Hope I'm not tooo much OT:
So, transports on the day, any favorites for SQ....
I know there was a lot of dac's to listen to, and I think you did really well picking a favorite, as my brain would have been mush after about 5 hours :-o
As far as I can remember, from reading, there was a laptop, SB, two audio pc's and a Meridian that were transports?
Totally understand if dac's is the only thing that can be remembered
Cheers
DC
I believe that Rega went beyond the norm in the power supply that they equipped their Dac with. Maybe not Teddy Pardo or Supercap quality but a fair effort nevertheless.
Useful tip, though: for less than the cost of a Russ Andrews wall-wart, we use this baby with everything - even the Zodiac: £70 plus VAT and shipping.
http://www.rapidonline.com/Electric...w/85-1705?source=googleps&utm_source=googleps
As a USB transport, we compared the Stealth Mini and a standard laptop. No surprises there! For SPDIF output, the Stealth was configured using a KingRex UC192 converter on a linear power supply. Though I have every vested reason to deny it, the Meridian 500 is better than this combo. SPDIF is a big ask for a computer to do well.
Let's get this in some perspective.
You guys are criticising a sub £1k dac for sounding better when fed 18v from a 10amp pure DC battery supply? Let's put this into perspective, the power supply I use day to day with the Young is a teddycap clone, but it uses more capacitance, lower ESR caps, and quieter diodes than teddy specs- and my battery supply sounds just a tiny bit better than that.
So yes, the Young sounds better with a DC power supply either of teddycap quality or better, what wouldn't? Just like my 840c was improved by removing the 317 regs inside and replacing them with Paul Hynes regs. I understand it's nice to have something to criticise but the Young sounds fantastic with it's supplied wall wart- sufficiently so that one of the guys from the bake off last week has already decided on one.
@Item:
The Rega is quieter than any other dac below 1k? Maybe you could point us towards the hissy sub 1k dacs you've been selling so we can avoid them. There's certainly no noise from the Young, even with volume at max it's utterly silent.
Item,Useful tip, though: for less than the cost of a Russ Andrews wall-wart, we use this baby with everything - even the Zodiac: £70 plus VAT and shipping.
http://www.rapidonline.com/Electric...w/85-1705?source=googleps&utm_source=googleps
I know the fan club gets mad when the Young is criticised, but there's nothing here to get twitchy about: EVERY converter is only as good as its power supply section. And, as we said, even the £1.8K Zodiac can be improved. We plugged the Young earlier in the thread: Chris bought it because it fit his USB requirements at that price point. Rest easy: it's a nice DAC!
'Hiss' is not the point. The Rega sounds freer than most from the full spectrum of PS artefaction. I've no vested interest in saying so, it's just true.
In fact, within minutes, I was having a conversation with Dave (Audio Warehouse) about whether we could resell it. Unfortunately, you have to carry the whole Rega range to be a stockist, and we'd only really be interested in the DAC. Solid £500 buy, though.
Hi all
It appears to be a good DAC but, IMO, it's a shame Rega have provided 16-20-24-bit at 32kHz to 192kHz digital to analogue conversion for the co-axial and optical inputs but only 16bit 44.1/48kHz for USB.
That rules it out for me as I am looking for the higher bitrate and sample rate capability using USB but could happily live with the limited 16bit 44.1/48kHz using co-axial and optical as that is fine for my CD player, PVR etc. and I'm unlikely to benefit from any higher bitrate/sample rate.
Have I missed something or is this a bad decision by Rega?
I don't know what PS it has in it, but the noise floor was conspicuously lower than any other DAC below £1K. Full marks for Rega on that score.
Hi all
It appears to be a good DAC but, IMO, it's a shame Rega have provided 16-20-24-bit at 32kHz to 192kHz digital to analogue conversion for the co-axial and optical inputs but only 16bit 44.1/48kHz for USB.
That rules it out for me as I am looking for the higher bitrate and sample rate capability using USB but could happily live with the limited 16bit 44.1/48kHz using co-axial and optical as that is fine for my CD player, PVR etc. and I'm unlikely to benefit from any higher bitrate/sample rate.
Have I missed something or is this a bad decision by Rega?
I thought about this before I bought the rega but I connect via a Squeeze Duet using a coax and the Squeeze in turn is connected to the router via ethernet. I beleive the Squeeze is limited but as most of my listening these days is 90% Spotify or my own meagre CD collection then it is not an issue.
I have looked at several high def sites and read a little bit about it and there is nothing at the moment that makes me want to purchase any high def content. I believe that some of the so called high def content is just up sampled and there isn't any real benefit in that so i'm told. At present its a bit like that Alexander Graham Bell joke "Yippee I've invented the first telephone now who shall I call?"
I am more disappointed by the fact that the SPDIF input on the Rega sounds considerably better than the USB input. The bake-off indicated this is probably also true for the Audiolab DAC too (I may be wrong here; someone please correct me if so). In my opinion, this rules out the USB input on the Rega for serious listening, and so makes its limited input range irrelevant.
Andy
I think this has been said before, but if it had a better USB input it would not be a sub £500 DAC. The money was spent where it was and if USB is so important it ain't the DAC for you.
I don't care about USB but if I did I wouldn't have bought a Rega.
Hi Pete
Is the Rega your first external DAC?
If so, I can see where you are coming from.
But, if like me, you already have a DAC you are happy with not really much point in considering 'upgrading' to a DAC with potentially very little improvement to offer.