advertisement


Anyone know if Rega has a DAC on the horizon?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Sovereign said:
After an hour of listening (DAC is not burned in and straight out of the box) my impressions compared to my Dac Magic are as follows:
Click to expand...

You are noticing what I noticed straight away, especially your double bass observation. There's incredible amounts of detail and realism in the lower end but clearly not exaggerated or boosted in any way.

However, it takes the top end about a week to open up with normal use.
 
M@ver1ck said:
I'm liking my rega a lot myself. about 4 weeks and counting. Still need to figure out what the various filters are for. Would be nice if someone from rega would fill us in a little on what these are supposed to do? They all sound pretty much the same.
Click to expand...

I can't hear a bit of difference. But some seem to be able to, but not me.
 
M@ver1ck said:
I'm liking my rega a lot myself. about 4 weeks and counting. Still need to figure out what the various filters are for. Would be nice if someone from rega would fill us in a little on what these are supposed to do? They all sound pretty much the same.
Click to expand...

The filters are built-in to the Wolfram WM8742 DAC chipset - Rega simply gives us buttons to choose between them. There are actually fifteen different filters in the chip, five each for low/mid/high sample rates.

The job of a digital filter is to prevent ultrasonic digitally-induced noise and its side-effects from entering the analogue domain. This is usually done by computationally shifting the noise to extremely high frequencies prior to D-to-A conversion and then using a musically-benign analogue low-pass filter on the output to let just the audio through.

As with most things, there are compromises. Typical "linear phase" digital filters produce a characteristic pre-ringing, which means that an actual musical impulse is preceded by a kind of reverse echo. In recent years we saw the development of "minimum phase" filters which pretty much eliminate pre-ringing but cause undesirable phase shift.

Another aspect of digital filters and their compromises relates to the high frequency roll-off characteristic, both in regard to where it kicks in and how sharply it takes effect. That's where you get to choose between things like "brickwall", "soft knee" and "apodising".

The audible differences can be very subtle and hard to analyse in direct comparisons. But it's something that has a big impact on long-term satisfaction and musical engagement.

My own preference - listening almost exclusively to 16/44.1 material on my DacMagic - is definitely for the minimum phase filter type. I'm guessing that an apodising filter isn't really ideal for 44.1 sampling (musical information much too close to half the sampling rate) so I'd be experimenting with the soft-knee and half-band roll offs.

Detailed information in the WM8742 datasheet (p37, 49 and onwards)
http://www.wolfsonmicro.com/documents/uploads/data_sheets/en/WM8742_Rev42.pdf

Also see the Wolfson whitepaper on filter design:
http://www.wolfsonmicro.com/documents/uploads/misc/en/Ultra_High_Performance_DAC_whitepaper.pdf
 
Oh - the other thing to add is that the impact of the filters can be swamped by the characteristics of your digital transport. I haven't heard a Rega DAC yet, so I don't know how sensitive it is to transports, but the audible effects of high jitter or signal noise on the SPDIF input on many DACs is a much more significant factor. Even with my DacMagic I enjoyed a big improvement from inserting a Firestone Bravo between the DAC and my AirPort Express to reduce jitter.
 
I can hear a real difference between the 1 and 2 filter setting, and prefer the 2. So just looked it up and that's the soft knee filter then.

Don't know about all this soft knees and brick walls really.
 
hugh, the real difference you'll be noticing there is linear vs minimum phase. I'm with you: minimum phase filters do it for me. Much more natural sound.
 
kdoot said:
hugh, the real difference you'll be noticing there is linear vs minimum phase. I'm with you: minimum phase filters do it for me. Much more natural sound.
Click to expand...

Anyone care to characterize in words the differences they are hearing? We could start with setting no 1 and no 2, since they are mentioned above. I don't hear anything, but out of curiosity and for purposes of ear training I would like to....
 
like kdoot said it seems more natural on number 2. More analogue sounding perhaps, more rounded, more mellow.

My partner who has a pretty good ear preferred that setting straight away too. Right after I started trying the settings at the beginning, and it's been on that ever since.
 
hughjampton said:
From the pics it looks like it could have been a demo unit.
Click to expand...

It's possible. When I worked for a big Hi Fi group we'd often take the lid of demo stock. It's always nice to see how the kit's built.

But glad he's getting a new unit, Rega are a nice company to deal with. I once heard they didn't even have a service dept. as they got so few products back, could be different now though with such a big range than just Turntables.

Also, I wonder what it sounds like against my Tag DAC20???????

:D
 
allthingsanalog said:
It's possible. When I worked for a big Hi Fi group we'd often take the lid of demo stock. It's always nice to see how the kit's built.

But glad he's getting a new unit, Rega are a nice company to deal with. I once heard they didn't even have a service dept. as they got so few products back, could be different now though with such a big range than just Turntables.

Also, I wonder what it sounds like against my Tag DAC20???????

:D
Click to expand...

It knocks the 192/24 DACs in my Tag AV32 for six! I nearly gave up on Sonos as a front end for FLACS as I thought it was poor while using well-respected TAG DACS. But things must have moved on because the Rega is different league.
 
allthingsanalog said:
mmm. I might have to try one? Funny thing is I could probably sell my DAC for the same cost for a new Rega. There's all ready a DAC 20 (not mine) on eBay for £275 with over 3 days left!

Only thing is I read that it can have a Bassy Sound and that's one BIG problem I can do without in my room.

http://hi-fi-avenue.blogspot.com/2010/12/rega-dac-bassy-sound.html
Click to expand...

Believe that was the USB test? It concerned me re the bass. But really, I would describe the sound as opening out and allowing the bass to come through in a natural way. You must have a demo, people can say this and that, most here really like it, but have a listen yourself. And let us know what you think!
 
How well does the spdif inputs reject jitter? Reworded as, how much does the transport make a difference to the sound with the Rega DAC?
 
I'm loving the DAC. Initially, I preferred filter setting 1 but that was when I first turned on the unit. Now with several hours on it, I'll have to experiment a little more carefully to see if the second filter setting seems more natural or not.

Squeezebox touch (coax), Oppo BDP-83 (Coax), Rega DAC, LFD mk IV Sig, Spendor S5es
 
frizzup said:
Review of Rega DAC and some observations comparing DCS Debussy and Ayre QB-9.

http://positive-feedback.com/Issue53/rega.htm

Frizuup
Click to expand...
A pretty nerdy review... the guy uses a $2850 USB cable.

And this:

Andy Schaub said:
[...]and would like to use my Locus Design Keynote power cable, but the Rega uses an unusual type of IEC connector so I have to wait for my IEC 60320 C14 plug to IEC 60320 C5 connector/adapter to arrive from Amazon to use the Keynote. Damn.
Click to expand...
Hold on. Using an adaptor in order to connect a megabuck power cable ?

Andy Schaub said:
It apparently has to do with the limited amount of territory on this smaller DAC (Digital to Audio Converter, the thing that makes bits into music), nothing to do with Rega thinking that one type of IEC connector sounds better than another.
Click to expand...
A presumptuous assumption - why not simply ask some engineer at Rega about this. Mind you, he could could give you a disappointingly sensible answer.
 
Pete the Feet said:
Didn't they use the particular mains connector because there wasn't the room for a larger one?


That review was not easy reading!!
Click to expand...

That's what the review says. Cheese brings up a good point though. Was this just assumed or did they actually find out from Rega directly why they chose the C5 IEC plug?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.


advertisement


Back
Top