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REVIEW: Auralic Vega DAC Processors

Model: Vega
Category: DAC Processors
Suggested Retail Price: $3595
Description: DAC
Manufacturer URL: Auralic

Review by bullethead on May 30, 2016 at 09:37:37
IP Address: 108.14.40.252
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Auralic Vega Digital Processor Review

Many months ago I had the opportunity to purchase an Auralic Vega DAC. Since that point I have added the Auralic Aries streamer on top of it. However this review will focus on the DAC, I have to say the Aries was important in my evaluation of the system as it is the best source I have. Most listening was done through the Aries as PCM as well as a laptop loaded with Daphile Linux operating system for playback of PCM files upsampled to DSD 128 via USB and the Linux system software.

The sound of the Auralic Vega is extremely liquid, especially when playing high resolution PCM files. Velvety texture to the presence, very three dimensional and a word I like to use a lot, holographic.

The surprise to me when playing back CD quality at 16bit 44.1 is the presence is not fatiguing at all, this is when hooked up to a CD player or playback from the Aries or a Modded Sonos Connect or a Laptop. I can easily listen all day and not get tired of the sound. What this DAC does is extremely good to all kinds of music. I am using the balanced outputs into a Bel Canto Pre3 preamplifier then into a Merrill Audio Taranis Hypex NCore amplifier into Anthony Gallo Nucleus Reference 3.5 loudspeakers (which are also powered by a 2nd Gallo Amplifier for the 2nd voice coil of the woofers as the system can get down to about 22hz).

As I said velvety liquid presence to the sound. I set the clock setting to exact a lot and find the best sound from that clock setting. Auto clock setting is also very nice for laptop playback. The built in sound filters make it work very well and you get to tune the settings to pleasant sounding playback using them. I stick to the basic filters as I tend to like neutral sound however you can set the filters to really sound out of this world and help enhance the sound of the digital sources.

I tend to prefer high resolution PCM sound to DSD but it is nice to know you can playback DSD files should you have any or wish to upsample PCM to DSD. DXD playback also is another way to gather extreme high resolution playback as this DAC supports DXD as well.
As there are many professional reviews of this unit I will not get into the details of the hardware other than to say this is a brilliant piece of engineering and is one of the best sounding DACs in the world today. I am fortunate to have this DAC in my system.


Product Weakness: None for the price
Product Strengths: Sound quality


Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: Merrill Audio Taranis
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Bel Canto Pre3
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Auralic Aries
Speakers: Gallo Ref 3.5
Cables/Interconnects: Various
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Various
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: Auralic Vega DAC Processors - bullethead 09:37:37 05/30/16 (5)

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