Auralic Vega: my review

[ejn1]

I'll try it.

JTW, he was using the digital input I believe...

[jtwrace]

JTW, he was using the digital input I believe...

 

What was the exact chain so I'm not wasting time here.

[ejn1]

What was the exact chain so I'm not wasting time here.

....And one more question: in coax input with Sonos as source i have volume level at 1, and music is little to loud. Sonos has fixed volume. Is any option to decrease volume?...

 

From the OP earlier in the thread...

[jtwrace]

....And one more question: in coax input with Sonos as source i have volume level at 1, and music is little to loud. Sonos has fixed volume. Is any option to decrease volume?...

 

From the OP earlier in the thread...

Thanks for that. Not worth doing then as I use the below...

[earflappin]

Anybody A/B the Bricasti and Vega?

[dr.sah]

Thanks for that. Not worth doing then as I use the below...

 

Have same situation with mac mini as source.

[InfernoSTi]

I thought I would post a video of my Auralic Vega's attenuation…not a good recording, etc. Just to give a relative impression of the attenuation levels. At 100, it is a nice loud side of normal listening. At 70, it is on the quiet side of normal listening. At 20, it is very quiet…in the room, you can hear it but not on the video. At 1, it is nearly fully attenuated, even in the room.

 

 

A passive pre amp (say a nice stepped attenuator or something or at least the attenuating RCA plugs) is what you need UNLESS there is something wrong with your Auralic Vega's attenuation. I would absolutely be talking to Auralic before I added anything because it isn't normal that "1" is too loud for quiet listening.

 

Best,

John

[jtwrace]

OK, running my 2009 Mac Mini to the Vega and it direct to my ATSAH (NC1200) amps was perfect. On "1" the volume is very soft and by "50" it was gettin' good. So, no worries here as it works just fine.

 

No idea what issue(s) you could have.

[Wang Xuanqian]

volume level 1 means about -50dB output level which is very small. Since the digital volume control is controlled by software and the chance that software goes wrong(only partly) is less than the chance of an airplane crash, I would look into other possibility such as hardware failure or level mismatch.

 

The stock NC1200 module has a pretty low input sensitivity and should work perfectly with VEGA unless the you are using it to drive some high efficient loudspeaker with 100dB sensitivity or you are listening at very small room.

[jtwrace]

volume level 1 means about -50dB output level which is very small. Since the digital volume control is controlled by software and the chance that software goes wrong(only partly) is less than the chance of an airplane crash, I would look into other possibility such as hardware failure or level mismatch.

 

The stock NC1200 module has a pretty low input sensitivity and should work perfectly with VEGA unless the you are using it to drive some high efficient loudspeaker with 100dB sensitivity or you are listening at very small room.

 

I should note that my speakers are 93dB sensitive. Worked fine.

[dr.sah]

at volume 1 I het low volume level, just little too much for night listening, or background musci. It is not to loud for normal listenitg, don't get me wrong. But OK, leave it. let's continue with Vega topic.

[Wang Xuanqian]

at volume 1 I het low volume level, just little too much for night listening, or background musci. It is not to loud for normal listenitg, don't get me wrong. But OK, leave it. let's continue with Vega topic.

 

I would say that signal level at volume=1 should be very very small and could not be loud for any situation even for nigh listening. If you can share more information, I will still be able to help you and find out if anything is wrong in your system.

[jtwrace]

I would say that signal level at volume=1 should be very very small and could not be loud for any situation even for nigh listening. If you can share more information, I will still be able to help you and find out if anything is wrong in your system.

 

Since "dr. sah" and myself have the same dac (vega) and amps (NC1200 based) perhaps we can both measure vdc output at the amps at a few specific volume ranges on the Vega.

 

dr. sah-I'm assuming that your NC1200's & SMPS' are stock. Right?

[dr.sah]

yes, they are stock.

 

 

we can do over PM, don't want to anyone get wrong impression.

[dr.sah]

can you recomend me any good USB cable for VEGA.

