Dac Sceptic converted.😁

[skutters]

Just thought that I would share my recent experience with buying a new piece of kit. A bit of a tale so bare with me😁 I have been a regular customer of Doug Brady's in Warrington over the years a great bunch of guys in there been a few times just for a listen to some gear have a coffee and chat. Anyway I arranged to go in for a session as I was thinking of up grading my Kef R3 Meta speakers not that there was anything really wrong with them it was just because I had upgraded my Amplifier 12 months ago to a Rega Aethos this made a significant difference to the sound quality and I think I just needed to scratch that itch that was did the Aethos need better speakers. So after spending a good part of the day there listing to a number of speakers in the price range I could afford nothing was doing it for me the only one's that I might have considered were the new Dali Rubikore 2.

But I couldn't take them home to try as they were needed for that week but I could and get them at the end of the week. Anyway a few days later I rang them and spoke to John one of the staff and said I was not going to bother with the Dali Speakers , he agreed that they weren't really a upgrade from my Kef's just a different sound and I would need to spend a big chunk of money to get Speakers considerably better. This is now where the Dac enters the story he suggested to me that I should actually look at my front end as my Amplifier and Speakers are excellent, my source components were a Bluesound Node and Arcam IrDac, I have had the Arcam Dac for 10 years as I always thought that it was well made and sounded good and the difference between Dac's was subtle at best. I told John this but he said that I should come in and he can set up the Aethos amp and Kef R3 Meta's with a Auralic Vega S1 Streaming Dac I had nothing to lose if I thought there was no difference i would just have a morning having coffee and listening to music.

So it was set up with the Node/Arcam into one input and the Vega S1 into another allowing me to stream tracks I knew and switch between the two inputs, well I have to say it didn't take long to realise that there was a substantial difference between the two the sound from the Auralic Vega was stunning, the clarity and detail were on another level the Node/Arcam sounded flat and compressed when switching back to them. Also vocals were so airy with superb texture and projected out into the room everything was so much more musical. I was pretty stunned to be honest as I really was expecting to not really hear much difference. So needless to say I bought one and have had it at home for a week now and I am so happy with it. I am now also going through my CD's using the Pure Dac mode which switches all the streaming side of things off, and again they all sound superb. So unless I win the lottery that's my system sorted very happy.

Cheers Kev.

System. Cambridge CXC Transport
Auralic Vega S1
Rega Aethos Amplifier
Kef R3 Meta's
Rel T/5x Sub
Sennheiser HD800s

 

[Integralista]

Skutters, congratulation to your stunning system and thanks for sharing interesting listening impressions about Auralic Vega S1. I am also considering to buy same streamer into my system even I am mainly analog guy. BR 😉

 

[ToppingSMSL]

Did you volume match? Did you do blind testing? That's the only way to know. If not you are just open to biases.

Volume matching to within 0.1db isn't easy but it's absolutely necessary as we know people will prefer the louder one if they're not matched. Not doing that just makes your comparison invalid (for reasons that are well documented in the scientific literature).

 

[Jasonovich]

Just thought that I would share my recent experience with buying a new piece of kit. A bit of a tale so bare with me😁 I have been a regular customer of Doug Brady's in Warrington over the years a great bunch of guys in there been a few times just for a listen to some gear have a coffee and chat. Anyway I arranged to go in for a session as I was thinking of up grading my Kef R3 Meta speakers not that there was anything really wrong with them it was just because I had upgraded my Amplifier 12 months ago to a Rega Aethos this made a significant difference to the sound quality and I think I just needed to scratch that itch that was did the Aethos need better speakers. So after spending a good part of the day there listing to a number of speakers in the price range I could afford nothing was doing it for me the only one's that I might have considered were the new Dali Rubikore 2.

But I couldn't take them home to try as they were needed for that week but I could and get them at the end of the week. Anyway a few days later I rang them and spoke to John one of the staff and said I was not going to bother with the Dali Speakers , he agreed that they weren't really a upgrade from my Kef's just a different sound and I would need to spend a big chunk of money to get Speakers considerably better. This is now where the Dac enters the story he suggested to me that I should actually look at my front end as my Amplifier and Speakers are excellent, my source components were a Bluesound Node and Arcam IrDac, I have had the Arcam Dac for 10 years as I always thought that it was well made and sounded good and the difference between Dac's was subtle at best. I told John this but he said that I should come in and he can set up the Aethos amp and Kef R3 Meta's with a Auralic Vega S1 Streaming Dac I had nothing to lose if I thought there was no difference i would just have a morning having coffee and listening to music.

