Ok, so yesterday I had a final comparison of the V800 against the Rega DAC.
System I used was a friends' system: Accuphase Stereoblock, Preamp and CDP and B&W 802D speakers (amazing system!).
We did lots of comparisons with different settings of each DAC and compared it also to the Accuphase CDP.
Results:
- The Rega DAC always sounded warm and a littly bassy, gave instruments and voices more body but it was much "slower", less accurate, less dynamic and less transparent than the other two
- The V800 was amazingly fast and transparent but rendered voices and guitars a little bit too lean (at least, for his system). Soundstage was smaller, but still accurate in terms of placement.
- The stupid accuphase CDP delivered the best of both worlds. Lots of body, great soundstage, transparent, fast .... damn that thing! I forgot the model number (probably a DP-67), but he said it would go for around 2500 Euro used, so I guess it's "allowed" to be better :)
- A "just for fun" test was to connect the V800 with the balanced outputs (we only used coax to have a fair comparison until then). First impression: Much, much louder. Is that normal? Or is that an accuphase amp sensitivity thing? Second impression: Probably even more accurate, more texture ... but it was difficult to compare cause of the different output levels.
Still, there's the possibility that the V800 would best the Accuphase CDP with the balanced output!
So, bottom line: The Rega goes back to the dealer, I like the V800 and have to find a way to make my RC-L control unit (which is basically an equalizer especially tailored for my speakers) work with balanced in/out ... else I have to find new speakers, the Canton Ergo RC-L I use weren't intended to work without the control unit and they just sound flat, harsh and bland without it :/
Did anyone else here make a comparison of the coax out vs. balanced out?
Edited by Taurui - 4/20/13 at 5:48am
