Auralic Vega DAC

[earflappin]

I have read the review a few times now, and can't wait until mine arrives. It is due to be here Friday, which also is poker night. This will give it plenty of time to warm-up, and I should be able to start listening around 1 AM. I have a feeling I am going to be up all night.

5 months later and still no update? What happened?

 

[Worldcat]

I wonder how the Vega compares to the PS AUDIO DS? Anyone heard both of them?

 

[bonzo75]

The vega didn't do well in my system - with Martin Logan Summits and Audio Research - at all. It sounded linear and digital to me. I thought my AR dac 8 was far superior and stayed with it until the Lampi arrived. But then others love it, just goes to show forget the reviews and listen to it in your system

 

[BlueFox]

5 months later and still no update? What happened?

Sorry Mr Flappin.

What happened is it arrived, was installed, and I have been enjoying it ever since. I bought it because after having a dedicated circuit installed for the amps I was then able to hear a high frequency noise that irritated the slight tinnitus I have in my left ear. This was prevalent on many classic rock CDs that were played at high volume. I suspected it to be some type of digital artifact being exposed, so I wanted a DAC with digital filters, which my Bryston BDA-2 lacked. Anyway, with the Vega I found that filter four either eliminated it, or reduced it enough to not irritate my tinnitus. Perfect.

Interestingly, a little later I upgraded my digital cable from the Shunyata AES Python to the new Shunyata AES Anaconda, and the artifact disappeared. I was really surprised at that. Now I run the Vega with no filters, and clock set to 'Exact', and it is great. A few months ago I upgraded to a pair of Magico S5s and am still stunned at how good the system sounds. Of course, as many people have said, the recording quality is the biggest factor. While poor recordings sound okay, if you like the music, great recordings are fantastic. For example, compare the new Led Zeppelin high-res downloads to an earlier CD, and hear the difference.

 

[Al M.]

But then others love it, just goes to show forget the reviews and listen to it in your system

Indeed. Fortunately I am only a 45 min drive away from a great dealer, Goodwin's High End, and they let me try gear at home before buying. I tried the acclaimed NAD M51 DAC and also the well-reviewed Hegel HD25 DAC on CD replay at home, but to my dismay I found them inferior to my 20-year old Wadia 12 DAC, except in bass performance. For one, they just didn't portray music with the drama and liveliness of the Wadia. The Berkeley Alpha DAC 2 was an entirely different beast altogether, just as lively and dramatic as the Wadia, much more detailed, refined and resolved than that unit, and with a killer bass performance that even put the NAD and Hegel to shame. A no-brainer to buy.

I have even read comparisons by users on the web that seriously suggested that the NAD and the Berkeley were in the same league. Really?? Something must have been wrong with the resolution of the systems in which they were evaluated. And John Atkinson from Stereophile still uses the NAD M51 as a reference. Say what? Sure, it's a good and enjoyable DAC, and for the price a good buy, no doubt, but that's about it.

Reviews? Forget them. Well, depends. I do pay attention to some reviewers, including Roy Gregory and Tim Aucremann from Audio Beat. They give me ideas for what might be interesting to explore myself, and they just write so well.

 

[bonzo75]

I do pay attention to some reviewers, including Roy Gregory and Tim Aucremann from Audio Beat. They give me ideas for what might be interesting to explore myself, and they just write so well.

Hi yes, I do take ideas from reviews on what to demo, but not on what might sound good or not.

 

[MLGrado]

I am curious if anyone who has heard 'true' DSD playback, that is, with no DSP, like Lampizator, certain Burr-Brown Dacs, etc... has heard DSD on the Vega, or on other higher end ESS Sabre based DACS.

ESS uses DSP on the DSD stream for volume control, filtering.. etc. Am just curious if any one has taken time to compare the subjective differences between DACs that have a 'pure' DSD stream, and those that use DSP.

I am in the market for a DAC at this price point, but DSD playback is a priority for me, as I have over a terrabyte of SACD isos on my server..

Just curious, I am a 'pure' DSD kind of listener, but I am leaving 'no stones un-turned'

Thanks

Andrew

 

[Worldcat]

How about the lampi dsd?

 

[marslo]

I am curious if anyone who has heard 'true' DSD playback, that is, with no DSP, like Lampizator, certain Burr-Brown Dacs, etc... has heard DSD on the Vega, or on other higher end ESS Sabre based DACS.

