Palmer reviews the Auralic Vega S1 Streaming DAC

Palmer from The Real Music Company Auckland takes home this new music streamer to put it through its paces! 

Auralic’s range has grown substantially over the last few years and consequently, so has the entry point into this magnificent brand.

The manufacturer was acutely aware of this fact and so last April, they showed off their new Vega-‘Lite’ and Aries-‘Lite’ versions of their ‘full-fat’ brethren. The new range is more svelte in their shoe-size but perfectly formed metal jackets. They have shed a lot of the excess I/Os and concentrated on the bare essentials. So, for example, wireless connection out, ethernet only connection in.

On the plus side, you get to keep the brains of their bigger siblings – how good is that!

The proof is in the pudding and so I took this little beauty home, connected it to the mains, the ethernet and used the Balanced (XLR) to my preamp.

I used the Vega S1 as a Streaming DAC but the ultimate strategy would be to switch the Vega S1 into its ‘Pure DAC’ mode, thereby switching off its streaming section (it literally disappears off your network) and connect the Aries S1 Streaming Processor to access all your streaming music services and all locally stored music. There is a further upgrade that can be done, I’ll get into that a little later.

So, once connected, I queued up a few tracks on Qobuz, sat back and was ‘wowed’, from the first few notes, as the quality showed itself immediately. The clarity, the attack of the instruments – simply wonderful. I began to notice things in the pieces of music I was playing that I hadn’t noticed before. I know that sounds like a cliché but it just made the music more listenable. I became more relaxed and let the music play rather than being on the ‘edge of my seat’ trying to dissect the music looking for flaws.

For more in-depth reviews of the product, you can look at sources that do that much better than I can (I’ve added links to a couple at the end of this blog.) All can say is that if you’re in the market for a new Streamer/DAC/Pre, you have to give this a listen, especially because of the upgrades you can do in the future.

Talking of upgrade, earlier I mentioned that you can connect a dedicated Streamer (Without a DAC), e.g, the Aries S1. This will certainly improve the overall sound but there’s more! The lovely people at Auralic have also produced a matching external purer power supply. This connects to either player via an HDMI-Type lead (supplied) and this upgrade is substantial. It is similar to moving up from a 4-cylinder car to a V6 (sorry for the non-motorists out there), it just tightens everything up, smooths out the power allowing the players to do their business without any fuss.

So, you can start off with just a Vega S1 unit and be perfectly satisfied with that. However, when the ‘urge/itch’ for an upgrade rears its head you could add the Purer Power Supply, add the Aries S1 Streaming Processor and finally add another Purer Power Supply to the Aries S1. It’s worth considering!

Links to Reviews

Hi-Fi Pig: https://www.hifipig.com/auralic-vega-s1-and-psu/

The Ear: https://the-ear.net/review-hardware/auralic-vega-s1-invades-the-stage/

A British Audiophile: YouTube Review

About AURALiC

AURALiC has been at the forefront of driving innovation in high-performance music reproduction technology for over 15 years. AURALiC products are designed to be accessible and help users explore digital streaming and discover new music. AURALiC is known for its innovative technologies that combine modern digital formats with classic designs.