Vega g1 positioning
My first personal exposure to auralic products was around 2015, when, because of working relationships, there was a vega decoder that had been stationed in the listening room of Hi-Fi Magazine for a long time, and for a long time it became a reference equipment for us to write review articles.
According to General Manager Wang, the founder of auralic, vega should be the most awarded (not one of the most awarded) audio decoder products in the world, not only the products of the sound rhyme brand, but also the highest-selling product models. Through practical use, we do feel the excellent workmanship and excellent sound quality of this machine, which can be regarded as a very comprehensive decoder product in the price range of 20,000 yuan in that year.
vega
At that time, auralic, although the key products are decoders and streaming media players, but the headphone amplifier and power amplifier products are also well-known, the product line is still very rich, but then the manufacturers according to their own situation and market feedback gradually adjusted the product strategy, the research and development focus is more focused on the decoder, streaming media players these two product categories, and the 2018 successive g2 series flagship products, but also shocked the audio industry, which includes digital streaming media players, decoders, super clocks The super four-piece digital audio source of the upconverter is not only subversive in design, world-leading in technical concept and design, but also takes its own lighting link as the core interface protocol, which can be said to be a landmark digital new product, defining the new height that China's digital audio products can reach.
vega g2
But G2 this set of flagship products also has a flagship level of price, a full set of more than 170,000 yuan of the price also makes many enthusiasts prohibitive, fortunately at the beginning of this year, after moderate simplification, auralic launched the latest aries g1 and vega g1, whether from the concept, technology or workmanship are derived from the flagship series, the price of a single piece is only more than 20,000 yuan, so that undoubtedly more prominent g1 series of cost-effective, more suitable for the pursuit of high-quality sound restoration, Humanized manipulation and budgeting are not so adequate for the needs of enthusiasts. Today, let's get to know a new premium streaming media decoder from digital audio giant auralic - vega g1.
Vega g1 is similar to g2
Auralic factory for vega g1 official product positioning is "streaming dac", that is, "streaming media decoder", it can be seen that although equipped with ear amplifiers and pre-stage and other essential functions of the all-in-one machine, but the factory is more focused on highlighting the "streaming media playback" and "decoding" of these two important functions, which is also an important difference with other similar products on the market, but the author to vega g1 function, said that it is a "all-in-one machine" may be more comprehensive.
vega g1
Vega g1 from the design concept to technology to workmanship, is undoubtedly not the source resource flagship vega g2 series, many applications in the flagship series of products materials and technology are also delegated to the g1 series: from the appearance and material, the g1 from the g2's aluminum-digging chassis to aluminum splicing chassis, in the volume / control knob material and color matching differences, and from analog volume control to digital volume potentiometer; vega g1 cancels the analog input, more emphasis on it is a pure "digital source" The quality of the ear amplifier is excellent, but the thrust is small; the exclusive lighting link and external clock interface of the auralic are cancelled, if you are not a super fan of auralic, there is no need to add an external clock in the future, in fact, this function reduction impact is not large, and this is actually more in line with the positioning of vega g1.
Vega g1 interior
In terms of similarities, G1 follows the decoding chip customized by G2 from ESS, which can support up to dsd512 and PCM 32bit/384k high-format digital audio sources, and can also support digital audio in various formats currently on the market; G1 also uses the tesla G1 streaming platform and lighting DS operating system used from the original aries player, it can be said that auralic is a digital music player to start, In the development of the software platform of digital broadcasting has absolute technical advantages and rich experience, I believe that every player who has actually used auralic digital broadcasting will sigh - this is the best digital broadcast control platform at present; when the vega high-precision 82 femtosecond clock concept was just on the market, it can be said that it is eye-catching, the sound effect is also well-known, but it takes a long time to warm up to enter the state is really unpleasant, with the development of technology, today's g1 not only will the clock configuration be upgraded to the double 72 femtosecond level, It can also achieve the best state after booting; the orfeo Class A output module derived from the Neve 8078 mixer circuit provides a more musical analog signal output; although the internal isolation g1 is slightly inferior to the g2, it still provides a dual-linear power supply that separates the control circuit from the audio circuit, ensuring the purity of the sound.
