advertisement


rega dac, cdq, young dac bake off

jamesd said:
in an attempt to avoid being overly obsessive and audiophiley, i just went ahead and ordered the Emotiva. 300 bucks shipped and 30-day money back guarantee. I've never owned an external DAC and my digital front end is simply an Airport Express' analog output. I'll report back with impressions of the Emotiva vs. the APX, if anyone cares.
Click to expand...

Hi james

Please do let us all know how you get on with the Emotiva as your first external DAC.

Not so easy to decide on a new DAC when you are basically happy with the one you have.

Could be a case of 'upgrading' to a different, but not necessarily better, sound/experience.

You mention 300 bucks shipped and 30 day money back guarantee.

Does that mean you are buying in the USA or importing to the UK or got a special deal from Item?

Look forward to hearing about your first impressions.
 
finesensations said:
Hi james

Please do let us all know how you get on with the Emotiva as your first external DAC.

Not so easy to decide on a new DAC when you are basically happy with the one you have.

Could be a case of 'upgrading' to a different, but not necessarily better, sound/experience.

You mention 300 bucks shipped and 30 day money back guarantee.

Does that mean you are buying in the USA or importing to the UK or got a special deal from Item?

Look forward to hearing about your first impressions.
Click to expand...


I'm in Maryland/US. Looking at Fed Ex's shipping chart, I should have it on Thursday night. I'm not totally unfamiliar with decent digital. I used to have Rotel's top of the line player, but it was bested by a Toshiba DVD player, so I sold it. Not using physical media very often, I've been sticking with the Airport Express streaming controlled via Remote/iPhone
 
I cannot imagine you being unhappy with the Emotiva - from a pride of ownership perspective it scored at least as well as any other DAC at the Bakeoff (especially the remote!) bar the Calyx, and the facilities, in terms of connections, were as good as anything

It sounded pretty nice as well :)

TBH, we were all a little surprised that it could be done for the price, and when you consider we were looking at £350 over here, then the stateside price is almost giving it away

I'm guessing you wont be able to try it using AES/EBU (but if you can, make sure you give it a try)

Enjoy
 
Had I not read this thread, I would have been a bit skeptical of the brand. I'm also in the market for a 200-ish watt solid state amp (4 ohm). If their DAC satisfies, I might check out their 2 channel amps, too. There's not many other options in that price range (new).

Toslink only here
 
wrt USB cables, different DACs will react very differently. I have heard the king-Rex DAC with the optional tricked out power supply - and it is very good indeed. Strangely (to me) it is transformed for the better with an expensive Cryo-Parts USB cable.

I trialled the Wireworld starlight USB cable and also the LAT cable at home - both around £70-£80, and my Beresford Caiman was improved also.

Neither of these cables made one iota of difference on a Young DAC though, so they went back.
 
jamesd said:
I'm in Maryland/US. Looking at Fed Ex's shipping chart, I should have it on Thursday night. I'm not totally unfamiliar with decent digital. I used to have Rotel's top of the line player, but it was bested by a Toshiba DVD player, so I sold it. Not using physical media very often, I've been sticking with the Airport Express streaming controlled via Remote/iPhone
Click to expand...

I thought the US price of the XDA1 was $350 . . . well discount-wangled! We can't buy it for $300 shipped ourselves . . .

Audiomagus should be able to sort you out with a KingRex UC192 if you're looking to feed the Emotiva AES/EBU:
http://www.audio-magus.com/KingRex_UC192_USB_SPdif_Converter_p/109121.htm
 
jamesd said:
in an attempt to avoid being overly obsessive and audiophiley, i just went ahead and ordered the Emotiva. 300 bucks shipped and 30-day money back guarantee. I've never owned an external DAC and my digital front end is simply an Airport Express' analog output. I'll report back with impressions of the Emotiva vs. the APX, if anyone cares.
Click to expand...


Hi James.

When you get it you may wish to try a laptop (if you have one) USB into the Emotiva ... vs SPDIF from your Airport Express.

If the quality of the SPDIF from your airport express is similar to my Squeezebox 3, you should be able to hear an improvement with USB from a laptop.

It's a free experiment if you already have a computer..
 
item said:
It's Rapid's own-brand 0-30V variable linear 2.5A power supply . . . from the Rapid catalogue it's part number 85-1075.
Click to expand...
sorry Item,
unfortunately I can't find the site or it's not working anymore. Could you re-post the correct link?
Thanks in advance
André
 
item said:
I thought the US price of the XDA1 was $350 . . . well discount-wangled! We can't buy it for $300 shipped ourselves . . .

