New Rega DAC

[skullguise]

Minor updates.....put this into my Stax rig, since the wife complains when I use the speaker rig and she's around.

This was compared, somewhat apples to oranges, to my Parasound 1600 DAC, driving the Spritzer-modded 727A/O2 Mk I's via blanced cables. The Rega has only single-ended out. Volume matching was manual, so this is all pretty objective.

Music was Alison Krauss Live, Tool Aenema, Propaganda A Secret Wish, and Loreena McKennitt An Ancient Muse.

Two things were clear to me:

- The Parasound is a heck of a DAC

- The Rega is a hecker of a DAC

There was an immediacy, especially on vocals, that the Parasound just excels at. But the Rega almost matched it in pure vocal presence, and outdid it in several other areas. I have had the luck to be standing 6-7 feet from Loreena McKennitt when she did an in-store appearance for one of her shows/CD's. Thru the Parasound, there is a purity to her voice that is captivating. Rich, yet natural, with just a hint of the brashness I hear in the studio recordings.

With the Rega, it's not quite as brash, but it actually brings me more into her voice, and the memory of that time when I listened to/saw her up close. I think it's the sense of voice in the space that's better with the Rega.

The Rega adds a very slight fullness to the mids, a weight that doesn't seem to blur the sound at all though. I have memories of the Apollo CD player, it was a tiny bit on the dark side. This DAC doesn't remind me of that at all. Rich, with a bit of warmth, but no fuzzy details (and compared to the Parasound, a bit more transparent in that regard).

I know this sounds stupidly hi-fi, but Guitar and Banjo plucks from Alison Krauss Live stuck out in their detail and place in the soundstage, and really helped to have me bouncing along quite happily. The Rega "PRaT" was certainly in action.

Tool's CD was an eye-opener. I got some nice tight and deep bass on my speaker rig, and that continued to the Stax rig. MJK's voice and some little tricky sound effects were pretty wide and deep in the head stage, but very specific in their location in that stage. When I first got Spritzer's modded Stax amp, I thought it didn't do soundstage as well as my old tube exstata amp. However, the Rega does show it to be fairly capable. The edge found in much Tool music is still there, even despite the slight warmth of the DAC.

I haven't got a great sense of the highs yet, they do seem a bit rolled off. I still hear some nice air and details, but not as much as other sources (especially the Buffalo's, which can sound too bright and sterile in some systems).

Finally, I was playing a bit with the filters. For 44.1 source signal, filters 1-5 are listed as:

1) Linear phase half-band filter

2) Minimum phase soft-knee filter

3) Minimum phase half-band filter

4) Linear phase apodising filter

5) Minimum phase apodising filter

Still had some diffculty telling major differences, but in general, it seemed like filters 1-3 sounded most similar, softening the sound a very tiny bit more. Filters 4 & 5 seemed to focus mids a little more relative to the other filters, and didn't seem to have quite the softening effect in the highs. All VERY subtle, but this was my impression. Still have to play more with these.

Overall: a very fine DAC, at first blush does most things better to my ears than the Parasound, even when driving single-ended versus balanced out. VERY musical and involving, with a slight warmth but not so laid back as to be dull or dark (I thought the Apollo I onwed was a bit dark, a bit too laid back int he mids for my taste). The warmth seems to extend more towards the top end of the frequency, allowing the mids to be dteailed but still have some bloom or weight. All leads to some very involving listening.

Sorry for the all-over-the-place writing, these are based on some quick random things I was writing down off and on.

[K3cT]

Thank you for the great impression, skullguise. Do you think it's brighter sounding than your Parasound?

[skullguise]

Hi,

On vacation, but it's at the in-laws, so taking an e-break

I think the high's on the Parasound are a bit more extended than the Rega. The mids on both are VERY good, but there is a slight fullness (a weight, spaciousness, but not typical tube lushness) with the Rega that I like a lot. The Parasound has a hint of brashness in the mids IMO, or maybe it's the Rega is missing it. But the details are still there with the Rega, and if it is a coloration, I like it. I think i'd like to listen to some well-recorded piano to judge more about the mids on the two units.

So far, based on maybe 15-20 hours (and it was in the store as a demo with music thru it for many days), I prefer the Rega just because it's making me enjoy the music even more than the already-great Parasound. Time will tell if that impression stays; there is certainly some music where I noticed the softer high's with the Rega, but it didn't seem to bother me. If anything, it may take the edge of some poorly recorded digital.

I think in the wrong system, the Rega could get boring. TOO much softness will rob the life out of some music. But in my system, it's a really nice fit so far.

PS - faux pas in my first impression post: I said it was mostly "objective" and of course I meant SUBjective....

Edited February 22, 2011 by skullguise

[acidbasement]

Bumping this thread to ask if anyone has heard the old Rega Io DAC. There's one for sale on the 'gon right now, something which doesn't seem to happen too often. I've been curious about it for awhile, though always short on funds when one has come up for sale. It was big bucks when it came out in the late 90s, but is it worth $300 today if one is a Rega fan?