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Rega DAC vs. EE Minimax vs. Centrance vs. W4S 2

This is a summary of results comparing the Rega DAC against the W4S 2, Centrance Dacmini, and the Eastern Electric Minimax (First version).

The Rega has been running a signal since last Saturday, so according to some reports it may be about 150 hours from sounding it's best. The comparison to the W4S was done with a fully broken in Rega from Signature Sound. Powercord is a Pangea AC-14 (nothing fancy). The main sources were a Oppo DV981 and Macbook pro. System is Merlin TSM-MXr on Skylan stands, Manley Stingray II, MJ Acoustics 150 MK2 sub, Cardas wires.

Vs. Centrance DACmini
First of all...this thing is cool! It's perfect for a headphone system and it's form-factor matches the MACmini. Fed by the Oppo it provided fantastic midrange and smooth highs, but bass was less defined and a bit muddy. There seemed to be just a bit more glare from the DACmini as well, but it had a deeper soundstage than the Rega. The Rega had bass well handled and the soundstage was quite wide, especially on live recordings where it did a great job of capturing the scope of the venue. The owner of the DACmini and I agreed that that it had the Rega beat by a small margin in soundstage, but the Rega was the winner with better bass detail and less glare. Any change of cables or speaker or amp could probably swing the results differently.

Vs. Eastern Electric Minimax
I was excited to hear this unit since it's gotten a ton of good reviews. But...wow, my system did not agree with it. Here was (I assume) a good example of poor synergy. The Minimax sounded overly thick in the midrange (less so with the tube switched out) and this quality made it difficult to focus on it's clearly sweet high end. We tried it with some cheaper AQ cables, but this issue did not go away. My friend says it's quite stunning in his system and I don't doubt it, but in my system it was "thick" much like the modified Jolida 100a CDP I once owned.

Vs. W4S DAC 2
This unit was well burned in and it went up against the Demo Rega I auditioned in my system. The W4S 2 had a Signal powercord while the Rega had it's stock cord. I reviewed the Rega DAC in the review section and I have since concluded that the Rega's "less is more" design approach led to it's superior performance with Redbook CDs. It won mainly based on soundstage where it provided a deeper effect, while the W4S 2 floated a image well, but it was less dimensional. The W4S 2 seemed to extract a bit more detail, but also sounded too bright on some tracks. Once again we concluded that they were both doing a fine job and a change of associated gear could skew results differently. The W4S is certainly more versatile.

After listening to these units in my system and playing with some very pricey CDP's in recent months I've concluded that DAC's and CDP's offer the smallest upgrade range. Good DACs and CDP's are very close in performance so be suspicious when someone says one unit blows away another. As others have pointed out we get into some seriously expensive "diminishing returns" with this gear. I feel that the Rega (and I truly love the Centrance as well) offers great performance in the mid priced DAC arena. It bested the Audio Aero prima I tried and has better soundstage that several other units around the 5K mark. How it performs in a given system will be mostly a measure of the synergy with your other components and nothing definitive should be assumed by reading these findings or any other!

Cheers,

Rob
robbob
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,908 posts
 
Rob,

Thanks for the 'clarity' in your response. I, too, had some brightness that vanished after break in but I forget just how long it took (maybe 200 hours or so).

As for the Oppo's might being the weak link, I think you may be onto something there. There was a time when I used my Oppo DV-983H as a transport and determined that it was holding things back a bit. It made sense to use it as a jack-of-all-trades (CDs & DVDs) but moving on validated any concerns I had about its limits.

As much as my interested has been piqued by your mentioning of Rega's upcoming model, I'm still going to hold out to see what music servers are out there that aren't too dear in price. I say this as I heard the Centrance on the digital outs of a top of the line Ayon CDP and it lost none of its body and extension but just got a bit clearer, allowing more of that clarity and resolution, which really surprised me. Maybe tubes are the way to go when partnering with the Centrance.

All the best,
Nonoise
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
gentlemen:

i have the esatern electric dac and i use the ps audio perfect wave transport, via coax.

i find no glare or imbalance in frequency response.

i also do not hear any problems in the midrange.

i use a mojo audio power cord with the dac.

the dac is seneitive to all of the variables one would expect, including, tube, digital cable, interconnect cable, power cords, transport and preamp.

consider all of the above when issuing a finding about the relative merits of one dac over another.

i use a brimar 12au7 from the 40's or 50's. it has yellow lettering.
robbob OP
273 posts
 
Hi, MrTennis...

As I said, nothing definitive should be derived from my review. This is what I heard with my system. I've heard plenty of great gear sound less than great in certain systems and the owner of the EE has no issues at all with it in his system.
My system is fairly transparent, but that hardly means it will match well with every component on the market. There is also a subject of taste here as well. And I'll say it again....most of the time we could hardly tell the difference between these DACs. My system resolves quite well and my friends system (based on ARC and Vandy 5A's) is also excellent. Now that he has the EE back he initially reported that he heard none of what we heard on the Merlins. But last night we spoke again and he added that the EE does sound "fuller" in the midbass than his W4S 2. It's not a complaint. It's a quality. I just didn't care for it.

Rob
kbarkamian
647 posts
 
Robbob and Nonoise,

Paul Darwin from Rega stated that the CD player you're discussing will be the next Apollo. It'll be in the chassis they used for the DAC and Brio R. I think it's coming out sooner than later, but Rega isn't the quickest company with this stuff. I'm not sure if it'll be upgraded or it'll just get stuffed into the new box. They'll probably have to change something, and I'd doubt they'd decrease the performance.

The Mira 3 and Saturn will also be updated/upgraded, but will be a full width/sized chassis.

This info was posted on Pink Fish Media from Paul himself.
tubegroover
2,320 posts
 
"But last night we spoke again and he added that the EE does sound "fuller" in the midbass than his W4S 2."

Now this I find quite interesting Rob. I have been listening to my friends W4S and in comparison to my Minimax Plus I would say it is quite the opposite. The Minimax by contrast seems lighter with less weight, a difference between the original and the Plus maybe? The tube used in the Minimax can really alter the presentation, actually quite dramatically. He didn't care for the presentation of the Minimax with the Seimens tube which I figured might be the case so gave him a Mullard which offers a fuller sound in the upper bass/midrange. He is using ARC gear with Montana Speakers which tilt towards an upper bass emphasis which he prefers. In any case the Plus can really be tailored to a particular system and taste with the proper tube choice. One thing is clearly evident to me is that the W4S is fuller in the upper/mid bass in both our systems which I DO find to my liking in my system with Merlins and the Berning ZH270. He hasn't heard the Mullard yet but even with the added fullness it will add, I doubt it will match the W4S in that area. As always there are tradeoffs and no clear winner, both have their virtues.
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