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Anyone know if Rega has a DAC on the horizon?

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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?

Sorry I made the first comment before actually reading the review.

It took me several attempts to read his review as I kept on glazing over and daydreaming whilst reading his ramblings about cables/connectors etc.

I have read elswhere that the reason for the IEC mains connector size is to do with the space available.
 
Just back from a day trip to Calais, where I picked up a copy of "Haute Fidelité", partly because it had a review of the Rega DAC. They liked it and gave it a "Meilleur Achat" swing tag! I won't go into detail, but the final "Verdict" paragraphe says:
"This little DAC is without doubt a sucess because it manages to give us in a coherent fashion the virtues of a high-end player, and all at a realistic price. It's all the more praiseworthy in that the DAC is very flexible thanks to the numerous inputs and its precious USB input." (Paraphrased!)
How valid the results are, though, could be open to question, as the accompanying photo of the back (rather dusty and well-used looking) shews the serial number 00001.
 
I'm with ArtK on this one. That PF review was more about how costly the reviewer's cables were and how much he could be distracted by talking about anything but the DAC itself. Sending off stuff to dcs and altering voltage outputs. Yawn yawn, he needs more than eggs that crazy son-of-a-chicken.

[I nearly typed son-of-a-kitchen. Maybe I need a better mains cable to my laptop]
 
I bought the Rega DAC from the Audio-T sale without listening to it. I agree that, at first, the sound was indeed "shut in", with seemingly no dynamics and little in the way of treble. Then, a few hours later, it suddenly sounded amazingly dynamic with incredible interplay between instruments. This soon stopped as it began to break in further. Would this come back?

After being powered up continuously for 14 days, it was still sounding better than it had on the previous day. One thing that worried me initially was that it wasn't always easy to make sense of the music. For example, with Pink Floyd's Any Colour You Like, the drum beat didn't quite fit.

Any worries I had have now evaporated. The Rega DAC sounds superb. It does both the flat earth stuff (which is the more important thing in my opinion) and the round earth stuff (even through olive Naim amps). One thing I note is that it does sound better when using the digital SPDIF input than when using USB. This is partly a result of the computer being switched off (so it's not making a noise). However, I believe it sounds less "thick" and bass heavy when using an external player (rather than a PC). It did sound slightly brighter though. This may be the result of the digital cable I'm using (something that came with a computer graphics card and I don't know what type of cable it is).

In other words, don't begin to make any judgements until this DAC has had at least a fortnight or more in being powered up. All I can compare it with at present is my NA Hyperspace TT. I haven't made a direct comparison yet.

Andy
 
After initial break-in, If you do power off the unit and power it back up some other day, does it take a while to get back into it's groove or is it pretty immediate?
 
I have been keeping an eye on this post for some time now as I am interested to hear what people think of the new Rega dac. I myself own the Saturn and have been delighted with the realism this can portray. I previously used a Marantz cd which served me well but the Rega just takes it to a diferent league. More power, weight and by far the biggest improvement imaging & soundstage. Instruments are better placed and exhibit a beautiful timbre. I would love to hear from anyone who has compared the new dac to the Saturn.

Who knows it might be an eventual upgrade path.
 
Rega have never paid or even run an advert, so they don't get the coverage they deserve. However, there are a couple of reviews on the way.
 
Rega have never paid or even run an advert, so they don't get the coverage they deserve. However, there are a couple of reviews on the way.

They've certainly run adverts in the French press, but maybe that's their distributor's initiative.
 
Any complains yet?
I have one: my DAC is on the way since December 18th... I`m wondering where is it right now... maybe has been stuck on Dover... :D
 
Tomorrow I'll listen to:
Rega Dac
Naim Dac
Linn Akurate DS
(possibly) Naim HDX

on Naim equipment at a dealer in Copenhagen.

I will bring a lot of flac files, some in hi res.

Best wishes,
Peter
 
Tomorrow I'll listen to:
Rega Dac
Naim Dac
Linn Akurate DS
(possibly) Naim HDX

on Naim equipment at a dealer in Copenhagen.

I will bring a lot of flac files, some in hi res.

Best wishes,
Peter

Look forward to your summary on this!

Could the Rega dac have the potential to expose the stupidly overpriced Naim's & Linn's of this world!
 
Finally... first stock (30 units, I'm told) has arrived in Australia and I got my hands on one. Serial number 828. No sign of production problems here. No rattles.

I've spent the last year auditioning all sorts of DACs up to about the A$2500 mark looking for something to replace my DacMagic. The best-sounding thing I tried was actually a Saturn CD player, so I had high hopes the Rega DAC would work for me.

First impressions... yeah I think this might be the one. Especially at just A$899.

Using a Mac mini with Fidelia as the front end with the DAC connected to the power-amp direct inputs on my Rega Elicit.

The only problem I've encountered so far is a brief spurt of digital noise when the incoming signal switches sample rate between 44.1 and 96. Anybody experienced that?
 
Enjoying this thing so far, but I'm wondering if anybody else has seen this problem: it won't sync reliably to 176.4kHz signal, it just keeps sputtering quickly in and out.

It's fine with 192. This is using an Audiophilleo 2 as USB/SPDIF adaptor.

Anybody?
 
Hi Kdoot,

As I understand it, the 176.4khz sampling frequency has only recently been adopted and only by some hi-res sites.

It was not envisaged during product development that this was to be a usable sampling rate and as a consequence your Rega Dac may therefore occasionally have problems consistently locking onto a 176.4khz signal.

The good news is that all Rega Dacs dispatched from May 2011 onwards have an update to accomodate 176.4khz and, where appropriate, the update can be by done by Rega HQ or their designated overseas distributor.

Paul Darwin
Rega Research
 
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