Audiomagus should be able to sort you out with a KingRex UC192 if you're looking to feed the Emotiva AES/EBU:
http://www.audio-magus.com/KingRex_UC192_USB_SPdif_Converter_p/109121.htm
Click to expand...

They're having a sale on their website right now and the XDA-1 is one of the discounted products.

Googling around the web last night, this Bake Off's conclusions are the most positive press I've read. All other (user) reviews seem to be unenthusiastic and have a tone of "it's not bad". I'd been eyeing the Rega, but at $1000 bucks, the Emotiva is an easier impulse purchase.
 
bottleneck said:
Hi James.

When you get it you may wish to try a laptop (if you have one) USB into the Emotiva ... vs SPDIF from your Airport Express.

If the quality of the SPDIF from your airport express is similar to my Squeezebox 3, you should be able to hear an improvement with USB from a laptop.

It's a free experiment if you already have a computer..
Click to expand...

I love free experiments! I'll be trying that out as I think the DAC will arrive before the Airport Express' required mini-toslink adaptor.
 
Can't comment on the other DACs, but the Audiolab is a significantly sweeter beast employed in digital pre-amp and full balanced mode, neither of which seemed to be the case here.
Internally, it has genuine balanced architecture so hook it up to a balanced power amp, or some active monitors, and you get the full benefit of John Westlake's design.
-- Duncan
 
What are Emotiva doing making it even cheaper?! It should be considerably more expensive. Now I'll have to drop our price a bit . . .
 
whoops!!!


I'd cocked up setting up Foobar to play ''Wasabi''.

In the Dac-off, we were listening to a Windows engine on the laptop!!

I am now not convinced there is significant PC sonic differences going on, although of course DAC differences were apparent.

I'm now hearing what the Young Dac can do, and with 24/92 files it makes it sound even better still.

A nasty old laptop, a 2TB hard drive (about £60) and a spangly DAC. Is it really that simple?!
 
bottleneck said:
whoops!!!


I'd cocked up setting up Foobar to play ''Wasabi''.

In the Dac-off, we were listening to a Windows engine on the laptop!!

I am now not convinced there is significant PC sonic differences going on, although of course DAC differences were apparent.

I'm now hearing what the Young Dac can do, and with 24/92 files it makes it sound even better still.

A nasty old laptop, a 2TB hard drive (about £60) and a spangly DAC. Is it really that simple?!
Click to expand...

I take it that your more than happy with the Young Dac then, I should be getting one in the house myself soon to have a go with on demo, will be hooking upto the mac mini, the only thing I can compare it to is the Dacmagic I have, if it outperforms this then it could well be a stayer!

Does anyone know if M2Tech have sorted out the drivers yet for the mac osx? My intention is to sell the hiface if this dac proves successful.

vb

Lee
 
Hi Lee,

I'm using a 2009 mini, the driver is fine. Only the 352khz sample rate is problematic, it just up-samples to 384khz if that's an issue for you.

On some of the 'hottest' recordings there is something akin to clipping that can be heard on peaks - it's only yet been reported on 44.1khz ripped CDs. I have a few albums that do this, but it isn't severe on my collection, nor is it common. We are all waiting for Marco to release a new driver that will apparently fix this issue - due imminently I'm led to believe.

I moved a DACMagic (& a Caiman) on after I got a Young btw! Plenty more user experiences here.
 
Alan Brown said:
Hi Lee,

I'm using a 2009 mini, the driver is fine. Only the 352khz sample rate is problematic, it just up-samples to 384khz if that's an issue for you.

On some of the 'hottest' recordings there is something akin to clipping that can be heard on peaks - it's only yet been reported on 44.1khz ripped CDs. I have a few albums that do this, but it isn't severe on my collection, nor is it common. We are all waiting for Marco to release a new driver that will apparently fix this issue - due imminently I'm led to believe.

I moved a DACMagic (& a Caiman) on after I got a Young btw! Plenty more user experiences here.
Click to expand...

Hi Alan

Thanks for the info on the Young, look forward to hearing it in the house

Lee
 
Not sure I understand the question.

Do you mean will the Young work on USB with an Apple Touch? If so the answer is no as the Young would need the Apple spdif chip installed to make the handshake allowing digital output.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top