[mitchb]

My Taurus is sounding sweet with 360 hours on it. I don't have the Vega but it sounds good with my PWT PWD MK2 combo. It sounds quite a lot better than it did with my Talk Electronics Thunder 6 which is also a decent player.

 

[estreeter]

+1
The Vega is my go to recommendation for anyone looking for a DAC at $4k or under. It and the Chord Hugo I think are he top two right now, I have not heard the Hugo but some very trusted friends have

 
The only caution I would give folk re the Hugo is to control their expectations - I don't view this as a product that slams you in the face in that first 5 minutes of an audition, and if you can take your own headamp and cans to the audition, so much the better. My experience with the Hugo into my Marantz speaker amp has me wanting to dash down the local dealer and ask if I can audition some of his more expensive amps and speakers, but that would almost certainly end with a credit card transaction I'm sure I'd regret  
 
A lot of the forum blowhards who've dumped on the Hugo for its combination of form factor/battery power/price have absolutely no clue re. how much work Chord have put into this dac. I still question the lighting choices and I believe they could have used a larger case to house all those input/output options, but John Franks clearly has a vision for the Hugo that goes well beyond the usual 'portable DAC/amp' paradigm we've grown accustomed to on Head-Fi. I just have to stop dragging mine onto the bed for late-night listening sessions and accept that it's time to bite the bullet and start using it as a dedicated DAC. 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cziptszGsZc

 

[Larryonfire]

I think I stops after the Vega buy, no Hugo, the wallet is kind of empty now. 

 

[mitchb]

I heard the Vega/Taurus combo today and it sounded good but it had a few things holding it back.  The Vega dac was cold and the cabling was not that good but it did sound a lot better than the Teac dac the Taurus was hooked up to previously. As well I heard the Senheisser HD800 with the combo and although a good headphone(huge soundstage) I much prefer the sound of the LCD-3's which were not available for audition. I felt really good however as although a nice setup I much prefer the sound in my music room with my PS Audio PWT/PWD MK2 running my LCD-3's with good cables all around. Then again the Vega was cold and the cabling was not that good. It did sound nice but the HD800 are not my favorite headphones.

 

[jtwrace]

 
I heard the Vega/Taurus combo today and it sounded good but it had a few things holding it back.  The Vega dac was cold and the cabling was not that good but it did sound a lot better than the Teac dac the Taurus was hooked up to previously. As well I heard the Senheisser HD800 with the combo and although a good headphone(huge soundstage) I much prefer the sound of the LCD-3's which were not available for audition. I felt really good however as although a nice setup I much prefer the sound in my music room with my PS Audio PWT/PWD MK2 running my LCD-3's with good cables all around. Then again the Vega was cold and the cabling was not that good. It did sound nice but the HD800 are not my favorite headphones.

IF the Vega is off (master switch) it MUST be powered on for at least an hour to sound it's best.  This is not some Pseudo thing...it's for the Femto Clock to be warm and Mr. Wang strongly suggests that one makes sure it's warm before listening.  However, it doesn't hurt anythig but for optimal sound, let it get warm.  
 
Here are the instructions from Mr. Wang:
 
VEGA requires a warm-up to achieve best performance for two reasons; First, the Femto-grade clock needs a long time to become stable, like the crystal inside a GPS and communication station. It requires at least one hour powered-on to meet specification. Second, with the Class-A output module, the bias current will reach its correct value when in thermal balance, this requires about one hour to heat-up.  One interesting measure is the THD on XLR and USB port jitter performance when the machine is completely cold, and then running for 3 hours. I believe you will see a measureable THD difference when the XLR output is driving heavy load (below 600 ohm); the jitter performance will also be different slightly.
 
To keep the unit at its best performance, we have designed a function named ‘SLEEP’ (enabled by default). By setting the unit in Sleep status, the clock and analog circuit remain powered on. I suggest using the sleep function during daily play so VEGA will sound best any time you’re ready for a listening session.

 

[mitchb]

I'm aware of this. I'm a firm believer of component burn in and warm up.  I have no doubt the Vega must be way better with at least an hour or two warm up.

 

[mitchb]

I just got a new DWT transport from PS Audio and I know the transport but this new one sounded strange up until 80 hours or so burn in and after 120 hours it is beginning to sound really nice. I know from experience it will improve up to 500 hours or so. I have no doubt the Vega must be really smooth after a few hours warm up. In fact a dac can take a few days warm up to sound it's best.

 

[Chodi]

I've owned a lot of audio gear over the years and I never felt there was much change with burn in until I got the Taurus. After two days the Taurus sounded like a totally different and much better product. Now I'm a believer. I have friends that are electrical engineers who claim burn in is hogwash but I sure could hear it in this case.

