Rega DAC-R DAC Review

[renaudrenaud]

P.S. Maybe none of you would understand this, but it's damned painful to see icon brands like this gradually taken down, but that's life I suppose.

Sanity.

 

[Rja4000]

Interesting review !

As JA has discovered in stereophile - this unit has higher jitter and distortion at higher levels . At -40 dB , the jitter is very low , and looks like this :

View attachment 320264

Rega Research DAC-R D/A processor Measurements | Stereophile.com

Sidebar 3: Measurements Superficially, the DAC-R looks identical to Rega's original DAC, which Sam Tellig reviewed in the May 2011 issue. However, the DAC-R replaces the DAC's Burr-Brown PCM2707 USB receiver chip with a higher-performing XMOS chip. I measured the DAC-R with my Audio Precision...

www.stereophile.com

This is probably deliberately , trying to make a dac that sounds earfriendly. The sound to my ears is very good and one can listen for hours .

I use this dac myself and wouldnt trade it for a cheaper topping , Yamaha or smsl .

JA explains clearly in the article you linked that the sidebands, in his opinion, are due to mains leakage and, therefore, decrease with level.
The sidebands are likely caused by some kind of intermodulation between the 11.025kHz J-Test main tone and the mains (harmonics).

So nothing deliberate here.
Just poor engineering.

 

[Sokel]

P.S. Maybe none of you would understand this, but it's damned painful to see icon brands like this gradually taken down, but that's life I suppose.

To be fair Rega was never considered anything special for digital,the opposite I think,even in the golden years very few (apart from UK) ever talked about it.
On the other side their turntables were always nice and super affordable,totally decent for anyone that wanted to enter vinyl.

I think that even they,themselves,didn't consider their digital a serious target,more like "we have that too" thing.

 

[Koeitje]

Interesting review !

As JA has discovered in stereophile - this unit has higher jitter and distortion at higher levels . At -40 dB , the jitter is very low , and looks like this :

View attachment 320264

Rega Research DAC-R D/A processor Measurements | Stereophile.com

Sidebar 3: Measurements Superficially, the DAC-R looks identical to Rega's original DAC, which Sam Tellig reviewed in the May 2011 issue. However, the DAC-R replaces the DAC's Burr-Brown PCM2707 USB receiver chip with a higher-performing XMOS chip. I measured the DAC-R with my Audio Precision...

www.stereophile.com

This is probably deliberately , trying to make a dac that sounds earfriendly. The sound to my ears is very good and one can listen for hours .

I use this dac myself and wouldnt trade it for a cheaper topping , Yamaha or smsl .

So bad performance makes it earfriendly? That is some copium my friend.

 

[dogmamann]

This is probably deliberately , trying to make a dac that sounds earfriendly. The sound to my ears is very good and one can listen for hours .

I use this dac myself and wouldnt trade it for a cheaper topping , Yamaha or smsl .

no wonder why these people stay in business. For this performance I can get some super cheap no name brand DAC and probably it would sound similar!

 

[dogmamann]

Doesn't surprise me. Rega's success has always baffled me.

Their speakers are not great, their amplifiers are expensive for what you get, their cartridges are terrible, and their turntables are embarrassed by any Technics model for both sound and build quality.

Don’t underestimate Whathifi’s power.

 

[dogmamann]

I wonder who gave them “Great votes”. Probably the company owner himself !!

 

[Talisman]

Mediocre performance, high price.
However, looking at this DAC I can't help but wonder why even companies that produce high-level low-cost DACs can't insert double digital inputs, it doesn't seem like something difficult to implement.
For example, despite having a Topping E30 OG that fully satisfied me, I purchased a Topping DX3 pro+ only and exclusively because it provided a double coaxial input (always in a compact form factor)
But what could possibly be difficult about putting two optical, two coaxial and maybe two USB inputs?

 

[GXAlan]

Worse 1 kHz SINAD than the Denon DA-500 from 1994

Denon DA-500 Vintage R2R DAC Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the vintage (?) Denon DA-500 DAC. It was kindly purchased by a member on the used market and drop shipped to me. Interest was to find historic products with something cool about them. In this case, it is the "alpha" processing in the DA-500 which...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Klonatans]

I dont like their amplifiers.

