Dac shootout. Hex vs Vega vs Yggdrasil

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prem said:
Square wave, I could hardly detect any difference between the Aries optical and the Mini optical. The Aries I compared was the one with the Femto clock and built in LPS. The mini had an external LPS. John Darko too in his evaluation came to pretty much similar conclusions

Square wave did u mean the Mac Mini or the Aries Mini? I didn't hear anything through a Mac mini. No shop is going to have a Mac mini in their set up when they are trying to sell a dedicated server:)
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The mac mini comment was a general observation :). If it is on par with the auralic aries, then it is on par or will surpass a tricked out mac mini.

This makes the aries mini fantastic value. It comes with an inbulit dac for casual listening and the lightning ds app custom developed for the the device.

I am now wondering about the market for the auralic aries. It does not have an inbuilt dac and the sounds only as good as the mini as a source but costs way more :o
 
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I guess it's trickle down technology. It might also be dependent on the dac u use. A Yggdrasil has excellent jitter rejection. So that also could be coming into play. I was reading an article on Chord Dave where the reviewer was mentioning all sources pretty much sounded the same. A Mac mini, Aries, Aurender, etc

Square wave, on a separate note, if you are not too much into DSD, you should at least try and hear a good r2r dac in your system. It might float your boat.:)
 
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prem said:
I guess it's trickle down technology. It might also be dependent on the dac u use. A Yggdrasil has excellent jitter rejection. So that also could be coming into play. I was reading an article on Chord Dave where the reviewer was mentioning all sources pretty much sounded the same. A Mac mini, Aries, Aurender, etc

Square wave, on a separate note, if you are not too much into DSD, you should at least try and hear a good r2r dac in your system. It might float your boat.:)
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Thanks.

Have you checked this one out by any chance?

SoundStage! Hi-Fi | SoundStageHiFi.com - Simaudio Moon 180 MiND Music Streamer
 
The shop had this. But I didn't check out their streamer. I have heard a few of their streamer with dac. Don't like their sound. So never came into consideration
 
prem said:
Square wave, on a separate note, if you are not too much into DSD, you should at least try and hear a good r2r dac in your system. It might float your boat.:)
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Actually it just might float your boat too much... and then you cannot go back to Delta Sigma DACs. Bad news all around... you will be left looking at DACs north of $2000 and that's only for starters. Talk MSB and your better half might just lock you out of all savings and investments.
 
prem said:
Don't like their sound. So never came into consideration
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Isn't this just a streamer ?

Usually the house sound of a brand come through when it is an " active " product. Amp, dac, speaker etc..

It has been around from 2014 and functionally a clone of auralic aries with its own custom developed app and all. 1300$
 
Finally ordered the Auralic Mini with its LPS. Purchased direct from Auralic. Price USD 698. Will purchase the Samsung EVO 1tb SSD here in India and have it fitted.
 
square_wave said:
My suggestion is to go with a Nas ( synnology )
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Though I use one, purely for music would be an overkill.

prem said:
Square wave, would a NAS be superior to an internal SSD?
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Nah. In fact all the latest streamers/servers have some level of caching that (per their claims) improves SQ and not just access times and speed.

My only qualm is the proprietary system/interface that makes you copy files via their interface and not simply insert a HDD (or SSD) preloaded with music. Even a NAS makes you do that... and accessing the media becomes impossible in case of h/w failure.

Other than that and (supposedly per manufacturer claims) internal is better than network or even external storage.

I've been told by a few of my friends that Aurender's internal HDD with its caching actually improves SQ over external and network media.

PS: FWIW I do know and trust these guys... so if they claim to hear a difference then they really must be hearing something.
 
I checked with Wang of Auralic. He said internal SSD would be superior. Also suggested I buy it myself and install since it will be cheaper. He sent me a instruction guide on how it's done
 
prem said:
I checked with Wang of Auralic. He said internal SSD would be superior. Also suggested I buy it myself and install since it will be cheaper. He sent me a instruction guide on how it's done
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I remember reading somewhere that Samsung SSD Pro sounded the best. Let me see if I can find that thread.
 
From a SQ perspective, it should not matter due to the cache playback although many recommend not to keep music on a regular hdd ( not ssd) on the same device from which you play especially if it is kept on the same rack as the rest of your gear. The mechanical hdd will be constantly seeking and adding vibration to the device itself as well into the the rack it is kept in. If one is into high end playback, these tiny things matter. With an SSD for OS as well as storage, this is a non-issue these days.

A NAS is also good from a centralized data perspective. Good to keep one database with automated raid backup system etc.. Also music can be easily accessed anywhere in the house since it is on the network.
 
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prem said:
This is the SSD Wang of Auralic recommends

Amazon.com: Samsung 850 EVO 1 TB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E1T0B/AM): Computers & Accessories
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Check how much the Pro costs over the Evo. Pro has better benchmarks though you may not really see the performance difference in audio playback or typical daily use.

However, where Pro scores is it should last twice as long as in terms of specs it has 2x the data write of the Evo series. It will last longer and also give more usage.
 
RegeHA, I asked Wang about the EVO and the Pro. He said to get the EVO. So I guess will stick to it
 
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