ESS uses DSP on the DSD stream for volume control, filtering.. etc. Am just curious if any one has taken time to compare the subjective differences between DACs that have a 'pure' DSD stream, and those that use DSP.
I am in the market for a DAC at this price point, but DSD playback is a priority for me, as I have over a terrabyte of SACD isos on my server..

Just curious, I am a 'pure' DSD kind of listener, but I am leaving 'no stones un-turned'

Thanks

Andrew

I had Auralic Vega as my first dsd Dac. The direct comparison of Vega to La Fontaine showed the advantage of the latter when playing pcm files.
As La Fontaine does not support dsd and I wanted to try the dsd files I bought Auralic Vega.
In the beginnng I had only few files from bluecoastrecords and 2L Nordic Sound to evaluate the diferences between pcm and dsd.
As the first listenning sessions were very promissing I started to ripp my sacd . BTW, Vega has very good price to quality ratio.
Dsd compared to pcm showed much more air ,space and life like presentation, especially with classical music.
Having said this , I go straight to your question - the comparison of Lampi dsd Dac to Vega.
Well, the first day of my listening to demo Lampi dsd dac was quite disappointing.
Lampi presentation lacked of timbre and precision compared to Vega the first day.
But it was the new unit and after few days of burning up it started to sing . Finally I experienced my jaw dropping listening with Mussorgsky music. Lampi has much more texture, deeper soundstage and timbral accuracy which all together transfer you to the music hall . Vega has the egde with a sharper , more precise notes, due probably to its femto clock . Lampi presentation is even more musical, organic , very close to analogue sound when Vega plays with more precision but a bit more digital compared to lampi.
Vega is more versatile as a dac, has a built in preamp and can play dxd files but if you want a dsd dac which is very close to analogue sound but with the convenience of digital,then lampi is a better choice, of course imho.
I have my lampi for over one month , it has duelund capacitors and Mullard NOS.
Since I am not a technical guy I don' t feel ready to discuss the DSD playback vs native dsd, I can just share my listening impressions.

 

[BlueFox]

One point about the Vega I forgot to mention is there is a red LED to the left of the control knob, and it is really bright. My rack is in front of me, the Vega is slightly above eye level, and the LED was too much. Since the Vega is silver, I started with a piece of white electrical tape over the LED. Made no difference. Added a piece of yellow tape, very little difference. Now with 3 pieces of white, and 2 pieces of yellow tape, the LED is still visible. It is like a red dwarf as seen while approaching a solar system.

 

[phaeton]

I have a Vega since last year, connected to a Spectral 30SL2 with silver UPOCC cables.

I was in the market to buy a fast but not innaturaly fast DAC, with a shade of swetness but not too much, in the range 4k-8k and amongst the dacs I've heard the short list was the Analog, the Vega, the Metrum Hex and the Calyx Femto. all of them were awesomely good, and I could live with any of it very easily (the last two were a real surprise since I didn't know them before)

I have mainly ripped cd in my nas, few high res and very few dsd, so my first choice was the Analog, but at last I bought the Vega for two main reasons: it costs much less, and it sounds almost comparable at my ears for 16/44 materials when used with a decent source pc, with the filter 4 (the one with no preringing and minimum phase, i.e. how an analog electronics would behave), and with the exact clock (this is fundamental IMHO to have the max perf out of this box)

yes, the Analog sometimes sounded a bit better, mainly in terms of 3d reconstruction and "plasticity" of the instruments, but that's all.... IMHO not worth 2x the price.

I mainly listen at acustic jazz music.

one drawback of the Vega is that the rca out is VERY high, at least in my setup (Spectral 30SL G2 - Pass X150.5), I have to use the volume on the Vega at 70 (something like -15db I think) which is not causing anything (the processor on the Vega handle everything at 32b, can be used without degradation down to 50 or so) but it's still annoying. the xlr output has the correct level, but I use it with my headphone setup and don't want to switch cables each time (I'm a lazy guy)

mike

 

[kennyb123]

one drawback of the Vega is that the rca out is VERY high, at least in my setup (Spectral 30SL G2 - Pass X150.5), I have to use the volume on the Vega at 70 (something like -15db I think) which is not causing anything (the processor on the Vega handle everything at 32b, can be used without degradation down to 50 or so) but it's still annoying. the xlr output has the correct level, but I use it with my headphone setup and don't want to switch cables each time (I'm a lazy guy)

Your preamp provides the ability to reduce the gain of a channel by, I think, 6db. I do this now with my Spectral 30S as I have the original Mytek DAC which has a very high output. You just need to pop the lid and flick a switch. Check your manual.