylus is not a warranty claim — and Rega states that unauthorised modification or failure to follow its guidelines may invalidate it
• Not Published: Frequency response; compliance; inductance; stylus tip radius. Rega publishes none of these for any of its moving coil cartridges