DacMagic or Rega Dac

[ruivasco]

Is the Rega a step up ? Or should I buy the least expensive DacMagic?Which is the best VFM?

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Is the Rega a step up ? Or should I buy the least expensive DacMagic?Which is the best VFM?

Hi ruivasco

What do you generally listen to?

What source component/s, amplifier and speakers do you use?

The interconnect/s and speaker cabbles are?

What kind of presentation are you looking for the system to reproduce?

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[SonofSun]

Is the Rega a step up ? Or should I buy the least expensive DacMagic?Which is the best VFM?

Hi ruivasco

What do you generally listen to?

What source component/s, amplifier and speakers do you use?

The interconnect/s and speaker cabbles are?

What kind of presentation are you looking for the system to reproduce?

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

Whoa, it's like the spanish inquisition.

The Rega dac is better imo (have owned both), but it is twice the price. I ditched my dacmagic because it was no better than the squeezebox dac.

 

[ruivasco]

The Rega Dac is twice the price, but is twice better? Or is marginaly better?

 

[Anonymous]

Is the Rega a step up ? Or should I buy the least expensive DacMagic?Which is the best VFM?

Hi ruivasco

What do you generally listen to?

What source component/s, amplifier and speakers do you use?

The interconnect/s and speaker cabbles are?

What kind of presentation are you looking for the system to reproduce?

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

Whoa, it's like the spanish inquisition.

The Rega dac is better imo (have owned both), but it is twice the price. I ditched my dacmagic because it was no better than the squeezebox dac.

didn't expect that.....

Also, have a think about the Beresford Caiman with Gator board.
Punches WAAY above its weight imho.

(other Dacs are available of course,... )

 

[chebby]

Also, have a think about the Beresford Caiman with Gator board.

Punches WAAY above its weight imho.

One of our regulars (True Blue) upgraded from the Caiman to the Rega DAC.

I recall he considered the Rega a substantial upgrade.

 

[ruivasco]

more opinions, please
my dealer says that if I want to use only USB inputs, there are no great differences
My transport is a Cambridge 340 C : Will it ok with the Rega Dac?

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Hi ruivasco

As good as the DacMagic is however i feel Rega's DAC does warrant the premium. I can't see why the 340C would not work well with the Rega DAC.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[True Blue]

The only wat you can tell is by listening yourself.

IMO the REGA dac is a phenominal piece of equipment at the price and a SUBSTANTIAL upgrade on the Caiman which i still have and use in my PC setup, I use it for the headphone amp.

It really depends upon what your main usage is going to be and what functionality you require. If you need a headphone amp and DAC personally I dont think you can beat the caiman for a one box affordable solution. If you require "just" the DAC then the REGA is a different class, it improved the sound of my Rega Saturn CDP which is no easy feat.

The only limitation that I can see is if Hi res files are important to you. The Rega will not accept anything over 16 bit on its USB input. It will on the others though. If USB is your source then may I suggest a hiface converter to convert usb to coax as this will allow 24 bit.

The Rega dac takes very strongly in sound from the Saturn and steps it up a bit closer to the ISIS (a 6k player!!), it removes any harshness from the recording and makes it sound a lot more analogue. Whether or not you like clinical or analogue sounding is a matter for your own personal taste, however I dont think you will get a better DAC for the price than with a REGA dac.

 

[chebby]

Hi True Blue.

Hope the back is mending well.

Did Nick 'green light' your Exact cartridge or is it back with Rega?

(Sorry to the OP for going off-topic.)

 

[True Blue]

back @ REGA :-(, been without TT now for 5 long days and they dont open till tuesday

 

[ruivasco]

;Whether or not you like clinical or analogue sounding is a matter for your own personal taste,

What you mean by a clinical sound?

 

[True Blue]

To my ears I describe clinical sound as precise, lacking warmth and emotion.

 

[ruivasco]

To my ears I describe clinical sound as precise, lacking warmth and emotion.

So Cambridge is clinical? Because to my ears Cambridge sound is precise and Rega more warm!

 

[True Blue]

If thats how you hear it then yes.

 

[ruivasco]

bump

 

[Anonymous]

Hi there to all,

I had a audio session this afternoon at my highend shop .... was going for a new DAC

First i listen on my own Teac vrds 10se cd player (modified with tentlabs clock)

The first was the dac magic.

Hmm not unpleasant but not my taste at all, little death sounding, no real living soundstage its all in the middle of the stereo speaker setup.

Switched to the rega dac (note: i don't listen to the sound for just half an hour) dacs and other equipment needs to warm up a little.

Whoooo this is more like it the rega sets a nice stereo image, lots of weights depth and good focusing of instruments and vocals.

Price is allready making the rega twice the price, but the rega realy push the dacmagic away.

So this is pure based on 16bits listening (don`t need the rega for pc) i am a audiophile and made lots of devices, this rega is a killer for its money.

beware the burn in time is expected to be a 2-3 days, don`t switch it off

So dacmagic vs rega dac is a bit unfair.

Dacmagic nice for a low budget stereo system till 1500 euro as compleet system

Rega dac will be good for upgrade cd drives who needs to be upgrade there dacs from 1500 euro cd drives only.

Lets say the rega dac will do its best in systems like 3000-5000 euro.

But if you add a good solide 12V power transformer to the dacmagic hmm there will be a big difference in sound quality.

The Dacmagic is fet by a wallwart , very bad power available course wallwarts makes allso HF distortion.

dacmagic = 400 euro

rega dac = 675 euro

incomparable

 

[indietronic]

is there a british audio store that can ship rega dac outside the U.K. (to other european countries) ?

 

[th0m]

Anyone looking for a DAC in this price range should also consider the Atoll Electronique DAC 100. A bit more sparkly and airy than than the Rega, plus you don't have to fiddle around with five different filters which would end up driving me crazy. I listened to both and prefered the Atoll by quite a lot. The DACMagic can't compete with either of them imo.