New Rega Dac ?? [Archive] - The Art of Sound Forum

Ninanina

19-09-2014, 19:56

I know that Rega are making a MKII Dac which will be launched in October sometime..

Does anyone know anymore about this new Dac and how it may differ from their original Dac?

The only thing I know is that it will be remote controlled, which is of no interest to me.. but any other changes I know nothing.. ;)

synsei

19-09-2014, 20:29

I've heard nothing about it Bev so I will be following this thread with interest ;)

Andrei

19-09-2014, 21:39

Going from hazy memory here but I think their original dac copped some flack, esp on stereophile, as it was not asynchronous. I'll bet me boots that this is what has been addressed.

Ninanina

19-09-2014, 21:44

Going from hazy memory here but I think their original dac copped some flack, esp on stereophile, as it was not asynchronous. I'll bet me boots that this is what has been addressed.

Hi Andrei...
I am not normally such a thicky, but I have no idea what this asynchronous is... or am I just being really dense ???

Be kind to me.... ;);)

To me the Rega Dac I have sounds really superb... it was a massive upgrade to my previous 'cd only' set-up...

synsei

19-09-2014, 21:47

Ninanina

19-09-2014, 21:58

Don't understand the technicalities of it myself but I do know it is something to do with USB connectivity, which isn't of concern to me as I use the digital coaxial port as it performs better in this system ;)

Dave I don't use the USB connection at all... I ONLY use the coax input from my cd player

Andrei

19-09-2014, 22:27

Hi Andrei...
I am not normally such a thicky, but I have no idea what this asynchronous is... or am I just being really dense ???

Be kind to me.... ;);)

To me the Rega Dac I have sounds really superb... it was a massive upgrade to my previous 'cd only' set-up...

I found the article. http://www.stereophile.com/content/rega-dac-da-processor On page two it says:

"Asynchronous means that the clock on your computer (or server) and the clock in your DAC are out of sync—ie, they work independently of each other. I asked Terry Bateman about this stuff, since any USB DAC that isn't asynchronous is a nonstarter, at least for some hi-fi scribes."

At the end of this interview Rega in their reply have a good bitch.
I think all DACS are now Asynchronous, which means to me that the DAC (and not the source) will control the rate of input, which is said to reduce jitter. The current state of theory is that Asynchronous USB is the connection of choice. To my simple way of thinking this must be preferred as Co-ax has to send two channels of data and clocking information down a single line. However, having said that I was unable to hear a difference when I moved from Coaxial to USB. Oh well.

Paul Lange

22-09-2014, 18:30

I have the current Rega DAC and could not hear any difference between coax and USB either. I use coax so I can control the volume using the PC's remote control.

shevans

22-09-2014, 19:19

I gather the MKII version will support 24/192 on the USB input and have a remote, no idea on anything else.

synsei

22-09-2014, 19:32

I have the current Rega DAC and could not hear any difference between coax and USB either. I use coax so I can control the volume using the PC's remote control.

I use COAX simply because in my system it does sound slightly better and also because I've never been able to successfully set up my PC to output HD audio via the USB output, the option to do so does not appear in Win7 when using this method ;)

struth

22-09-2014, 20:18

My M1 dac that I use on system 2 upsamples everything so it all sounds the same. usb or coax to my ears anyways. Its a pretty good unit for a lot less than the Rega. the usb is also async.
I did hear from somewhere that the mk2 rega was to be async and upsampled as well, as customers are now demanding it

Paul Lange

22-09-2014, 20:43

synsei

22-09-2014, 21:02

I suspect that it is hardware dependant, some motherboards can do it, some cannot. This is in addition to setting the relevant Sound preferences in the Control Panel. I do find Window can be a bit of a pain in the arse in this respect, sometimes having to change settings in multiple windows.

I am familiar with the settings Paul it's just that they don't appear when I connect with USB (all's fine and dandy with COAX though). I've had it suggested to me that Windows requires a driver to be downloaded so it can recognise the Rega, I don't know how true that is, I did try hunting for one but to no avail. Incidentally, this is to pass HD audio files via USB, it works fine with Redbook rips and below ;)

RichB

22-09-2014, 21:13

Presumably if they're doing it with a remote it will be a DAC/preamp. If they threw a phono stage in it could be a bit of a Swiss army knife to many punters given how many Rega decks are are in circulation now with folk going back to vinyl.

I'm aware of the supposed USB shortcomings on the MK1 but it always sounded OK to my ears. However I've always used the toslink connection with an interface when connecting a computer. Just sounds smoother to my ears that way.

Hopefully they'll ditch the pointless filter settings as try though I might I'm buggerd if I can tell them apart.

Andrei

22-09-2014, 21:14

I am familiar with the settings Paul it's just that they don't appear when I connect with USB (all's fine and dandy with COAX though). I've had it suggested to me that Windows requires a driver to be downloaded so it can recognise the Rega, I don't know how true that is, I did try hunting for one but to no avail. Incidentally, this is to pass HD audio files via USB, it works fine with Redbook rips and below ;)

The manual for the new dac - http://www.rega.co.uk/uploads/dac-manual.pdf - says no driver required at pg 8. So I guess the same for the previous dac.
What software are you running Dave?

Paul Lange

22-09-2014, 21:33

The manual for the new dac - http://www.rega.co.uk/uploads/dac-manual.pdf - says no driver required at pg 8. So I guess the same for the previous dac.
What software are you running Dave?

Windows should automatically download the driver from the internet. Should being the operative word.

synsei

22-09-2014, 22:02

The manual for the new dac - http://www.rega.co.uk/uploads/dac-manual.pdf - says no driver required at pg 8. So I guess the same for the previous dac.
What software are you running Dave?

If you mean 'which version of Windows' that would be Win 7 ;)

Andrei

22-09-2014, 22:43

If you mean 'which version of Windows' that would be Win 7 ;)
I had already formed a theory that you were using Win7 (from Post 10). In Foobar for example you have a choice of outputs: File Menu → Preferences → Output → Device. It may be that you have an option there.

synsei

22-09-2014, 22:59

I'll get back to you about this in the morning as it is late here and I've had a couple of glasses of plonk. Plonk, tech shit et moi do not make good bed-fellows... :lol:

EDIT: "I had already formed a theory that you were using Win7 (from post 10)" - To be fair it wasn't the subtlest of clues, was it? I'd completely forgotten I'd posted it already :rfl:

Andrei

22-09-2014, 23:05

I'll get back to you about this in the morning as it is late here and I've had a couple of glasses of plonk. Plonk, tech shit et moi do not make good bed-fellows... :lol:
understand I, fed-bellows making tech glaases do not plonk on me either.

occamsrazor

11-10-2014, 05:53

Details here...

Http://www.analogueseduction.net/rega-dacs/rega-dac-r-asynchronous-24bit-192khz-usb-dac.html

Seems that the main differences are asynchronous USB input at 24-bit/192 kHz, 3 selectable filters instead of 5 on older model, remote control.

This article in French:

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adhf.fr%2Frega-dacr-dac-rega-chez-adhf-toulouse-xml-137_253-2102.html&edit-text=&act=url

...would suggest that the DAC remains the same "2 x Wolfson WM8742 with 3 selectable filters". So to take an educated guess at this, would you reckon the sound is likely to be identical for 16bit/44.1khz source material?