In this way, G1 inherits many advanced technologies and concepts of the flagship g2 series, although it is missing in individual top configurations, but in fact, it is still enough for the needs of the vast majority of users, and the cost performance is very prominent. Regarding the specific similarities and differences between g1 and g2, Mr.leo yeh, webmaster of Taiwan my hiend forum, has written an article in detail, and this article also uses a picture in the article to explain the two, which is more intuitive, and I would like to thank you.
Vega g1 streaming
For the author personally, in fact, there are two main sources of digital music: network download and genuine disc track. But in fact, with the development of network construction and the rapid development of streaming media platforms in recent years, the author commutes or goes out on the street, mainly relying on streaming media platforms such as NetEase Cloud for music appreciation. But at present, the domestic streaming media platform with high-definition digital music is not yet mature, more enthusiasts are willing to choose streaming media platforms with high-definition music resources such as qobuz and tidal, but the servers of these streaming platforms are in foreign countries, and domestic use often affects some speed, which depends on many factors, and is not something that manufacturers and players can decide.
Observing the vega g1's input port settings is actually very intriguing, the machine's digital input ports are only equipped with: network cable, aes, coaxial, optical fiber, USB-a, and the machine can not build a hard disk. What does this mean? This shows that the auralic factory emphasizes that the digital signals that the vega g1 product can receive are not connected to the external hard disk (usb-b/c) except for the turntable (aes, coaxial, optical fiber), computer (usb-a) and streaming media /nas (network cable), and the machine is not equipped with wifi function. I think that on the one hand, the factory wants to highlight the characteristics of vega g1 streaming, on the other hand, it is also necessary to differentiate its functions with other products to avoid killing each other.
The author is not a senior ashes-level digital streaming player player, during this trial period borrowed a friend qobuz account to play specifically for a few days, get some specific feelings, and share with you:
1. Many friends are worried about whether a server like qobuz in a foreign streaming platform will be stuck in domestic use. From the actual experience, in some cases, in terms of song selection, page turning, search response, etc., it is indeed not as fast as domestic software, but it does not affect playback and will not cause stuttering of playback.
2.Qobuz streaming platform music quality surprised the author, here is not only a large number of newly released high-format digital music albums, but also a lot of classic record resources from the format point of view also exceed the standard of ordinary CD 16bit/44.1khz, many can reach 24bit/96khz or even higher.
Here to emphasize that high-definition format digital music, that is, often said "hires" format music, from the sense of listening, absolutely not high-frequency sharp means "more details", low-frequency "multiple times" means "extended well", on the contrary, the advantages of high-format audio are richer in musical details, the sense of music lines is more supple, durable, the extension of very high frequency and very low frequency is more relaxed and natural, and will not be deliberately emphasized or prominent, such a sense of listening is more similar to the analog sound source, but clearer, transparent.
3. Built-in qobuz, tidal lighting ds control software I feel is a full-featured, very user-friendly music control software. For people like me who usually don't play digital streaming players, just need to follow the software's prompts step by step, soon be able to complete the settings of the machine and software, it is easy to get started after a short period of application, whether it is to view, retrieve records or view related information is very convenient, through any Apple device can be fully controlled, no need to control the g1.
Vega g1 sound performance
Talking about the sound effects of vega g1 may be slightly complicated, the author has tested and played a variety of functions on vega g1 in two sets of systems, from headphones to active speakers, and then to the top hi-end system, I believe that it can test the true strength of vega g1 more comprehensively.
Desktop system
The author's previous desktop audio system composition is mainly the Mys cas 192d flagship decoding +cma800r amp amp drive audeze lcd-x, and the external speaker is adam artist5. This system has an unbiased sound resolution and positive balance in sound, and has always been my personal reference system with very good qualities. During this time playing vega g1, I gave the task of the mymes flagship system to the vega g1, driving the headphones and active speakers respectively, and getting some feelings.
1. Pitch-black background
Thanks to the excellent shielding and power design, the vega g1's music background is quite clean and dark, and to put it bluntly, the signal-to-noise ratio is very good. Reducing unnecessary noise brings a purer musical experience, whether it is quieter light music or dynamic pop music, as if the contrast of various elements in the music is more obvious, and the separation of vocals from the instrument is also better.
2. Delicate expression
The sound of vega g1 in general takes a delicate and delicate route, not to put up a position to scare the audience, in the unhurried, all-round details of the performance, showing a delicate and delicate music picture, the line is also more soft and natural, people do not get tired for a long time.
