REGA DAC vs Audiolab MDAC

[George55]

I will of course try and audition both, but would love to hear any experiences and thoughts about which might complement a cyrus amp and spendor a6s?

 

[tounra]

Personally I think the differences between those DAC's will be negligible, but considering what I've read about those DAC's, the general consensus so to say is that the Rega DAC is the more warm, fluid and analogue sounding DAC, the Audiolab the more analytical and detailed, some would say bright DAC.

Cyrus amps aren't know for a particular 'warm' and laid back sound, rather energetic and upbeat, so if some warmth and a more relaxed nature is what you're after the Rega DAC would be the likely choice. But you could go for a middle of the road solution and get best of both worlds, choose the Musical Fidelity M1 DAC, less bright than the MDAC, but brighter than the Rega DAC.

Disclaimer, I haven't heard any of the components, these are just my thoughts, filtered out of years ocassional reading about hifi. My own experiences - with other hifi seperates - kinda contradict the notion that lives in the audiophile world about different sound characters between components, to me most quality components in their specific price range, including amps do not differ much, but that aside.

I hope this post will make other people reply in this thread, who obviously will be more helpful than I am.

 

[Shanka]

I would say both the Rega and Mdac are a step above the MF dac, there is very little between them, as stated earlier the Mdac has outstanding detail but not much warmth, it does also have a remote, display and headphone socket so wins on features if this is important to you.
Due to this I would probably pick the mdac but this week I heard the Exposure dac which is the one i would pick over the Rega and the Mdac, it does not have the detail of the mdac but has a livelier, airy presentation and a marvellous 'toe tapping' quality that just made me want to keep on listening to it, with the Mdac I knew I was listening to hifi, with the Exposure I was listening to the music.

The biggest problem with the Exposure is trying to find one but if you can hear one which I do recommend strongly you can decide for yourself.

Good luck in your quest, have fun.

 

[George55]

Personally I think the differences between those DAC's will be negligible, but considering what I've read about those DAC's, the general consensus so to say is that the Rega DAC is the more warm, fluid and analogue sounding DAC, the Audiolab the more analytical and detailed, some would say bright DAC.

Cyrus amps aren't know for a particular 'warm' and laid back sound, rather energetic and upbeat, so if some warmth and a more relaxed nature is what you're after the Rega DAC would be the likely choice. But you could go for a middle of the road solution and get best of both worlds, choose the Musical Fidelity M1 DAC, less bright than the MDAC, but brighter than the Rega DAC.

Disclaimer, I haven't heard any of the components, these are just my thoughts, filtered out of years ocassional reading about hifi. My own experiences - with other hifi seperates - kinda contradict the notion that lives in the audiophile world about different sound characters between components, to me most quality components in their specific price range, including amps do not differ much, but that aside.

I hope this post will make other people reply in this thread, who obviously will be more helpful than I am.

Thanks for the feedback. I have read / been advised several times by other helpful forum members that the Rega DAC might be the better partner to my otherwise all cyrus set-up due to its earthier, warmer character. Does anyone out there have any experience with the Rega DAC and cyrus?

Also, how do forum members have their computer connected to it as the USB input is limited to CD quality? I've persuaded my extremely long suffering wife as to why I need a DAC now, but to throw a USB-SPDIF converter in the equation too will take some work on my part