ARRIVED: new Rega DAC - Page 7

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gazza 

USB to S/PDIF, huh? Anyone got a link to good quality converters? Also, is iTunes a good program to use sound quality wise?

M2Tech Hiface Evo, Audiophilleo 1, Empirical Audio Offramp, Wavelength Audio Wavelink are your best bets (prices range from $500 to over $1000). I'm using the Evo myself. THe new MF V-Link (only goes up to 96k) might be a good budget choice ($169), but it is new and I have not heard one.

For playback software, try Audirvana (free open source). I have ALL of the Mac playback apps, and at the moment, I like Audirvana the best. There is a bunch of OS X optimizations you can also do, but they are mostly applicable to a dedicated music server since many will reduce functionality for a general purpose computer.

BTW, iTunes sucks as far as sound quality compared to the special purpose audiophile software IMHO.

edited to add links

Quote:

Originally Posted by vert 

iTunes is probably fine if you have an SSD drive. Otherwise, with a regular hard drive, there are many playback software options that use memory mode on OS X. I use Decibel, but I think you have to pay for it now.

Nope - I have a dedicated 2010 Mac Mini music server with an internal SSD and OS X highly modified (stuff turned off like Spotlight, Time Machine, disk journaling, etc) and iTunes still sounds poor compared to some of the other software. It also does not automatically switch sample rates in your DAC to match the audio track - it uses poor quality Quicktime SRC code. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Novalis 

What?

 

Pretty sure it\s the other way around.

 

The toslink out of the Mac is a VERY high jitter connection. My experience with the Rega is that the direct USB connect is better with the caveat that it only does 16/44. I was using high end glass mini-toslink cable and a WireWorld Starlight USB cable as well. Using a cheap plastic toslink cable with a mini-toslink adapter will be even worse.

Coax S/PDIF (either BNC or RCA) is your friend at this point unless you have a high end firewire DAC or one of a couple specific async USB DAC's (Wavelength or maybe the W4S DAC-2).
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gazza 

Alright, I think I'll probably end up getting one of these.

 

Hopefully that should help me get the most out of the Rega.

The "dongle" Hiface you linked to is sonically inferior to the more expensive Hiface Evo

http://www.wickeddigital.com.au/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=joomlaplates.tpl&product_id=735&category_id=70&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=53

If you are price limited, I might consider the new Musical Fidelity V-Link over the dongle Hiface. 
 

There is a chap on another forum I frequent that is having trouble getting Audirvana to work with a dongle Hiface and his Levinson DAC. My Evo works flawlessly with my Rega using Audirvana. Not sure what might be going on, but FYI.

I also strongly recommend the Black Cat Veloce S/PDIF cable, although I'm not sure if he ships to Oz. It is quite good and reasonable in cost compared to a lot of the stuff out there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dura 

Finally, got one! Took a lot of travelling since it probably was the only one for sale in this country.

First impressions: it was more then worth it!

Soundstage is impressive cold out of the box, now I'll give us both some time to warm up and relax ;-)

 

Great! Give it about 72 hours or so and it will sound much better.