[realmassy]

Update on my Rega: I've decided to sent it back unfortunately. It's a good dac, but I'm not entirely sure is better, to my ears, than the Havana.
Better separation, blacker background, but the Havana is smoother and easier on the ears, especially with baroque music, which is 80% of my listening.
During the week I've been using the M2Tech Young as well. This has a complete different sound, truly exceptional, articulate and clean mid-bass, best I've ever heard probably. Tonally brighter, with a good stage. I can see someone may prefer the Rega over the Young.
In my setup the Young is maybe too forward, the Stax need something more laid back...so I'll give the Calyx a try next week

 

[WarrenR]

Hi
 
I was looking at a young dac before I got my Rega.  I had a good deal from Keith from Purite Audio but changed my mind at the last minute, mainly because the rest of my system that I was buying was all Rega.  I decided to keep the synergy intact.  The young also benefits from a third party power supply - it is meant to be a step up in SQ, so it may be worth looking at if you decide to keep the young. 
 
Too bad about the Rega though, but at the end of the day system synergy is important.  A different dac seems like a better choice in your system.
 
Cheers.

 

[realmassy]

Keith is "da man", nice guy to deal with. Where are you based Warren? If you're not too far from Leeds you're welcome to listen to it

 

[WarrenR]

Hi Mate.
 
Yeah Keith is a top bloke.
 
I'm near Liverpool mate.  If It was closer I'd bob down for a listen, but its a bit of a drive.  Also, I don't want to get my head turned.  I'm happy with my system, don't want to get into the upgradeitis trap just yet, because basically I can't afford it

. 
 
I'm hoping the Rega setup will see me out for a number of years.
 
I will probably invest a further £500 next year into my setup and get a Groovetracer for my p3 24 TT and possibly a AP2 or something similar, then leave it at that.
 
Cheers for the offer anyway

 

[MichaelPemulis]

Hey all - I have a rega brio-r on the way, and am going to be looking for a second-hand Rega DAC to pair with it.
 
I have a setup question.  
 
I am going to be using a 2010 MacBook Pro as my music server (there isn't much flexibility on this, I am not going to get a mini just to have it be a music server, at least for now).  I am wondering what the best setup would be with the Rega DAC - I am looking to have my connection solution cost less than $100 (so things like Audiophilleo2, while clearly awesome, are out).  
 
I see that people say that the USB connection is kind of sub-par because it's not asynch.  For those of you with a similar setup (mac, maybe a brio or brio-r), what have you found to be the best way to connect the mac to the DAC?
 
Appreciate all help/answers in advance, thank you.

 

[starfish]

Quote:

Hey all - I have a rega brio-r on the way, and am going to be looking for a second-hand Rega DAC to pair with it.
 
I have a setup question.  
 
I am going to be using a 2010 MacBook Pro as my music server (there isn't much flexibility on this, I am not going to get a mini just to have it be a music server, at least for now).  I am wondering what the best setup would be with the Rega DAC - I am looking to have my connection solution cost less than $100 (so things like Audiophilleo2, while clearly awesome, are out).  
 
I see that people say that the USB connection is kind of sub-par because it's not asynch.  For those of you with a similar setup (mac, maybe a brio or brio-r), what have you found to be the best way to connect the mac to the DAC?
 
Appreciate all help/answers in advance, thank you.

For your stated budget, your best option, assuming the Rega's native 16/48 USB will not suffice, is to use a Musical Fidelity V-Link and connect through the optical or coax on the Rega.  V-Link new is around $99 which I just saw on Audio Advisor's site.  Then you can reach 24/96 asynch.
 

 

[MichaelPemulis]

Thanks for the tip - any tips for which type of cable to use (optical or coax) and/or options that would still keep the cost around my budget?

 

[WarrenR]

I run a mac mini and use a V-Link connected to my Rega Dac.  I use a coax connection from the V-Link to the Dac. 
 
