Rega DAC

[Anonymous]

chebby:
You cannot connect a Naim CD5i to an external DAC (not even Naim's own DAC).

As you say, it only has analogue connections.

(It's pretty good as it is though.)

No digital output on a CDP that costs nearly a k? That's poor.

 

[Anonymous]

This is a good thread- clever banter and reflects upon the end of the CDP ?

BTW, I have the same frustration with my Nait CD5X ! No digital out/in.

The good people of Salisbury will do a factory mod - called the CD5XT which will give me a digital out/in , but I haven't priced it yet. I hesitate wondering whether in fact I should sell the unit and use a cheap CDP or Notebook and buy a Naim Dac ?

I have a Beresford Caiman ( arguably better than the Dac Magic ) into a Nait XS feeding Spendor A6's . Very nice it is too and with certain Spotify recordings it gives the straight CD5X into the NAIT XS with the Flatcap 2x a good contest.

So will I get an appreciably better sound by modding the CD5X so that it can be hooked up to the Caiman, the Rega Dac or if funds allow the Naim Dac ? How do you measure if the internal dac on my current CD5X is" better " than the external dac of the Caiman/ Rega etc

At what point does the old become obsecelent ? I realise that an external dac offers flexibility for other spurces in addition to an acceptable, sometimes remarkable sound.

Views please

AVR Denon 2309, Pana 37 ,

Speakers: Fronts- Spendor A6,

Rears -B and W 685 , Sub B and W 608

Centre B and W CM 1

Nait XS, Nait CD5X, Flatcap 2x,

Cables Naca 5, Merlin Mozart, Chord Chrimson ,

Dac -Beresford Caiman,

Dock - Denon ASD3W,

Blu Ray Pana BD 35

 

[Blackdawn]

Am more interested in the Arcam rDAC than this new Rega model. With the Rega for £500 I'd want a headphone out at least. The FubarVIplus maybe the way forward. With the Arcam at least it has possible wireless upgrade and is meant to sound great too.

 

[chebby]

Blackdawn:With the Arcam at least it has possible wireless upgrade and is meant to sound great too.

The implication being that the Rega DAC won't sound great?

 

[True Blue]

Hmmm £500 for a DAC based on the DAC in my Saturn, wonder if it will improve the cdp sound??

Will (eventually) get round to replacing my Caimaan with either the ndac or regas dac, only a good audition will sort that one. It is butt ugly though

 

[Anonymous]

True Blue:
Hmmm £500 for a DAC based on the DAC in my Saturn, wonder if it will improve the cdp sound??

...there's more to it than just the DAC chip. You've got the entire PSU arrangement, output stage(s) and clocking as well. It might sound better in other words.

 

[chebby]

True Blue:Hmmm £500 for a DAC based on the DAC in my Saturn, wonder if it will improve the cdp sound??

Quoting some of the specs...

"The Rega DAC is a 24-bit 32 to 192K digital to analogue converter
incorporating an enhanced version of the Saturn digital to analogue
converter circuit using a pair of Wolfson WM8742 DAC IC's with 5 user
selectable digital filters. It has two isolated Co-axial, and two
Toslink SPDIF 24bit 192K inputs and an isolated 32/44.1/48K 16bit USB
input for use with personal a computer. The USB input incorporates a
PLL based clock for low jitter signal recovery"

Your Saturn uses the WM8740 DACs so I should think it would be an improvement. (Bearing in mind the seperate DAC has it's own built in toroidal power supply as well.)

 

[Blackdawn]

chebby:

Blackdawn:With the Arcam at least it has possible wireless upgrade and is meant to sound great too.

The implication being that the Rega DAC won't sound great?

No, I think the Rega DAC will sound brilliant but it's out of the price range for the average person who stores and plays music from PC/laptop. Looks like a pretty spcialist piece of kit with small market. Theres a reason why there are not many DAC's priced in the mid-band range. Lots of people can afford the V-DAC, Dacmagic.Caiman etc but £500 is a bit too high considering there doesn't appear to be any wireless or headphone output on the Rega DAC. It needs to be multi-funcional for this price - for example, the Firestone Audio Libby which has DAC, class A Headphone out. Just my opinions.