[phaeton]

I'm using a Wireworld Starlight 7 , nothing "esoteric" but from what I can hear, very good. I've heard no difference in A-B comparison with Wireworld Silver Starlight and JPS Superconductor3

 

many have claimed that Vega usb port is among the best usb implementation, so I think an ultra-expensive-super-esoteric usb cable is not really needed..... just IMHO of course....... and, again of course, I'm not saying that in general usb cables are not relevant........ (instead, with other dacs I've owned, they were very relevant)

[ejn1]

Furutech entry level for me.

[earflappin]

AURALiC VEGA D/A processor | Stereophile.com

 

Guess this has been out for a bit, but a very strong review and excellent measurements.

[hifitubes]

Interesting phenomenon...

 

I can play EXACT clock all day using various sample rates like 192 or 352kHz, and DSD.

 

As soon as I start using my special Video Zone, with some custom DSP for night listening, at 48kHz or 44kHz, I start to get dropouts.

 

Its' quite repeatable. I use WASAPI for the Video Zone, or Auralic ASIO, and settings for the zone are very similar to Audio except for the extra DSP. Adding jitter?

[cjf]

Hello, I've been following this thread with some interest and was wondering if anyone is using this DAC with a Voyage Linux music source? If so, have you experienced any of the numerous driver related issues I've seen posted thus far by those running a Windows based system?

 

My current setup which uses Voyage Linux as a music server and a Classe CP800 as a DAC/Pre requires no drivers at all and runs smooth as butter. I've also used the previous version of the Ayre QB9 in the past with Voyage Linux and had the same results. It just works!

 

BUT..... As this is audio and like most audiophiles I am never able to fully quench my thirst of achieving sonic nirvana so I've been thinking of picking up another DAC to see if I can better the SQ of the DAC found in my Classe CP800 which unfortunately won't do 24/192 over USB. Despite this short coming, its does still sound very good on everything played thru it none the less.

 

Two contender's I am considering at the moment are this Auralic Vega as well and the new Ayre QB9-DSD but in all honesty it seems to me that after reading this thread the Vega has quite a few bugs that still need to be worked out before I should seriously consider it for trouble free playback.

 

The only reason I am still holding on to the idea of using the Vega for my purposes is because I would not be using its internal Preamp capabilities so the issues with the overly "Hot" output voltage and the attenuated volume at low levels should not come into the picture with my use of the unit. But putting those things aside for a moment, one thing the unit MUST do reliably is playback music without needing to F around with it each time I call upon it to do its job. Since I am convinced that using a Linux based music source is the way to go I would first need to know the playback issues being reported in this thread from the Windows crowd won't crop up in a Linux based system before laying down my $3.5K

 

Thanks for any info you can provide.

[Wang Xuanqian]

Interesting phenomenon...

 

I can play EXACT clock all day using various sample rates like 192 or 352kHz, and DSD.

 

As soon as I start using my special Video Zone, with some custom DSP for night listening, at 48kHz or 44kHz, I start to get dropouts.

 

Its' quite repeatable. I use WASAPI for the Video Zone, or Auralic ASIO, and settings for the zone are very similar to Audio except for the extra DSP. Adding jitter?

 

The DSP request CPU time that may result in operation system cant response to USB interrupt quickly then lead to drop out.

[Wang Xuanqian]

Hello, I've been following this thread with some interest and was wondering if anyone is using this DAC with a Voyage Linux music source? If so, have you experienced any of the numerous driver related issues I've seen posted thus far by those running a Windows based system?

 

My current setup which uses Voyage Linux as a music server and a Classe CP800 as a DAC/Pre requires no drivers at all and runs smooth as butter. I've also used the previous version of the Ayre QB9 in the past with Voyage Linux and had the same results. It just works!

 

BUT..... As this is audio and like most audiophiles I am never able to fully quench my thirst of achieving sonic nirvana so I've been thinking of picking up another DAC to see if I can better the SQ of the DAC found in my Classe CP800 which unfortunately won't do 24/192 over USB. Despite this short coming, its does still sound very good on everything played thru it none the less.

