Review and Measurements of Auralic Vega DAC

[Jimster480]

This is kinda how the Yggdrasil should measure, given its price.

not the oppo or the benchmark

This hump appears due to this "THD mitigation" or whatever feature they have in the 9038.
Amir tested a DAC where the feature could be turned off and when turning it off the hump went away.

 

[andreasmaaan]

This is kinda how the Yggdrasil should measure, given its price.


This hump appears due to this "THD mitigation" or whatever feature they have in the 9038.
Amir tested a DAC where the feature could be turned off and when turning it off the hump went away.

Interesting! I couldn't find any info on this feature - do you know more about it or have a link?

 

[derp1n]

I don't think so. The feature you're referring to is "THD compensation" and it already existed in the 9028 series.

 

[dc655321]

Amir tested a DAC where the feature could be turned off and when turning it off the hump went away.

AFAIR, attribution of "the hump" to the THD compensation feature was a guess only, not confirmed.
Can you please show where this is indicated otherwise?

 

[Final]

Well, the Auralic is expensive, but it delivers the goods. Many expensive DAC's dont. Check out the horrendous measuremensts of this 17K USD R2R DAC :

https://www.stereophile.com/content/aqua-acoustic-quality-aqua-formula-xhd-da-processor-measurements

I for one am willing to pay extra for nice packaging as long as the interior is top notch. Not everyone wants a Topping on their altar. No offense intended. Kind of like watches. I am willing to pay for a nice looking watch made of exclusive materials, but it better show the time right.

 

[andreasmaaan]

Check out the horrendous measuremensts of this 17K USD R2R DAC

Another interesting example of an horrendous-measuring DAC getting a glowing review.

I honestly don't think it's about dishonesty or corruption, I think it's a combination of:

• human hearing being significantly less discerning than most audiophiles think it is
• expectation bias
• tendency to prefer some types/degrees of distortion

 

[Sal1950]

Well, the Auralic is expensive, but it delivers the goods. Many expensive DAC's dont. Check out the horrendous measuremensts of this 17K USD R2R DAC :

https://www.stereophile.com/content/aqua-acoustic-quality-aqua-formula-xhd-da-processor-measurements

I for one am willing to pay extra for nice packaging as long as the interior is top notch. Not everyone wants a Topping on their altar. No offense intended. Kind of like watches. I am willing to pay for a nice looking watch made of exclusive materials, but it better show the time right.

Perfectly understandable, we all like to have fine things. And at this price level you should expect stellar performance. Happy you have both.
Problems begin when some manufacturers offer something much less at a even higher cost like the example you gave, and then Stereophile wraps it up with this.

Conclusions
Aqua Acoustic Quality's Formula xHD is an extremely fine-sounding DAC whose warmth and ability to decode files of extremely high resolution should win it many admirers. Many will also applaud its designer's rejection of digital filters, oversampling, upsampling, and MQA. Thanks to the Formula xHD's ability to smooth over digital's rough edges, I don't hesitate to recommend that it be auditioned by anyone with $17,000 to spare, and whose system suffers from bright or harsh sound, or who values, above all else. the warmth and bloom often ascribed to analog sources.
Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content...a-xhd-da-processor-page-2#WL4yFmPFb4kCHLrK.99 "

Another fine example of the wool being pulled over audiophiles eyes by a media many put great trust in.

 

[bennetng]

Conclusions
Aqua Acoustic Quality's Formula xHD is an extremely fine-sounding DAC whose warmth and ability to decode files of extremely high resolution should win it many admirers. Many will also applaud its designer's rejection of digital filters, oversampling, upsampling, and MQA. Thanks to the Formula xHD's ability to smooth over digital's rough edges, I don't hesitate to recommend that it be auditioned by anyone with $17,000 to spare, and whose system suffers from bright or harsh sound, or who values, above all else. the warmth and bloom often ascribed to analog sources.

Even an Asian with broken English like me understand this highly sarcastic joke. Go to the measurement page and see how Fig.15 looks and read JA's comment.

 

[Jimster480]

AFAIR, attribution of "the hump" to the THD compensation feature was a guess only, not confirmed.
Can you please show where this is indicated otherwise?

Amir turned it off in the DAC that has the ability to toggle it and the hump went away. If I could remember the name of the DAC I would tell you, but if you look through all the reviews it was near the time he tested the DX7S.

 

[andreasmaaan]

Amir turned it off in the DAC that has the ability to toggle it and the hump went away. If I could remember the name of the DAC I would tell you, but if you look through all the reviews it was near the time he tested the DX7S.

What was the disadvantage of turning it off?

Perhaps @amirm recalls?

 

[Jimster480]

What was the disadvantage of turning it off?

Perhaps @amirm recalls?

Nothing at all, amir noted that it makes little sense since the measurements are better with it off lol

 

[Jimster480]

https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...f-pro-ject-pre-box-s2-digital.2370/post-66480

This is the thread its from, check it out. Read through the whole thread you can see the differences in the measurements when he turns off "distortion compensation".

 

[amirm]

Well, the Auralic is expensive, but it delivers the goods. Many expensive DAC's dont. Check out the horrendous measuremensts of this 17K USD R2R DAC :

https://www.stereophile.com/content/aqua-acoustic-quality-aqua-formula-xhd-da-processor-measurements

Wow, that his horrendous failure in how to design a balanced output:

10% distortion in bass?

And this is from a DAC that had been the darling of audiophiles last year.

 

[andreasmaaan]

Wow, that his horrendous failure in how to design a balanced output:

10% distortion in bass?

And this is from a DAC that had been the darling of audiophiles last year.

50% @ 20Hz

 

[Jimster480]

Wow, that his horrendous failure in how to design a balanced output:

10% distortion in bass?

And this is from a DAC that had been the darling of audiophiles last year.

Its how its just such a "warm and smooth tone" I'm sure the people will say who bought it.

 

[dc655321]

https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...f-pro-ject-pre-box-s2-digital.2370/post-66480

This is the thread its from, check it out. Read through the whole thread you can see the differences in the measurements when he turns off "distortion compensation".

Ah. Thanks for pointing out that review, @Jimster480.

It looks to my eyes that the degree of distortion (attributed to the compensation mechanism) poised by the Pro-Ject device is significantly less severe than that displayed by the Topping devices (D50 et al). OTOH, the Topping NX4 DSD does not display that symptom at all.

Any thoughts on the origin of those differences? @amirm?

 

[Jimster480]

Ah. Thanks for pointing out that review, @Jimster480.

It looks to my eyes that the degree of distortion (attributed to the compensation mechanism) poised by the Pro-Ject device is significantly less severe than that displayed by the Topping devices (D50 et al). OTOH, the Topping NX4 DSD does not display that symptom at all.

Any thoughts on the origin of those differences? @amirm?

I think that its simply the scaling on the graph overall. And obviously the devices have different design other than sharing the DAC chip.

 

[amirm]

Any thoughts on the origin of those differences? @amirm?

I don't have any more data unfortunately. I wish Topping would provide a menu option to turn distortion compensation option on and off to see what happens.

ESS doesn't release its data sheets without NDA so no way to know what is really going on.

 

[Jimster480]

I don't have any more data unfortunately. I wish Topping would provide a menu option to turn distortion compensation option on and off to see what happens.

ESS doesn't release its data sheets without NDA so no way to know what is really going on.

i emailed them about this and they said they were working on it. So maybe there will be a firmware update in the future?

 

[amirm]

i emailed them about this and they said they were working on it. So maybe there will be a firmware update in the future?

Good. Ping them again and see if they are still doing something about it.