 

[Gray]

Greetings from the Uk........
Guys I took the plunge and now have the Vega to partner my Taurus and my LCD-X's.
 This Vega is some bit of kit.......I can tell it has a fantastic pedigree and oozes class even though its early days with it.
My query is for Vega owners who are also running Jriver 19 media center through the Vega  for USB listening.
I am having trouble getting the settings right on the Jriver  media player and keep getting drop outs especially when playing back DSD files with the clock on the Vega set to exact. I also had some awful screeching sounds on a couple of the tracks halfway through them which sounded painful so I quickly turned the music off. Is that white noise?
Can someone share their optimum settings with us that are tried and tested and work well with the Vega and Jriver 19 for playing all files up to and including  DSD. Hopefully one or two of you use this combination successfully.......
Thanks in anticipation.....

 

[jtwrace]

  Greetings from the Uk........
Guys I took the plunge and now have the Vega to partner my Taurus and my LCD-X's.
 This Vega is some bit of kit.......I can tell it has a fantastic pedigree and oozes class even though its early days with it.
My query is for Vega owners who are also running Jriver 19 media center through the Vega  for USB listening.
I am having trouble getting the settings right on the Jriver  media player and keep getting drop outs especially when playing back DSD files with the clock on the Vega set to exact. I also had some awful screeching sounds on a couple of the tracks halfway through them which sounded painful so I quickly turned the music off. Is that white noise?
Can someone share their optimum settings with us that are tried and tested and work well with the Vega and Jriver 19 for playing all files up to and including  DSD. Hopefully one or two of you use this combination successfully.......
Thanks in anticipation.....

 
This might help:
 
 
Here are some thoughts regarding the Vega Sound Processor from the designer.
 
l  About the burn-in period
 
I don’t quite believe in the sound change after ‘burn-in’ for electronics, especially for passive components such as cable. Such kind of sound quality change is totally subjective and purely psychoacoustics (I trust instrument first) as the human ear needs some time to accept new sound, that’s why most people feel the machine sounds smooth after a period of use rather than the feeling of better treble extension. However, I do think the capacitors inside the machine require time to for re-activation through charging and discharging for a period of time without use, so please keep the unit in operation for roughly 48 hours to re-activate the components.
 
l  About the warm-up
 
VEGA requires a warm-up to achieve best performance for two reasons; First, the Femto-grade clock needs a long time to become stable, like the crystal inside a GPS and communication station. It requires at least one hour powered-on to meet specification. Second, with the Class-A output module, the bias current will reach its correct value when in thermal balance, this requires about one hour to heat-up.  One interesting measure is the THD on XLR and USB port jitter performance when the machine is completely cold, and then running for 3 hours. I believe you will see a measureable THD difference when the XLR output is driving heavy load (below 600 ohm); the jitter performance will also be different slightly.
 
To keep the unit at its best performance, we have designed a function named ‘SLEEP’ (enabled by default). By setting the unit in Sleep status, the clock and analog circuit remain powered on. I suggest using the sleep function during daily play so VEGA will sound best any time you’re ready for a listening session.
 
l  Special care when using USB input
 
VEGA supports all PCM format from 44.1K to 384K as well as DSD64 and DSD128. But, you may experience trouble locking to 384K sampling rate when the unit is totally cold. This is due to the Femto clock not up to its optimal working temperature. Please allow a few minutes for initial warm-up and it will work perfectly.
 
To playback DSD64 and DSD128 files though DoP protocol, the host computer should be  optimized and the hardware should not be too old or there may be drop off during playback.  The actual drop off may be heard as a few seconds of white noise starting from low volume to full scale and going down again. I would suggest using the latest version of Audirvana with a MAC computer and J.River or HQPlayer (with better sound quality) under a Windows OS.
 
VEGA is more sensitive to the host computer than other USB DAC’s because of the Femto clock. We are optimizing and upgrading the internal firmware for the perfect balance of performance and wider server compatibility.
 
l  Key feature #1: Flexible Filter Mode
 
The Flexible Filter Mode is the most important software feature of VEGA. There are six groups of filters inside our processor, four for PCM and two for DSD. Each PCM filter mode contains 4 different filters optimized for different group of sampling rate: 44.1k and 48k are within one group, 88.2K and 96K for another group. By using this method, the performance for each sampling rate is maximized, that’s one main reason VEGA sounds so good. I would greatly appreciate it if you can measure the frequency response of different sampling rates under each filter mode, showing the result in a chart and explain to the reader.
 
