After several years of rapid development, digital streaming has also become the mainstream of the High End market, which has an absolutely convenient advantage over playing physical CDs, coupled with the continuous progress of hardware and software, products and sounds have excellent standards, high-quality online streaming services Tidal, qobuz, etc., each major manufacturer has a corresponding product appearance. AURALiC is quite early to concentrate on digital streaming company, from the early first generation of digital streaming products VEGA, ARIES, its hardware specifications have been leading the market a lot, not only that, AURALiC is investing more R & D personnel, the development of their own playback operation software Lighting DS, is also rare in the market.
Shortly after the release of the high-end G2 series, AURALiC released the more approachable G1 series, which has two models, namely VEGA G1 and ARIES G1. VEGA is DAC, ARIES is a digital serial disk (only digital output, no DAC inside), VEGA can be used alone, not necessarily with ARIES, VEAG can perform digital stream decoding analogy output to the amplifier as long as it is connected to the Internet, but ARIES must be used with DAC to listen, unless your amplifier or speaker has a built-in DAC. This review is VEGA G1, in fact, MY-HiEND has purchased ARIES G2 as a reference machine, but when listening to VEGA G1 I did not connect it with ARIES G2, but directly connected the network route to VEGA G1 for stream decoding output, the reason for this is that I want to understand the sound performance of VEGA G1 alone, and also provide a reference for people who want to buy only VEGA G1. The installation of digital streaming equipment is actually very simple, as long as you master a principle, all the equipment, including the iPad used for operation, mobile phones are connected to the same area network, and this area network must be able to connect to the Internet.
If you think the VEGA G1 is enough, what situation does it take to buy an ADDITIONAL ARIES G1? The first is that there are requirements for good sound, then it is better to use ARIES G1 to provide digital streaming signal sound, the second is that there is a demand for wireless connectivity, including not wanting to use physical network routes, only wanting to transmit through wireless networks, then you have to use ARIES G1, the third is for Bluetooth, Airplay playback demanders, VEGA G1 is not without any wireless function.
There are two headphone outputs on the left, a volume knob on the right, and a 4" Retina color display (non-touch) in the middle.
On the back of the VEAG G1, the interface is quite complete, the analog output has a balanced XLR, RCA group, and the digital inputs are USB HS, TOS, COAX, AES and STREAM.
Vega G1 interior, AURALiC product line design and production has always been the industry's model student, the configuration is simple and neat, high-level craftsmanship, people are impeccable, I also specially took a lot of internal close-ups, you can click to zoom in carefully. The VEGA G1 is powered by a linear power supply, using a large Canadian plitron toroidal transformer, a separate headphone amplification module in the upper left, and its own powerful Tesla G1 (Quad-Core Cortex-A9 processor 1GHz, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 4GB storage), an Asahi Kasei AK4113, three XMOS 8U6C5 and a Microchip The KSZ9031RNX receives the wafer, each corresponding to a different digital input, and the analogy is amplified to its own ORFEO Class-A amplification module (one on the left and one on the left channel under the heat sink in the lower left).
What is the difference between the VEGA G1 and the VEGA G2, and what is the difference beyond the price? The appearance of the two is almost the same, in addition to the VEGA G1 volume button changed to silver, at first glance there is really no difference, the devil is hidden in the details, I simply made a comparison table, the main differences are listed, of course, this is not the official information, if there is a mistake welcome to correct at any time, from the comparison table to see that the main difference between the two is that VEGA G2 is an all-aluminum hollowed out chassis, there is an analog input, Lighting Link, mechanical isolation, clock input, The others are the same, the spread between the two is USD 2,000, depending on the budget.
The operation part is strongly recommended to use the iPad is the best to use, as long as the Apple Store to find auraLiC can find lighting DS download, after the first boot, the APP will guide you step by step to set, are very intuitive, follow the instructions can operate, even if there is no clear place, immediately helpful illustrations can be clicked, will be connected to the relevant instructions, the focus is on the full Chinese Traditional Oh, of course, there are other languages can be switched, The operation is really quite intuitive and easy to get started, and I will illustrate the main graphical functions of the left menu.
Set one of the screens of the function, the input channel is the source of the digital signal, here to remember to set otherwise it will be thought that there is no sound, VEGA G1 also provides 4 digital filtering modes, including precise (Precise), dynamic (Dynamic), balance (Balance), delicate (Smooth), can be adjusted according to preference, at the beginning can be set to delicate and then slowly try, you can also see that each option has a clear explanation on the right, If you don't understand something, you can just take a look at it.
