Rega DAC-R DAC Review

[antcollinet]

And now comes the question - how can that be ?

The most likely answer to that question is cognitive bias.

 

[restorer-john]

Yeah Vinyl sucks. Digital is the right way to go. Analogue guys are just delusional.

Rather extreme accusation wouldn't you say?

Plenty of HiFi aficionados who grew up with records, open reel, cassette, were there for the introduction of CD and everything that has come along since, still enjoy spinning vinyl now and then. I sure do and I have a few dozen turntables.

This Rega D/A converter may not be current state of the art, but it has a ton of inputs, is well made and does the job.

 

[dogmamann]

Rather extreme accusation wouldn't you say?

Plenty of HiFi aficionados who grew up with records, open reel, cassette, were there for the introduction of CD and everything that has come along since, still enjoy spinning vinyl now and then. I sure do and I have a few dozen turntables.

This Rega D/A converter may not be current state of the art, but it has a ton of inputs, is well made and does the job.

HiFi aficionados -?! No ! Probably audiophiles. Digital has way more fidelity. It’s not hifi compared to analogue.

 

[tarikuz]

English snake oil...

 

[Talisman]

HiFi aficionados -?! No ! Probably audiophiles. Digital has way more fidelity. It’s not hifi compared to analogue.

This type of absurd extremism is what drives many moderate users away from ASR.
This is a passion, many users also on ASR love and use vinyl, what they don't do is come up with absurd arguments about how vinyl is even better, but this doesn't mean they can't get pleasure from it, just like tube amplifiers.

 

[antcollinet]

HiFi aficionados -?! No ! Probably audiophiles. Digital has way more fidelity. It’s not hifi compared to analogue.

What a weird divisive comment. You do realise it is possible to enjoy more than one format, don't you? Even when they are not all "the most hifii".

 

[restorer-john]

This type of absurd extremism is what drives many moderate users away from ASR.

Exactly.

 

[Sokel]

HiFi aficionados -?! No ! Probably audiophiles. Digital has way more fidelity. It’s not hifi compared to analogue.

Have a look at the Tekton's thread,the very first picture.
Above the speaker and to the right is a reel-to-reel with a SINAD at approximately 50db.

Time and time again Amir tells us how nicely plays and how he and his friends absolutely enjoys it.

My absolute favorite music (classical) at 50s and 60s was produced by valves,monkey coffins and written on this stuff.
Yet again is gorgeous,no noise,no strange FR,no nothing.

Chasing a better way is absolutely desirable (I have stuff measuring at the background this very moment) ,needless hate is not.

 

[restorer-john]

What a weird divisive comment. You do realise it is possible to enjoy more than one format, don't you? Even when they are not all "the most hifii".

I think hope he's just being obtuse for the attention...

 

[Purité Audio]

English snake oil...

Not snake oil, just a turntable company expanding into an area in which they had no expertise, I remember Rega purchased a number of M2Tech ‘hiface’ usb/s/pdif converters from us, presumably for evaluation.
A friend of mine was asked to design a dac for a U.K. boutique hi-fi company it was no more than the evaluation board from TI, but marketed as analogue/musical grain free etc etc.
Keith

 

[Gremlins]

I read these were musical.

Haha, just let me remind, in a good maner, that you can read eveeything when it commes to audio product
Too many audiophiles rave about a product on forums

 

[Gremlins]

rega people like the rega sound

that's it

this unit does have a remote... there's a manual too

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!

Well, stereophile or others are not audio gear bibles in my opinion... i stopped reading these commercials articles, they always bring down conclusion to selling prices
10000 e item sound better than 5000e item that sounds better than 1000e item ....

 

[BDWoody]

HiFi aficionados -?! No ! Probably audiophiles. Digital has way more fidelity. It’s not hifi compared to analogue.

I guess I'm not in the right club, since I enjoy playing my records sometimes.

No need to be quite so...whatever you call that.

 

[Billy Budapest]

My absolute favorite music (classical) at 50s and 60s was produced by valves,monkey coffins and written on this stuff.

Monkey coffins?

 

[voodooless]

Monkey coffins?

What are "monkey coffins" exactly and what are "better" designs/alternatives?

Hello! Just found Peter Aczel's (RIP) "Journalistic Legacy" article about his experience and knowledge of six decades of audio: http://www.biline.ca/audio_critic/audio_critic_web1.htm#acl He mentioned "monkey coffins" in his article and as far as I understand he was not a fan of such...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Sokel]

Monkey coffins?

More like this absolutely basic,thin-walled (or not) speakers of the era.
It was mostly the color,not the shape.
Like a not so nice solution to a need.

(yet they performed miracles in studios with those)

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

I thought about the last exchanges in this thread and ...