The Rega Dac is meant to be galvanically isolated on USB and coax connection so any noise the Mac Mini/V-link passes through to the Dac should be supressed.  Personally, using coax, I haven't heard any computer noise whatsoever passing through to the Rega Dac via coax.
 
My amp and speakers are Brio-R and Rega RS3 floor standers.
 
Its my first 'proper' hi fi and I'm over the moon with it.

 

[MichaelPemulis]

What type of coax cord are you running?  Please let me know!

 

[dura]

Quote:

What type of coax cord are you running?  Please let me know!

 
When I got the Rega I started with an Oyaide DR-510; a well build pure silver cable that I already used and was very well reviewed here and there.
Never really thought about it much, until about month ago I decided to experiment, and changed it to my old Canare Digiflex Gold, with two ferrite cores.
The Oyaide sound very smooth on my system, too smooth; the Digiflex gives more bass, more treble and more solid mids, with clearly more depth.
I do not understand why the difference is so big, all cables can add is jitter and noise.
I've to conclude, judging from the sound, the Oyaide actually gives more jitter (jitter in my experience giving a less detailed sound, diminishing sound stage size) and the Digiflex, currently priced at 1/8 of the Oyaide, in my system clearly is the better cable. 
With my former dac, an Audio-GD REF5DSP it was the other way around.
But why??

 

[WarrenR]

Just used a cheapo fisual off ebay.
 
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fisual-Digital-Coaxial-Cable-Pro-Install-Series-0-75m-/380309709989?pt=UK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item588c39a4a5
 
Sounds fine.

 

[ArjanB]

I have the Rega DAC also for a few months now. The best results for me in the end are my Dune 3.0 as the source for
my digital FLAC files. (coax connection), to my ears much better than through a labtop.I'm really happy with it now, but i have the feeling it took some months to burn it in completely. The soundstage is big and the bass goes deep, surprising for his pricerange. I never use my Vincent S6 cd player anymore, it almost sounds the same to me...
 
Next purchase will be a NAS, but man they are so expensive if you want some more bay's in it

 

[starfish]

Qnap have some reasonably priced NAS products (1u and 2u drive bays) and have a module for Squuezebox server and for iTunes server ,which makes it easy to get things running.  I think 2x drives in RAID with 2-3TB drives would be more than adequate for most cd collections of several thousand.  Beyond that, you are getting into enterprise territory applications.  You will end up spending less for the NAS setup than you would for a DAC.  

 

[ArjanB]

Quote:

Qnap have some reasonably priced NAS products (1u and 2u drive bays) and have a module for Squuezebox server and for iTunes server ,which makes it easy to get things running.  I think 2x drives in RAID with 2-3TB drives would be more than adequate for most cd collections of several thousand.  Beyond that, you are getting into enterprise territory applications.  You will end up spending less for the NAS setup than you would for a DAC.  

I've seen them, but i'm thinking about a 4 bay with 2TB HDD in it, in Holland they are about €900 (NAS+HDD), but then i'm okay for years.

 

[dura]

Quote:

I've seen them, but i'm thinking about a 4 bay with 2TB HDD in it, in Holland they are about €900 (NAS+HDD), but then i'm okay for years.

Hoi.
Wow, you got a large music collection! My 1300 FLAC albums, take up about 300GB.
Personally, I prefer a PC above a NAS; it can do everything a NAS can do and much more, for the same price; you can upgrade and change things, make it more silent, give it a completely different use if so desired later, hang it on a router and share the drives if you need too; and it's faster. And even the best NAS is a slow PC (which is basically what it is).
And if you got a really large music collection, the index is getting very large too and you need more then 1GB internal memory and a reasonably fast processor to get fast access; especally if you use squeezebox, like I do.
So I made my own PC, 4 1-2TB drives inside, SSD for system, and it does everything well; gaming, squeezebox, surfing etc. etc. Best thing is, if you need a new, faster PC: just replace the mobo and the processor and memory and keep the rest, and for relatively not much money you got a brandnew fast machine. there a sync programs that can keep your drives or maps copied, automatically or manual, so it is as safe as RAID.