Precise, neutral, balanced, high resolution
Vega G1's sound direction still maintains the precise neutrality that AURALiC has always had, I first used quboz online streaming listening (members need to pay), listened to a recent very popular movie soundtrack "A Star Is Born: The Birth of a Superstar", starring Lady Gaga, of course, who is responsible for the lead singer of the film soundtrack, and many heavyweight celebrities participated in the production, the classic old song "I'll Never Love Again" in track 33 is Lady Gaga sings with director Bradley Cooper, quite beautiful, Vega G2's dynamic range is extremely wide, the tension and explosiveness of Lady Gaga's singing are replayed without reservation, Lady Gaga's singing method is changeable, sometimes delicate, sometimes thick, the piano texture is very good, with luster, the drum sound sinks, and the impact is full.
High-resolution charm
VEGA G1 has DSD512 (22.57892MHz) and PCM 32Bit/384KHz decoding capabilities, play I previously purchased online to download, Fujita's latest album "Camomile Colors", which is DSD256 (11.2896MHz) high specifications, VEGA G1 playback is quite smooth, in the face of such a large data file without any delay pause generation, in addition to the network to be stable, VEGA G1's digital decoding core is quite powerful. Many people think that high-spec sounds more acoustic, but in fact, on the contrary, the real high-spec sound should be closer to the taste of analogy, more musical, listening to this album is particularly charming, very warm, the rhythm pace is more leisurely.
Beautiful and sensual, the stage is alive
Even on the Tidal online streaming (members need to pay) to listen to the "LA LA LAND movie soundtrack", have not seen the movie LA LA LAND should also have heard its theme song, because the movie was released to cause a sensation, the streets and alleys of the café is also playing the familiar movie theme song, this album is almost all jazz accompaniment, instrumental music can be said to be very much, percussion, piano, strings, wind music are enriched behind the scenes of this album pusher, Let me in the audition room in the space atmosphere is full of in the foreign bar drinking music imagination, especially this song, also added vocals, but will not be because of the rich instrumental music makes life particularly weak, the balance of the two is very good, the sense of dynamic is also sufficient, the musical impact is enough, plus is a brisk style, beat and rhythm sense can infect the entire space, the instrument changes gradually add different colors, the level of the whole music is more uplifted, only the piano playing alone, there is no other instrumental background, What you hear is clearer about the melodic lines, and the stability of the low frequencies is also enough, and the overall listening can be felt by different genre performances.
There are already many MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) high-spec albums on TIDAL that can be listened to, and Lighting DS can also support playback.
AURALiC's digital streaming products are already Roon Ready, which can be used directly to users who are already accustomed to using Roon.
AURALiC VEGA G1 digital streaming DAC features
● Hardware and software are the highest specifications, reasonable price, cost-effective.
● Linear power supply, its own powerful Tesla G1 processing center, ORFEO Class-A amplification module.
● Decoding capability of DSD512 (22.57892MHz) and PCM 32Bit/384KHz.
● Powerful Lighting DS playback control APP.
● 4 digital filtering modes are available.
● Support for integration of Roon Ready, MQA, TIDAL, qobuz.
● Users can continuously update their software and firmware for free.
● Sound features: precise, neutral, dynamic bandwidth, rich details.
● Collocation suggestions: You can match your own ARIES G1 sound and function are more improved, expand the machine or wire to avoid sound is too thin.
AURALiC VEGA G1 digital streaming DAC specification
Frequency Response: 20 – 20KHz, +/- 0.1dB*
Total harmonic distortion THD: < 0.00015% (XLR); < 0.00016% (RCA)
Dynamic Range DNR: > 127dB
Sampling Frequency: Sampling Rates:
PCM: 44.1KHz to 384KHz in 32Bit**
DSD: DSD64 to DSD512**
Digital Input: AES/EBU, Coaxial, TOSLINK, USB, Network,
Analog output:
平衡 XLR, maximum output at 4.8Vrms
单端 RCA, maximum output at 4.8Vrms
Headphone output: 6.35mm 2 pcs
Streaming protocol: OpenHome, RoonReady
Supported Formats:
无损 Lossless: AIFF, ALAC, APE, DIFF, DSF, FLAC, OGG, WAV and WV
Lossy: AAC, MP3, MQA and WMA
Power consumption: Playback: 50W at max.
尺寸: W x D x H 34cm x 32cm x 8cm
Weight: 7.0kg