Rega DAC-R DAC Review

[Billy Budapest]

Insides:

View attachment 320263

Cabling is all over the place,no wonder about the mains noise and performance.
That's unfortunate.

Thanks Amir!

The “cabling” that is “all over the place” are just ground wires. They are all star-grounded on the side of the chassis.

 

[Tangband]

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?

Some dynamic compression , and second order distortion like in vinyl playback or using tubes can make the perceived sound a bit nicer to the ear. This is not rocket science, but well known facts in the field of psychoacoustics. The stereosystem is a very flawed system, and needs some help with some nice colorations.

 

[Purité Audio]

One can’t help but smile, it appears every component recommended by the U.K. Hi-Fi press was poor at best, what a disgrace.
Keith

 

[DSJR]

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.

The 5i amp and matching CD have a hard clipping harshness to them though, so neither pairing would be a good one really, just opposites around the neutral ground

 

[gvl]

I voted not terrible. Apart from the, supposedly benign, second harmonic there are no glaring flaws. As for its high price, it’s made in the UK and distributed through legit dealers with proper support, etc. so not entirely unreasonable.

 

[fordiebianco]

lot of reviews.... what hifi loves it, so does stereophile stereonet and even darko so i dont know whats wrong with ASR not liking it.. inconceivable!

That's irony, innit?

 

[Tangband]

Some other detail about this Rega dac :

One can use it only as a reclocker for spdif in/out ( for example between a digital transport and a dac inside an amplifier ) and the difference with less good digital gear is clearly audible .

https://www.rega.co.uk/download/dac-r-user-manual-english.pdf

 

[LTig]

Some other detail about this dac :

One can use it only as a reclocker for spdif in/out ( for example between a digital transport and a dac inside an amplifier ) and the difference with less good digital gear is clearly audible .

If a DAC inside an amp is so bad you need a reclocker I'd rather prefer to feed the amp with the Regas analog output.

 

[Tangband]

If a DAC inside an amp is so bad you need a reclocker I'd rather prefer to feed the amp with the Regas analog output.

True.
One can also try it between a digital transport and an active speaker with inbuilt dac. It all depends on the dac If there is a difference or not.

 

[GXAlan]

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?

Distortion may have some value, but not AC mains noise. That’s one way I try to distinguish between bad unintentionally versus bad by intent.

The distortion can act as a inverted compressor.

 

[Tangband]

Here is a comparison of distortion from Stereophile with the older ( 2008 ) Linn klimax DS and this Rega dac R.
The Klimax DS uses two Wolfson 8741 and Rega dac R two Wolfson 8742.

Linn Klimax DS network D/A processor Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

www.stereophile.com

First Linn Klimax DS :

Rega Dac R :

As one can see, there is similarities. The klimax DS ( 2008 ) is the best streamer I have heard. Maybe we are measuring the wrong things ?

 

[audio_tony]

One can’t help but smile, it appears every component recommended by the U.K. Hi-Fi press was poor at best, what a disgrace.
Keith

As has always been the way... Back in the mid / late 70's, the British HiFi press would praise anything British made, no matter how rubbish it was.

This attitude forced many people to overlook the really good Japanese gear from JVC, Trio / Kenwood, Pioneer, NAD....

On almost every occasion the press reviewed Japanese gear, they slated it.

And the British was typically poorly finished, unreliable and measured poorly by comparison too.

 

[Mart68]

As has always been the way... Back in the mid / late 70's, the British HiFi press would praise anything British made, no matter how rubbish it was.

This attitude forced many people to overlook the really good Japanese gear from JVC, Trio / Kenwood, Pioneer, NAD....

On almost every occasion the press reviewed Japanese gear, they slated it.

And the British was typically poorly finished, unreliable and measured poorly by comparison too.

American equipment was dismissed as 'Voiced for American rooms/tastes'.

Japanese was what people who didn't really 'know' about hi-fi bought.

European brands were viewed much like the French cars of the time - quirky and not for everyone.

That went on until the 1990s.

 

[Billy Budapest]

Here is a comparison of distortion from Stereophile with the older Linn klimax DS and this Rega dac R.
The Klimax DS uses two Wolfson 8741 and Rega dac R two Wolfson 8742.