 

[mitch65]

Blackdawn:chebby:

Blackdawn:With the Arcam at least it has possible wireless upgrade and is meant to sound great too.

The implication being that the Rega DAC won't sound great?

No, I think the Rega DAC will sound brilliant but it's out of the price range for the average person who stores and plays music from PC/laptop. Looks like a pretty spcialist piece of kit with small market. Theres a reason why there are not many DAC's priced in the mid-band range. Lots of people can afford the V-DAC, Dacmagic.Caiman etc but £500 is a bit too high considering there doesn't appear to be any wireless or headphone output on the Rega DAC. It needs to be multi-funcional for this price - for example, the Firestone Audio Libby which has DAC, class A Headphone out. Just my opinions.

Or maybe it just needs to sound good?

 

[Anonymous]

Any news on the Rega DAC?

 

[Anonymous]

anyone know when its available?

I was going to get a saturn but this sounds more like the route to take.

 

[chebby]

I have read late November. (Was supposed to be September originally.)

 

[Anonymous]

cheers chebby.

 

[Singslinger]

How does this compare with the new Musical Fidelity M1 DAC?

 

[chebby]

Singslinger:How does this compare with the new Musical Fidelity M1 DAC?

Read above and you will see it has not been launched yet. So your question is unanswerable with regard to what it sounds like..

You can read the detailed specifications here on this Audio-T web page regarding new Rega products (scroll to the bottom).

 

[ID.]

chebby:
Singslinger:How does this compare with the new Musical Fidelity M1 DAC?

Read above and you will see it has not been launched yet. So your question is unanswerable with regard to what it sounds like..

You can read the detailed specifications here on this Audio-T web page regarding new Rega products (scroll to the bottom).

What's does an unreleased DAC sound like?

I'm sure there's a hifi zen koan in that...

 

[Cold Roses]

Looks like the Rega DAC will be on demo at the Open Day at Lintone on 11th November - http://www.rega.co.uk/index2.htm

 

[indietronic]

i am about to buy rega dac as soon as it gets available and tested. too hapy with other rega gear already. just wanted to ask your opinion for best "budget" transport, to partner the new dac, supporting most formats even bd and dvd ... i am between oppo bd (kind of expensive) and azur 650bd. what you think/any other opinion?

 

[Anonymous]

indietronic:

i am about to buy rega dac as soon as it gets available and tested. too hapy with other rega gear already. just wanted to ask your opinion for best "budget" transport, to partner the new dac, supporting most formats even bd and dvd ... i am between oppo bd (kind of expensive) and azur 650bd. what you think/any other opinion?

If your waiting for the rega dac then don't hold your breath, apparently it is not in production yet and won't be available until december at the earliest

 

[chebby]

Rega's website is promoting an 'open day' (at Lintone Audio) today where they will have their new DAC on demonstration.

That is the first time I have seen the Rega DAC mentioned on their own website, so I am assuming they are not too far from a launch of the product now.

 

[Thaiman]

This thread has been view nearly 7000 times.

That is more than any AVI thread!

 

[chebby]

Maybe 7000 times more people use, or have used - or are interested in - Rega products.

 

[Cold Roses]

If you google Rega DAC you'll find a recent thread on another well known hi fi forum on the subject, where Rega's Paul Darwin appears to be involved in the conversations. Interesting reading.

 

[Anonymous]

There was a Rega open day on Nov 11 at Lintone Audio, but haven't seen anything since. Anyone seen any more info on the dac & release date?

 

[Anonymous]

when i spoke to my dealer about it ( a couple of weeks ago) he phoned rega who confirmed that the dac was not going to be released until december at the earliest, ive given up waiting and put my money into a new amp.