This is a review and detailed measurements of the Rega DAC-R stereo DAC. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $1,195 when it came out in 2015.
I suspect extra money had gone into making the top curved down but it doesn't do anything for me. Fortunately the user interface makes up for the plain looks in how easy it is to select inputs and filters.
Back panel shows rather rich set of inputs and outputs for a DAC:
Sadly, no balanced analog output is provided. I did not get a remote with it so wonder if one had come with it.
Rega DAC-R Measurements
As usual we start with our dashboard:
I saw some mains noise but no matter what I did, I could not impact it even a bit. I suspect that is coming out of the power supply and going into the reference voltage of the DAC. It is strong enough to create sidebands around the 1 kHz signal. Distortion is quite high even for a 2015 DAC, placing the DAC-R squarely in our "poor" category:
Noise performance is not had:
IMD shows early saturation of output:
As a result, multitone makes a more positive showing as its level is lower than the 1 kHz in the dashboard:
For compatibility with Stereophile tests, let's run it at 50 Hz into 600 ohm load:
And compare it to their measurements:
2nd harmonic matches theirs. But they show higher third harmonic. Still, we are in the ballpark.
Jitter test shows high noise floor and power supply induced interference patterns:
Linearity is not so good:
Here is the response of the three included filters:
Finally, we have our wideband distortion and noise vs frequency:
Conclusions
We can make a bit of dispensation for an older design but this is still poor. There is no good excuse for power supply noise interference no matter when the DAC came out. Or high level of distortion. Sadly, a strong pass was given to them by Stereophile even though some of the same issues were found in their measurements: "Other than that minor issue, the Rega DAC-R offered measured performance that was beyond reproach.—John Atkinson"
Sigh.
Owner tells me that this DAC had a well-respected reputation (hence the reason I accepted testing it). That doesn't seem well deserved to me.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome. Click here if you have some audio gear you want me to test.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
I suspect extra money had gone into making the top curved down but it doesn't do anything for me. Fortunately the user interface makes up for the plain looks in how easy it is to select inputs and filters.
Back panel shows rather rich set of inputs and outputs for a DAC:
Sadly, no balanced analog output is provided. I did not get a remote with it so wonder if one had come with it.
Rega DAC-R Measurements
As usual we start with our dashboard:
I saw some mains noise but no matter what I did, I could not impact it even a bit. I suspect that is coming out of the power supply and going into the reference voltage of the DAC. It is strong enough to create sidebands around the 1 kHz signal. Distortion is quite high even for a 2015 DAC, placing the DAC-R squarely in our "poor" category:
Noise performance is not had:
IMD shows early saturation of output:
As a result, multitone makes a more positive showing as its level is lower than the 1 kHz in the dashboard:
For compatibility with Stereophile tests, let's run it at 50 Hz into 600 ohm load:
And compare it to their measurements:
2nd harmonic matches theirs. But they show higher third harmonic. Still, we are in the ballpark.
Jitter test shows high noise floor and power supply induced interference patterns:
Linearity is not so good:
Here is the response of the three included filters:
Finally, we have our wideband distortion and noise vs frequency:
Conclusions
We can make a bit of dispensation for an older design but this is still poor. There is no good excuse for power supply noise interference no matter when the DAC came out. Or high level of distortion. Sadly, a strong pass was given to them by Stereophile even though some of the same issues were found in their measurements: "Other than that minor issue, the Rega DAC-R offered measured performance that was beyond reproach.—John Atkinson"
Sigh.
Owner tells me that this DAC had a well-respected reputation (hence the reason I accepted testing it). That doesn't seem well deserved to me.
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----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome. Click here if you have some audio gear you want me to test.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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