advertisement


Naim DAC V1 or Rega DAC-R or Arcam DAC

T

tiggers

pfm Member
Hi all,

My system is currently all Naim. Naim CD2/102/NAPSC/Hi-Cap/Hi-Cap/NAXO-24/135 x4/Credos (soon to be Allaes).

After many years I have finally succumbed to computer storage so have iTunes on a Macbook with everything ripped to Apple Lossless and want to connect this properly to the hi-fi via asynchronous USB.

Of course I have looked at and demoed the Naim DAC V1 which I thought did an excellent job, but people tell me the Rega DAC-R and the Arcam irDAC are worth listening to too.

I know I need to listen with my own ears, but given the price discrepancies between the Naim and the other two is it a worthwhile comparison in any of your opinions or would I be wasting my time trying to set up a demo as having heard and liked the Naim DAC will I just be disappointed with the cheaper offerings?
 
Your money and your ears. If you feel like a demo then go on and try to arrange some but if it does not happen then no problem. If you liked the Naim demo then purchase the kit.
 
Other then at a certain other forum, I have rarely read a positive review of the NAIM V1. For $1K it would be a good DAC but for $2400, I would look at a lot of other products, especially from Teddy Pardo, Chord, Hegel, etc.

For under $1K, the irDAC gets rave reviews. You might also want to look at products from Schiit.

The REGA seems to have a good following and offers a lot of value for its price.
 
schneller said:
Other then at a certain other forum, I have rarely read a positive review of the NAIM V1. For $1K it would be a good DAC but for $2400, I would look at a lot of other products, especially from Teddy Pardo, Chord, Hegel, etc.

For under $1K, the irDAC gets rave reviews. You might also want to look at products from Schiit.

The REGA seems to have a good following and offers a lot of value for its price.
Click to expand...

Well, I have owned a Naim DAC-V1 for the best part of a year and am delighted with it in all respects. I find it to be musically adept and tonally very satisfying and unfatiguing. It drives headphones from 32 ohms to 600 ohms with ease and is a properly thought out products in terms of use, driver support etc. I can't comment on the Rega or Arcam, but IME the Naim can be recommended without hesitation.

For what it's worth, my own experiences tally very well with the reviews in HiFi+ and HiFi Critic.
 
Interesting, i bought a DAC V1 for my apartment system and for about £1k it simply wipes the floor with everything else even near the price, i don't like a lot of the new Naim range now, but this a sweat spot product at a good value price.
 
I owned a Rega Dac for about 12 months (predecessor to the current R model) and upgraded to a Naim Dac v1/Nap100 combination, for me the Naim was a significant upgrade especially in terms of the USB input. I have been very pleased with the results.
 
Thanks for the replies and I have to say that in my system the DAC V1 sounded superb when I demoed it, but I have read that things like the Rega are really just as good hence my question.

The comment about the USB above is interesting as it's the asynchronous USB input I am after more than anything. I think I will have to get a demo of something like the Rega just to compare.

As for Naim bashing I know they are seen as a bit loud and brash compared to a lot of high end audio, but I like the sound, always have done hence why I have an ageing Naim system in the first place.
 
I've just upgraded from an M-Dac to a HD DAC1 (into a Nait XS) and am blown away by the difference. Yes the looks are a bit old school Japanese but the build quality and sound are incredible for the money. If looks are a problem and you need something a little more sober however I would audition the Hegel HD12 which has received high praise.
 
Sirius said:
I've just upgraded from an M-Dac to a HD DAC1 (into a Nait XS) and am blown away by the difference. Yes the looks are a bit old school Japanese but the build quality and sound are incredible for the money. If looks are a problem and you need something a little more sober however I would audition the Hegel HD12 which has received high praise.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up on the Hegel and it sounds very interesting.

Any idea who sells it in the UK, done a Google, but struggling to find an answer?
 