We are living interesting times right now... And the end of an era. Hi-Fi gears are becoming, perhaps have become commodities:
You need an almost perfect DAC-head[phones amplifier? $9.95 (apple Dongle, perhaps the new version is with USB-C, which would make it universal?).
An almost perfect amplifier capable of 250 wpc at 4 ohms and with THD way under audibility .. $500 (perhaps less)..
You need a close to perfect Control Center for your audio system, complete with DRC? $1500.oo (could be less, I have arbitrarily chosen the Denon AVR-3800 because of pre-amp outputs.
You need a close-to-perfect audio transducer ..$49.95 , for a TCZ Blue ...
Need a DAC + Amp + EQ for your headphones ... $125.oo for the Qudelix 5...
...
...
This commoditization, hurts. Established companies and, strangely some aficionados. For some , it means the ends of the fun pursuit .. chase...
This REGA dac is from a company known for good solidly priced turntables, perhaps amps, back in the days .. when it made sense to have a TT, because that was what was mostly available (Yeah! there were FM Tuners, Cassette and R2R , then but ... people mostly bought LP) ... This DAC is not competitive with wares routinely produced by the Topping, SMSL, of this new World , etc .. simply is not. One would have to construct reasons to acquire it.. most of these would be subjective: Looks, construction? "feel" ...

If it is for sound .. then there are cheaper, better alternatives .. Based on what the measurements show, this is an audibly transparent device with no sound of its own thus, would be undistinguishable from an Apple dongle ... so what should someone fork out >$1000.oo to acquire it? When there are better and much less expensive products?

Now about the LP and digital issues... We must remain polite. People enjoyment is a personal issue.. and one should respect someone choice of entertainment but ... The truth, verifiable and incontrovertible , remains that digital is superior to LP and its analog cousins (R2R, Cassettes.. whatever).. Personal preferences may have someone leaning toward the sound of LP and/or its analog cousins .. again such "sound" can also be achieved with digital technology ... perhaps the fun would be lost , without the handling and other ritual associated with LP playing but if it is for sound ... and price, and return on investment? Convenience? Performance? Digital won by a landslide...

Peace.

 

[Haskil]

Ce type d’extrémisme absurde est ce qui éloigne de nombreux utilisateurs modérés de l’ASR.
C'est une passion, de nombreux utilisateurs également sur ASR aiment et utilisent le vinyle, ce qu'ils ne font pas, c'est inventer des arguments absurdes sur le fait que le vinyle est encore meilleur, mais cela ne veut pas dire qu'ils ne peuvent pas en profiter, juste comme les amplificateurs à tubes.

This type of absurd extremism is what drives many moderate users away from ASR.
This is a passion, many users also on ASR love and use vinyl, what they don't do is come up with absurd arguments about how vinyl is even better, but this doesn't mean they can't get pleasure from it, just like tube amplifiers.

Don't forget that the audiophile press instilled in the minds of its readers that vinyl was superior to digital, that musicality was on the side of 100% analog... and this doxa is still present in the discourse of many audiophiles who still reject digital...

I own three LP turntables, several cartridges - including Shure V15 V, Audio Technica AT 33 -, several phono preamps including a replica of a large Marantz tube, a metal protractor from Dr. Feikert to adjust the arms and I have about 1000 LPs left of the 30,000 I owned... However, I know what to expect when playing 33 rpm records: as a classical music lover, I can only be frustrated if I listen to the organ, the piano, a symphony orchestra, an opera with vocal soloists and choirs...

High fidelity is moving away and only nostalgia remains... But I read the audiophile forums. .. and therefore this statement which seems excessive is in reality only a sort of anti-venom injected when necessary... Because yes, the right direction to take when we are heading today is the digital and not vinyl... and as a hifi brand it is certainly not Rega which for 40 years has offered modest performance electronics which, through a fascinating return of judgment, draw their musicality from the great modesty of their performances. ..

 

[NDRQ]

Just as i expected, the n+1 big audiophile brand garbage..
Poorly engineered device, that only sold by audiophool marketing.

 

[DSJR]

I wouldnt extrapolate this singular event of measurement tests as an overall revelation of the British HiFi industry in general. It's just WhatHiFi that gives it a bad name these days with their incompetence.

Rega originally were very smug and isolationist - them and their dealers - and NEVER submitted gear for review. HiFi Choice (then in A5 books) obtained samples of Planar 2 and 3 plus the Goldring made RB100 cartridge, mainly for the RB series of tonearms which really DO set high standards still I feel and over subsequent decades, the odd bit and piece has found its way into mag reviews. In recent years, now retired sales manager Paul Darwin posted interesting Rega-based articles in Youtube and was a regular on 'Pink Fish Media' forum answering questions and so on about the gear.

What HiFi in the UK was always populist bottom-of-the-barrell in our view further up the tree and we despaired at the 5* ratings given to suspect short lived models quite often. Anyway, WTF (as some of us call it) has been a TV orientated rag for many years now, the 'HiFi' side a kind of add-on all too often I think despite the title.


Finding this site a few years back and reading so many comments from around the world, just shows how 'isolationist' the entire UK market has been since the late 70's and I feel very sad that the prime time of my industry career didn't have 'hands-on' to some of the serious stuff from around the world back then. best not drift further from this review, but looking at internal pics of this dac, with a more open mindset and gaze to what the far eastern makers are doing, I feel it could be so much better and arguably cheaper to populate the main board. One day, I feel the dreaded 'digital' is going to dominate their gaze, but while the company founder is still tinkering there in the background, I doubt it will in the short term as turntable based systems are where they seem to want to be.