[doctorcilantro]

How close is the DA8 to the Vega? Anyone compare these two direct? Running each one full open in DAC mode through a pre?

 

[Andrew_WOT]

  How close is the DA8 to the Vega? Anyone compare these two direct? Running each one full open in DAC mode through a pre?

It's closer to it than Teac, but that's all I could find.
 

I think of the Yulong as the Auralic with somewhat less refinement of everything but bass.  But still having a very nice signature.  The treble region of the Auralic, IMO, is just exceptional. The Yulong so far has been very good in that respect, but clearly is not on par with the Auralic.  However, on a price basis I find both DACs to deliver a lot for your money.

 
I suspect they are not in the same league, but project86 could be a better person to comment as apparently he recently acquired Vega as well.

 

[ru4music]

  The LKS Dual-9018 DAC is getting pretty popular in Hong Kong, as a few reputed hi-fi players in a local forum (www.hiendy.com) are giving it very good reviews. One of them turns out to become the local distributor of that DAC in HK, so there could be an element of bias as well.
 
2 guys from the same local forum have compared a modded Teac UD-501 (with op-amp rolling) vs the LKS Dual-9018, the modded UD-501 turns out to be slightly on top, but they become on par again when the op-amp in the LKS are rolled also.
 
That LKS Dual-9018 DAC has a Japanese version as well (http://htpc.jp/t46e/t46.html, the whole thing except the case is designed and made in China, with the case made by the Japanese), with a better looking case it's charging more than double the price.

 
 
It will be interesting to see how the LKS plays out.  Looking forward to the reviews!

 

[DarKen23]

 


I suspect they are not in the same league, but project86 could be a better person to comment as apparently he recently acquired Vega as well.

Would love to read the comparison. Ive been curious about the Auralic Taurus

 

[project86]

   
 
I suspect they are not in the same league, but project86 could be a better person to comment as apparently he recently acquired Vega as well.

 
 
I did recently spend some time with the Vega but it was in someone else's system, not my own. I thought it was a fantastic DAC, superior to a bunch of others such as Calyx Femto. Unfortunately we didn't have the DA8 on hand at the time though. I suspect the Vega is at least slightly better, or maybe even significantly better, but it's hard to say for sure. Keep in mind "significant" for one person is "hardly noticeable" for someone else. DA8 is definitely the better value proposition - you end up spending a lot more for what amounts to a relatively small increase. But that's always true of the really high end gear. 

 

[DarKen23]

 


I suspect they are not in the same league, but project86 could be a better person to comment as apparently he recently acquired Vega as well.

I did recently spend some time with the Vega but it was in someone else's system, not my own. I thought it was a fantastic DAC, superior to a bunch of others such as Calyx Femto. Unfortunately we didn't have the DA8 on hand at the time though. I suspect the Vega is at least slightly better, or maybe even significantly better, but it's hard to say for sure. Keep in mind "significant" for one person is "hardly noticeable" for someone else. DA8 is definitely the better value proposition - you end up spending a lot more for what amounts to a relatively small increase. But that's always true of the really high end gear. 

:biggrin:

 

[doctorcilantro]

I'm REALLY close to ordering a Vega. I want to connect it balanced to some transformers and see how it sounds (Vega>Empirical Final Drive>Decware EL34). Figure a Zen Taboo headamp in future instead of using DA8.
 
The Vega seems like the output stage is probably superior to the DA8. But I do wonder how close they really are. Maybe I should order both!

 

[DarKen23]

I'm REALLY close to ordering a Vega. I want to connect it balanced to some transformers and see how it sounds (Vega>Empirical Final Drive>Decware EL34). Figure a Zen Taboo headamp in future instead of using DA8.

The Vega seems like the output stage is probably superior to the DA8. But I do wonder how close they really are. Maybe I should order both!

I assume just slightly better. As project86 mentioned DA8's value, I really do feel like the DA8 offers the whole package for a small price.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

   
I assume just slightly better. As project86 mentioned DA8's value, I really do feel like the DA8 offers the whole package for a small price.

With DACs point of diminishing returns gets hit pretty quickly. But I really feel that Vega is a cut above the DACs I've owned before, having said that I am in the market for DA8 as office rig.
Has anyone compared it to Conductor DAC, they both are based on ESS9018, but so is Vega, except AURALiC really customized it and didn't use all of the functions, and it sound absolutely nothing like Conductor (which wasn't much to me)?

 

[Esprit]

Is the DA8 a "true" balanced DAC?

 

[brunk]

  Is the DA8 a "true" balanced DAC?

 
Of course it is. What makes you think it isn't "true"?

 

[project86]

  Is the DA8 a "true" balanced DAC?

 
 
The definition of "true balanced" is different depending on who you ask. But I'd say the DA8 comes closer than most. It doesn't have completely separate power supplies but maybe that would be more like "dual mono". It doesn't have dual DAC chips but since the ES9018 has 8 channels internally, they get split and routed 4 per channel. So in that way it avoids the usual two DAC chip requirement. It stays separate from there so yes, one could call it true balanced and be pretty safe with that term.  

 

[brunk]

   
 
The definition of "true balanced" is different depending on who you ask. But I'd say the DA8 comes closer than most. It doesn't have completely separate power supplies but maybe that would be more like "dual mono". It doesn't have dual DAC chips but since the ES9018 has 8 channels internally, they get split and routed 4 per channel. So in that way it avoids the usual two DAC chip requirement. It stays separate from there so yes, one could call it true balanced and be pretty safe with that term.  

 
+1 In addition, the RCA out also gets the benefit of the internal "balanced" approach as it's tapped directly from the XLR output. The primary difference is the voltage between the two.

 

[Esprit]

The definition of "true balanced" is different depending on who you ask.

You're right! Are the XRL outputs "true balanced"? (a true differential signal path all the way from the DAC to the 3-pin XLR connector.)

 

[ULUL]

Marking.