If you're considering irDAC, then go for M-DAC instead. I almost bought irDAC three weeks ago, but came across M-DAC for only £90 more. Search around a little. Sounds better and is/will be upgradeable. I never expected that I could control my PC via the M-DAC remote control, but it works well. irDAC will not work with Android, and so probably will not work with Linux, and so is a little lacking in flexibility with regard to future streaming options. Worst of all, you just don't know what your PC/streamer is actually choosing to feed into the irDAC (sample size/rate) - no display or indicators.
 
A friend of mine, who happens to be a pretty successful jazz musician, bought DAC v1 to go with his 72/hicap/250 and replace a £40 on ebay chinese-built DAC. He returned the Naim dac after a week and kept his cheapo dac.

He is astonishingly sensitive to sound - we once blindfolded him and brought a double duvet into a room while music was playing and asked him to guess when it was in the room and when it was taken out. We tried quite hard to trick him, but he could tell every time!

Anyway, as far as he was concerned the difference between the DACs was vanishingly small and certainly not worth the price difference. Make of that what you will...

I thought the Rega dac was voiced in quite a particular way - which I didn't get on with - in my system it sounded quite warm, almost bloated. It gave the music a good (large) sense of scale, but it just seemed not quite neutral. I was using the optical out from a macbook. I use a Young dac which sounds pretty good to me, but I generally find the difference between DACs to be pretty small. However, my opinion might not be worth that much as I pretty much only listen to spotify these days, and rarely sit carefully in the sweetspot focussing on the sound, and thank goodness!
 
This post contrast markedly with the previous one but that only goes to show that there are many experiences out there to tap into.
I have the Rega Dac-R which I selected after testing a fair few others at home. In my opinion it is a great DAC for sound, functionality and build quality, I am super happy with it. However, in my case it is part of my all Rega system and I am a great believer in synergy (e.g. it is the only Dac I tried that improved the sound of my Rega Planet CD without changing its characteristics) - a common remote controls all too.
The Naim Dac-V1 seems to be at least an equal to the Rega in terms of functionality - many inputs and a headphone amp to boot - and ought to have Naim sound synergy with the rest of your system - perhaps even a common remote too?
My attitude is that an 'alien' device would have to have a lot going for it in order to usurp part of the family, unless this particular part of the family is a black sheep (apologies for the mixed metaphors). But I would have thought Naim have done their normal due diligence to integrate with their other products.
I have some Naim stuff as a 2nd system and would have considered the Dac V1 for this if it hadn't been so expensive or a Unitiqute if I hadn't been effectively 'wasting' a power amp. So I went mix and match here and this is where my cheap Chinese dac resides [Aune X1 SE and very good it is too].
Where the Arcam wins is price and an Apple specific input (if that is useful).
Happy listening.
 
The reason I have arrived here is that I have tried several cheapo Ebay DACs in the past and compared to my CD2 the sound has been frankly dreadful. I have fed the DACs from Apple Lossless files off a MacBook. I even tried a PC just in case it was the Mac, but the sound was no different.

When Naim released the DAC V1 my ears pricked up but I only got to demo it in my system fairly recently and for me it was superb, but I got to wondering if one of the slightly cheaper audiophile DACs would do as well hence months later I have made this post.

Anyway as luck would have it I found an ex-display Naim V1 this morning and it is now on its way to me. I decided that I loved the sound of the one I tried and I could spend months chasing round other DAC s and still end up back at the Naim anyway. Better to be listening to music than to equipment.
 
In my opinion a good choice for sound reasons. I think synergy (my over-used word of the year) is the way to go (rather than madness!). Obviously you like the Naim sound so who can really argue with your ears? My, albeit limited, experience with Naim kit is that whatever the pros and cons of particular item A vs particular item B, the music shines through.
Also in my experience a Mac (e.g. powerbook/ mac mini etc) is more than a half-decent player through its USB (and optical output too). When comparing player+dac combos I came to the conclusion that the Dac had the greatest influence on the sound characteristics.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top