3. Headphone port performance
The Vega G1 with a 6.3mm single-ended headphone jack does have a certain gap in terms of drive control of headphones compared to the cma 800r in dual amplifier balance mode. However, this ear amplifier function was originally a "head white send" function for g1, and now it can drive lcd-x to be similar, which is also unexpected. It is suggested that the manufacturer can improve the dual 6.3mm single-ended headphone port to the 6.3+ xlr mode in the future, so that the applicability will undoubtedly be better.
4. With active speakers
In the process of matching adam artist5, vega g1 still shows a very good sound quality, not only maintaining a rich amount of information and exquisite and delicate music style, but also has a very good performance in terms of dynamic contrast and frequency band extension, at normal volume, whether it is for music or even movie sound effects can have a very immersive reproduction.
hi-end system
Subsequently, in order to dig deeper into the performance of vega g1, the author came to one of the distributors of sound rhyme in Beijing, "Xinxingguang Audio", and tried to play vega g1 in a set of million-level top hi-end system, which I believe can explain its sound quality.
The composition of the top system is: The Voice of Berlin 069 flagship split CD playback system; the 077 flagship split pre-stage; the 909 flagship stereo post-stage; the German kinetic energy athos 10 advanced coaxial horn speaker system; the supporting cable is the flagship products of the Voice of Berlin, Atlas and Minli.
To be honest, let the vega g1 priced at more than 20,000 yuan "collide" with the Berlin Voice 069 flagship CD playback system priced at more than 200,000 yuan, such a game is actually very unfair, even "ridiculous", and the average person will not play like this. The reason why we want to play this way is to completely eliminate external influencing factors and test the real strength of the Vega G1. Before the official comparison audition, we actually have psychological expectations, compared with this flagship CD system, vega g1 gap is inevitable, but just curious about how big the gap can be.
During the audition, the vega g1 was connected to the Berlin Sound 069 via a coaxial digital line, and 069 only acted as a turntable, and we turned off the pre-volume control function in the g1 machine as a pure decoder. Let's briefly talk about sound performance.
1. In terms of information, although g1 has a certain degree of loss in information and detail compared to the original decoding of 069, it still retains most of the musical details, whether it is the weak vibrato of the instrument, the residual sound of the hall sound or the final sound of the human voice, which can be completely preserved and presented.
2. In terms of the extension and dynamics of extremely high and very low frequencies, g1 can still do everything, showing a very wide frequency band reduction and high dynamic performance, and the gap with 069 lies in the bright color of extremely high frequencies and the impact and completeness of ultra-low frequencies.
3. In terms of the overall style of music, g1 ensures that the neutral balance is not biased, showing a more typical vocal tone style. This is different from the sound of Berlin, 069's own decoding is based on high speed and transparency, and it also has a crystal clear "noble atmosphere".
Overall, compared with this set of more than 200,000 super CD systems, the vega g1, which is priced at only a fraction, shows a performance that does not hesitate to let go, the details are reproduced completely, the frequency band extends naturally, the sound stretches the atmosphere, and the balance is natural, although it is slightly inferior in terms of the "noble atmosphere" and "musical sense" of the sound, but it is also a reasonable thing. Through this comparison, we once again confirm the idea that in the composition of the sound system, if you want to improve the sound performance by 10%, it may cost 10 times or more.
summary
Through this field play with auralic's latest vega g1 streaming media decoder in different systems, the author also has a more intuitive and in-depth understanding of the new product of sound rhyme.
This vega g1 design has a breakthrough, the streaming media playback function and the vast majority of pure decoder products on the market have obvious differences, and the streaming media playback function is not a decoration, in the control convenience, sound quality fidelity, compatibility tolerance has a good performance; decoding function whether in the desktop small system or in the large hifi system can hold up the scene, with high-resolution detail restoration and balance of the sound performance, is the core value of the machine, However, it is best to match the independent pre-stage or ear amplifier to release the most original strength; its excellent shape design and box workmanship make the machine different from the traditional model of sound rhyme, highlighting the sense of high-end.
There is no balanced headphone jack, can not be connected to the hard disk, no wifi and other designs on the one hand based on g1 itself positioning, on the other hand, it is also to maintain differentiation with other products, which is a small regret, enthusiasts can consider themselves in the selection process.
Overall, arualic's Vega G1 is also a very comprehensive streaming media decoder product, which is very suitable for advanced but do not want to toss digital audio players, and the performance and price ratio are top-notch.
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