 

Two contender's I am considering at the moment are this Auralic Vega as well and the new Ayre QB9-DSD but in all honesty it seems to me that after reading this thread the Vega has quite a few bugs that still need to be worked out before I should seriously consider it for trouble free playback.

 

The only reason I am still holding on to the idea of using the Vega for my purposes is because I would not be using its internal Preamp capabilities so the issues with the overly "Hot" output voltage and the attenuated volume at low levels should not come into the picture with my use of the unit. But putting those things aside for a moment, one thing the unit MUST do reliably is playback music without needing to F around with it each time I call upon it to do its job. Since I am convinced that using a Linux based music source is the way to go I would first need to know the playback issues being reported in this thread from the Windows crowd won't crop up in a Linux based system before laying down my $3.5K

 

Thanks for any info you can provide.

 

VEGA is using XMOS USB receiver and wont request a driver for OS X and Linux system for all sampling rate from 44.1K to 384K. I have personally tested Voyage Linux and it works without problem. I think most of the so called 'bugs' are coming from playback software and operation, the most common one is when the playback software quite, it does not release the ALSA device and result in no sound in future playback, that will request the DAC to be rebooted. I dont see this as an hardware design failure but rather a software based. We have a very similar problem at the initial stage when we develop ARIES but soon to fix it after we find the problem

[aive]

Just a quick question, sorry if this has been asked before - Is the ESS9018 chip used in the Vega capable of directly converting DSD64 and DSD128 at their native frequencies/clocks? Just wondering as I can't see support for DSD64 or DSD128 in the ESS9018 documentation (the limited brochure they have on their website) or specification of a 'max input DSD frequency limit'. I see that the max PCM input rate is ~1.5 Mhz...

 

This is all coming about as I'm thinking of up sampling all my music to DSD128 to play through the Vega - but there's no point if the Vega doesn't process/convert it natively (i.e. if it down samples it prior to conversion). Much like how the EMMLabs DAC2X performs a DSD up sampling in hardware prior to conversion - hey if it's good enough for a 15K DAC, why not

[Daverz]

Im reading over net that Vega is not good in low volume as preamp. Is that truth or not?

Im thinking to buy Vega, and use it as dac and preamp.

 

The problem is high-gain, high-sensitivity amps, and the high output of the Vega. The former is fairly standard with amps, and the later is standard for DACs; why can't the amp and DAC people get together on this.

 

What I would recommend is using some inline attenuators to reduce gain. I've used a pair of Rockwell -10dB inline XLR attenuators with success. I've noticed that the attenuators can cause a softening of the highs with some gear (they cut the effective input impedance of the amps), but with the very low output impedance of the Vega, there is no softening.

[aive]

Posted this on head-fi, but thought it'd be appropriate here too

 

I'm thinking about getting an Auralic Vega and playing back my music (100% PCM) converted and up sampled to 2xDSD (DSD128) via USB. Could people, more experienced than I in these matters, please provide some feedback re this idea? Still in planning stages of DAC purchase with sights set on Yggy but in case that option takes too long, I'm thinking about the Vega as an alternative.

Started thinking about this arrangement based on information released re the PS Audio Directstream and DSD - I guess I'm trying to 'emulate'/achieve some of the features in more expensive DACs with the following:

- Increasing sampling rate to push noise further into the ultrasonic band and with the use of the Mode 5 filter in the Vega (-3 dB @ 70 kHz) I should be able to preserve more original high frequency content. As an example, EMMDAC2X up samples all music to DSD128 in hardware prior to conversion. Also the Directstream LPF is apparently -3 dB @ 80 kHz (link).

- Bypass the PCM-to-DSD decoder in the ES9018 chip by transcoding in the PC. There are some thoughts that the integrated PCM decoder in the ES9018 may be detrimental to sound quality.

- Hopefully run the Vega in EXACT clock mode to minimise jitter.

Think it'll make a difference? Thoughts?