AURALiC VEGA Digital Preamp and DAC (32-Bit, 384kHz, DSD/DXD)

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General:
Very capable DAC from AURALiC which they refer to officially as a digital audio processor.

Originally sold for $3,499 several years back!

Offers 32-Bit, 384kHz decoding, plus DSD64 (2.8224MHz), DSD128 (5.6448MHz), and DXD file format capability.

Tested in our lab and working perfectly. 

The caseworks is overall clean, knobs are responsive, but note that the OLED display has some burn-in from being on too long.

It's still very readable, and changed the display to stay on auto-dim so it doesn't get any worse over time.

From a Stereophile review written by John Atkinson
(Internal photo also from Sterophile.com)

"Prior to the Vega's arrival, my listening room saw some superb-sounding D/A processors in 2013. 

In order of rising price: the NAD M51 ($2000, reviewed in July 2012), the Musical Fidelity M6DAC ($2999, June 2013), the Electrocompaniet ECD2 ($3100, December 2013), the Arcam FMJ D33 ($3200, February 2013), the Marantz NA-11S1 ($3499, October 2013), the MSB Diamond DAC IV with Diamond Power Base ($43,325, October 2012), and the dCS Vivaldi system ($68,497 without its SACD transport, January 2014).

But the $3499 Vega was in no way embarrassed by having to follow this company. In fact, though I felt a twinge of loss when the Vivaldi system went back to the distributor, the Auralic Vega proved a very satisfying replacement.

Summing Up
I am tempted to declare that, at $3499, the Auralic Vega is a bargain. For just over 5% of the price of the dCS Vivaldi three-piece DAC, the Vega got remarkably close in sound quality, at least as far as I could tell without being able to do a direct comparison.

And can the Auralic processor really be a bargain when, for 57% of the Vega's price, the remarkable Benchmark DAC2 HGC is available—which, while being limited to DSD64, offers two pairs of analog inputs and two headphone outputs?

You know what? For its sound quality alone, the Auralic Vega—okay, Mr. Wang, AURALiC VEGA—indeed is a bargain. It's digital and DSD done right!"

AURALiC Standout Features Include:
• Sanctuary Audio Processor
Sanctuary audio processor, the heart of VEGA, is based on multi-core ARM9 architecture with the calculating capability at 1000MIPS (millions of instructions per second), ideal for handling multi-channel high resolution music. VEGA supports DXD format (352.8KS/s and 384KS/s PCM signals in 32bit) as well as DSD stream at 2.8224MHz and 5.6448MHz in native through 'DoP V1.1' transmission protocol.

• Megahertz Upsampling
The internal megahertz upsampling algorithm can process and up-sample all incoming PCM signals to 1.5MHz at 32bit, which not only improves the precision of the DAC, but also creates a new Nyquist frequency for all PCM signals farther away from the top end of audio frequency. As a result, our engineers are able to design a brand-new analog circuit structure with larger bandwidth and faster slew rate.

• Femto Master Clock
Femto master clock utilizes aerospace grade crystal oscillator, ultra-low noise linear power supply and temperature compensation technology to generate the master clock with extremely low jitter at 82 femtoseconds. More importantly, the phase noise which affects sound quality a lot has been dramatically reduced to -168dBc/Hz.

• Flexible Filter Mode
VEGA has six built-in filter modes and each contains several digital filters optimized for corresponding sampling rate. These filters are developed using AURALiC's subjective auditory sense and objective testing data relationship models with the goal of optimizing the listening experience of different music in all formats.

• ORFEO Class-A Output Module
In order to drive various loads and to match with different power amplifiers, VEGA is equipped with AURALiC's patented ORFEO Class-A module. The principle of this module is to use a mass of small signal components with best linear characteristics. By packing them through a thermal balance procedure and biasing the transistors into Class-A, ORFEO achieves impressive performance with the open loop distortion less than 0.001%.

Specs:
Digital Inputs: 
1 x AES/EBU on XLR
2 x S/PDIF on coax
1 x S/PDIF on TosLink
1 x USB 2.0 on USB type B connector

Analog Outputs:
1 x pair balanced on XLRs
1 x pair unbalanced on RCAs

Compatible Sample Rates:
44.1–192kHz via AES/EBU, S/PDIF coaxial and TosLink
44.1–384kHz, DSD64 (2.8224MHz), and DSD128 (5.6448MHz) via USB only

Frequency Response:
20 Hz – 20 kHz, 0.1 dB

Dynamic Range:
130 dB ref. 0 dBFS, 20 Hz – 20 kHz, A-weighted

THD + noise:
<0.00015%, 20 Hz – 20 kHz at 0dB FS

Maximum Output Level:
4V single-ended, 4V balanced

Output Impedance:
4.7 ohms balanced, 50 ohms unbalanced

Power Consumption:
15W max. (<10W sleep, <2W standby)

Dimensions:
11" (280mm) W by 2.6" (66mm) H by 9" (229mm) D

Weight:
7.5 lbs (3.4kg).

Manual:

AURALiC VEGA DAC and Digital Preamp / Processor - Manual

Recommended Cables:

Kimber Kable - RCA Interconnects

Kimber Kable - XLR Interconnects

Kimber Kable - Coaxial Digital Interconnect

Kimber Kable - Optical Digital Interconnect

Kimber Kable - Digital AES/EBU (XLR Connector) Interconnect

Kimber Kable - Power Cords