Linn Klimax DS network D/A processor Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

www.stereophile.com

First Linn Klimax DS :

View attachment 320374
Rega Dac R :

View attachment 320376
As one can see, there is similaritys. The klimax DS is the best streamer I have heard. Maybe we are measuring the wrong things ?

Not measuring the wrong things. Rather:

Everything that can be heard can be measured. Not everything that can be measured can be heard.

A DAC would have to be absolutely broken to introduce anything audible. I wouldn’t consider this a “modern” DAC so maybe its shortcomings do creep into the limit of human hearing. Otherwise, when comparing modern DACs, almost all measurements are inaudible and all DACs sound the same. DACs are a solved problem. The only real differentiators are feature sets and cosmetics.

 

[voodooless]

One can use it only as a reclocker for spdif in/out ( for example between a digital transport and a dac inside an amplifier ) and the difference with less good digital gear is clearly audible .

Says who? Jitter performance is nothing special, how will this make it better vs something modern costing around $100? I also don't understand why you just don't use the Wiim Pro directly? It has a similar performance, an even more pronounced second harmonic, and no PS hum. No point in spending money on an old obsolete DAC.

 

[Robbo99999]

Old gear, but interesting to see these tested once in a while.

 

[Matt_Holland]

Distortion may have some value, but not AC mains noise. That’s one way I try to distinguish between bad unintentionally versus bad by intent.

The distortion can act as an inverted compressor.

I always wondered if subjective impressions of “musicality”, “energy”, “pace, rhythm and timing” could be attributed to certain types of non-linearities

 

[DSJR]

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.

It DOESN'T sound bad, honestly it doesn't, but then most of us can't hear -50dB distortion I reckon (and certain high end devices with estimated 40dB SINAD have been worshipped as the dogs danglies elsewhere in the past by certain UK based reviewers in HiFi News and HiFi Choice).

For the standards of 2009 or whenever it was, it's 'good enough' for purpose of sending an analogue music signal to an amp The thing is here, the last few years have seen an explosion in cheap, very simple, high production volume with low profit per unit dacs with no dealer backup should they fail and a rather differing value judgement. I'm not judging harshly as that's where my sensibilities are these days, but others less able to choose or discriminate, need to rely on their dealer to help and these dealers need their pound of flesh (Rega dealer margins here are NOT as generous as Naim or Linn offer for example).

The two dealers I know well that stock the DAC-R barely know about the Toppings, Schiits and SMSL's of this world and couldn't make any money out of them even if they did, as selling prices of these units would at least double if a proper warranty was added.

The kind of dacs I'd like to see modern-day tested are things like the Theta Pro's and so on, as I found them so good at the time if maybe limited today...

Forget all about this one. It's not aimed at 'us' here and is old news now anyway unless it gets a full update. Let it lie in peace and move on

P.S. Rega owner Roy Gandy remains convinced to this day that analogue and especially vinyl is where it's at and digital doesn't come close (recent interview regarding the new high end turntable they've launched). This may help explain why products like this have stagnated...

 

[Timmeon]

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.

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 ?

Giving a lot of credit to the consumer and the manufacturers with these takes.

This assumes:
1. People can repeatably identify the 'sound' between these different pieces of gear, unsighted
2. Two different formats and potentially different masters can magically produce a similar output. Could Rega and PS Audio be building their storied analog sound into their DACs? I'm impressed.
3. Clinical is a sound, and Chinese DACs possess this sound (???)

But maybe:
1. People identify with brands due to their marketing and/or cost/industrial design/region of manufacture

Preferences are based on multiple factors, sound only being one of them and from what I've learned from this forum and others, it's likely not even the most influential

 

[ta240]

I agree that it measures poorly but the cabling is not allover the place in my opinion. The yellow and green wires are earth wires and it's OK to have them like this. The mains noise comes from poor PCB design most probably (see the short yellow/green wire that sits on the PCB)......

For something that would be $1500 in today's money, why wouldn't they at least shorten the mains wires going to the transformer and twist those and the A/C out from the transformer?
They may not technically be 'all over the place' but it is sloppy and would have only taken seconds to improve.