15 years ago in the beginning of my hi-fi journey I asked a hi-fi dealer to play Smack My Bitch Up from The Fat of The Land on a system consisting of a Rega CD player of the day (don't remember the model name, Apollo maybe?), Rega Brio integral amp and Dali Ikon 6 speakers and the result was a muddy mess, making me think that there was something wrong with the setup. Then the dealer played the same track from a Naim Nait 5i (CD player and amp) system on the same speakers and there was a night and day difference, I could hear separation and details and the music became cohesive. Since then Rega products don't feature in my wishlist.

 

[dogmamann]

I read these were musical.

Musical = lot of noise / poor measurements ;

 

[Tangband]

So bad performance makes it earfriendly? That is some copium my friend.

Look at PS audios digital gear , mediocre noise results but many people seems to like the sound . And Im sure they do comparisons at home before they buy. Many people also like vinyl and tubes, theres nothing strange about liking the sound from gear that measures poorly.

 

[Tangband]

To be fair Rega was never considered anything special for digital,the opposite I think,even in the golden years very few (apart from UK) ever talked about it.
On the other side their turntables were always nice and super affordable,totally decent for anyone that wanted to enter vinyl.

I think that even they,themselves,didn't consider their digital a serious target,more like "we have that too" thing.

If you like the sound from Regas turntables or early Linn:s lp12 then you probably gonna like the sound from Rega dac R. They sound very similar, and different from most clinical sounding chinese dacs.

Have you heard the Rega dac R ?

 

[Tangband]

no wonder why these people stay in business. For this performance I can get some super cheap no name brand DAC and probably it would sound similar!

Thats only wishful thinking.

 

[Grotti]

If you like the sound from Regas turntables or early Linn:s lp12 then you probably gonna like the sound from Rega dac R. They sound very similar, and different from most clinical sounding chinese dacs.

Have you heard the Rega dac R ?

A DAC which sounds like a turntable is a broken device in my book...

 

[Mart68]

Look at PS audios digital gear , mediocre noise results but many people seems to like the sound . And Im sure they do comparisons at home before they buy. Many people also like vinyl and valves, theres nothing strange about liking the sound from gear that measures poorly.

There is no 'sound' though, the PS Audio is just noisier than a lot of other DACs and even then it's only borderline audible.

I'm sure this is similar (I have listened to systems with Rega DACs but not sure if it was this specific one) and they didn't sound bad.

Point is if someone is buying a DAC thinking it has a distinctive 'sound' they are on a non-starter right from the off, and they can buy cheaper, better engineered DACs in any case, so why go for this one?

There are valid reasons to get this DAC but none of them relate to sound quality. You like the look, it matches your other Rega kit, you want to buy British, you just want it etc etc.

 

[audio_tony]

Rega = good turntable arms, poor electronics.

Even their turntables are not that great. The motor mounting is very poorly engineered and has been revised on several occasions.

I had a Technics SL150 with a Rega RB250 arm - that outperformed their turntables by a fair margin.

 

[Matt_Holland]

I wonder if the distortion, noise, etc makes this DAC sound appealing to some in the same way that vinyl does? Can a DAC be designed to sound like vinyl, I.e. “musical”, dynamic, rhythmic, three-dimensional, blah, blah, blah?

 

[JayGilb]

I dont care which brand I use - If the music sounds better to me, it is better. Maybe thats why I have a WiiM pro, a second hand Rega dac R combined with a new hypex ncore amplifier. I would switch immediately if I found something that makes music listening more enjoyable in my system. This summer I had a Rega amplifier for comparison and the hypex was clearly superior, just as the Rega dac R was superior sounding to my Yamaha wxc50 dac. Big differences.

In the end that is the only question which matters. Are you happy with the sound of your system ?

 

[Tangband]

In the end that is the only question which matters. Are you happy with the sound of you system ?

Yes I am , I have no intention to change WiiM pro, Rega Dac R or the Hypex ncore amp.
And you are absolutely right.