So it was set up with the Node/Arcam into one input and the Vega S1 into another allowing me to stream tracks I knew and switch between the two inputs, well I have to say it didn't take long to realise that there was a substantial difference between the two the sound from the Auralic Vega was stunning, the clarity and detail were on another level the Node/Arcam sounded flat and compressed when switching back to them. Also vocals were so airy with superb texture and projected out into the room everything was so much more musical. I was pretty stunned to be honest as I really was expecting to not really hear much difference. So needless to say I bought one and have had it at home for a week now and I am so happy with it. I am now also going through my CD's using the Pure Dac mode which switches all the streaming side of things off, and again they all sound superb. So unless I win the lottery that's my system sorted very happy.

Cheers Kev.

System. Cambridge CXC Transport
Auralic Vega S1
Rega Aethos Amplifier
Kef R3 Meta's
Rel T/5x Sub
Sennheiser HD800s

A nice balanced system you have and congratulations on your new purchase. I have been listening to the very positive reviews of the Auralic Vega on YouTube and other Hifi publications.
I love the functional design, it kind of gives out a message, it's almost as if they were saying; we're not here for the visual candy, we're here for the sound quality.
You trusted your ears. What matters is you're happy with your purchase and may it bring you closer to Music Nirvana 🙂👍

 

[skutters]

Did you volume match? Did you do blind testing? That's the only way to know. If not you are just open to biases.

Volume matching to within 0.1db isn't easy but it's absolutely necessary as we know people will prefer the louder one if they're not matched. Not doing that just makes your comparison invalid (for reasons that are well documented in the scientific literature).

If you read my post you would have seen that it wasn't a blind comparison I did try to keep the volume the same. But at the end of the day the difference was so obvious I'm not concerned about it not being a blind test.

 

[skutters]

A nice balanced system you have and congratulations on your new purchase. I have been listening to the very positive reviews of the Auralic Vega on YouTube and other Hifi publications.
I love the functional design, it kind of gives out a message, it's almost as if they were saying; we're not here for the visual candy, we're here for the sound quality.
You trusted your ears. What matters is you're happy with your purchase and may it bring you closer to Music Nirvana 🙂👍

Thanks for the reply, yes I was quite surprised at the difference between the units the Auralic is a cracking piece of kit. That's me set now.👍

 

[skutters]

Skutters, congratulation to your stunning system and thanks for sharing interesting listening impressions about Auralic Vega S1. I am also considering to buy same streamer into my system even I am mainly analog guy. BR 😉

A cracking piece of kit and should be auditioned if you are in the market for a streaming Dac.

 

[Gray]

I had the Arcam DAC on home loan what seems like a lifetime ago.
I wasn't impressed enough to be able to justify its price.

(I wouldn't mind betting that my sub £100 Khadas Toneboard would sound better than the Ir-DAC).

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

If you read my post you would have seen that it wasn't a blind comparison I did try to keep the volume the same. But at the end of the day the difference was so obvious I'm not concerned about it not being a blind test.

And as you weren't expecting to hear any difference, you can't be accused of succumbing to confirmation bias.

 

[Jasonovich]

And as you weren't expecting to hear any difference, you can't be accused of succumbing to confirmation bias.

I like the way you attacked the narrative by using logic. Made me chuckle!

On reflection, I believe there is some truth in that, there's always this presumption and expectancy that the latest and greatest will sound better, hence the confirmation bias but you can't apply this template universally because humans are far more layered than social science, from my own life experience, I know, there are fair amount of people who take a more pragmatic approach, they curbed their expectation rather than elevate it ( I sort of sit halfway, though I'm easily pleased!), so they don't feel disappointed when it's not so euphoric.

 

[twinkletoes]

I like the way you attacked the narrative by using logic. Made me chuckle!

On reflection, I believe there is some truth in that, there's always this presumption and expectancy that the latest and greatest will sound better, hence the confirmation bias but you can't apply this template universally because humans are far more layered than social science, from my own life experience, I know, there are fair amount of people who take a more pragmatic approach, they curbed their expectation rather than elevate it ( I sort of sit halfway, though I'm easily pleased!), so they don't feel disappointed when it's not so euphoric.

Im one of them people, I expect to be disappointed and quite often are.