For more information (including technical detail) of the Flexible Filter Mode, please read the white paper I am enclosing:
 
http://www.auralic.com/download/flexible_filter_mode.pdf
 
l  Key feature #2: Manual Femto Master Clock precision (for pro-user only)
 
The Femto Master Clock inside VEGA is controlled automatically to optimize lock-in ability and jitter performance, but we also offer advanced users the option to manually setting the clock lock-in parameters. After a one-hour warm-up, there will be additional clock options under ‘SYSTEM’>’CLOCK’ menu, they are ‘EXACT’ and ‘FINE’.  By setting one of these two options, the control circuit will force PLL’s bandwidth to a very narrow range for maximum jitter performance. I do hear significant improvement on EXACT option compared to AUTO on specific sound tracks (such as a well recorded classical piano solo), but not all kinds of music can benefit from them.
 
Keep in mind, the EXACT and FINE options will not work on an older processor, or one with a noisy power supply computer (not just hardware, but mostly dependent on software environment).  I have tested many computers for the clock options. The best result is comes from a Windows PC, specially made for audio playback: with a kernel, and disabling unused applications and services.  I can play all PCM and DSD format under EXACT mode without issues on such a computer. I have tried the clock options on two Mac computers, one is a vintage mid-2008 Macbook and the other is a mid-2012 Mac Mini. The first was only OK with EXACT mode for 44.1K and 48K sampling rate and totally not possible for higher PCM as well as DSD. The Mac mini is fine up to 176.4K and DSD64 but not for DSD128 and 192K PCM. The EXACT and FINE clock options will be disabled when you play 352.8k or 384k PCM.  Whenever you set the clock to EXACT or FINE, it will only works under AUTO mode as I have not found a computer today that can work with these two options.
 
I would suggest you to try out the best setting on your own system if you wish (purely for fun). We only recommend people use AUTO option when we promote our product and consider these two options as ‘playable’ function for professional users.
 
 
l  About the XLR and RCA outputs
 
The XLR and RCA output channels are individualy buffered, but only XLR through our ORFEO Class-A module. Though both output ports’ sound quality are equally the same, I would highly recommend using the XLR if possible. Both ports are designed to drive 600ohm load without  compromising the performance, but the XLR can work even lower, to 300ohm and less.
 
l  Attention when you want to remove the cover to take photo
 
The top cover has a single installation direction (without any indication); if you re-install the wrong direction, the edge will be very sharp and may injure your finger, so please make sure to mark the direction when you move it.
 
Finally, I hope our VEGA processor will bring you much joy during your review session. If you have any question on anything, please just drop me an email at xuanqian.wang (at) auralic (dot) com
 
Best regards

Wang Xuanqian​

25th September 2013​

 

[Gray]

   
This might help:
 
 

Many thanks for that information. Most helpful..... Sounds like I am experiencing a common problem....
Would still like to hear from specific Jriver users with the Vega
Is there anyone reading who uses HQplayer with the Vega by the way as apparently that can give better sound quality than Jriver?

 

[XVampireX]

  Many thanks for that information. Most helpful..... Sounds like I am experiencing a common problem....
Would still like to hear from specific Jriver users with the Vega
Is there anyone reading who uses HQplayer with the Vega by the way as apparently that can give better sound quality than Jriver?

 
 
The thing is it's not a problem, you'd want to burn in the device for a while, I've had these "problems" on the first hours of the device running now I'm using Exact Mode every day the whole day
Also, make sure your source is up to snuff, meaning PC, if your PC is not good enough and there's too much happening in the background, you'd have trouble.
 
Regarding jriver and HQplayer, sorry can't help you with this.

 

[Gray]

   
 
The thing is it's not a problem, you'd want to burn in the device for a while, I've had these "problems" on the first hours of the device running now I'm using Exact Mode every day the whole day
Also, make sure your source is up to snuff, meaning PC, if your PC is not good enough and there's too much happening in the background, you'd have trouble.
 
Regarding jriver and HQplayer, sorry can't help you with this.

Thanks very much for the reply....much appreciated.....
Ok...I am prepared to accept that the Vega needs a good running in period to reach optimum performance. This isn't a problem with the Vega itself.....its a matter of finding the right settings for Jriver 19 so the Vega can sample files flawlessly.
That's why I am hopefully going to get an answer from someone who uses Jriver with the Vega who will share their working settings. I am also getting drop out on the signal via toslink digital cable between my TV and the Vega.
Any idea why anybody?

 

[rydenfan]

Many thanks for that information. Most helpful..... Sounds like I am experiencing a common problem....
Would still like to hear from specific Jriver users with the Vega
Is there anyone reading who uses HQplayer with the Vega by the way as apparently that can give better sound quality than Jriver?

What are your bitstream abd DSD settings in J River?

 

[Gray]

What are your bitstream abd DSD settings in J River?

Hi there
In the settings it says ''Bitstream None (Recommended)