I've had my Vega for over 4 years now, so a report on some of the problems I've had for those who might want to buy one
sorry to hear about your issues with the vega, Daverz.
i’ve had my vega about as long as yours, and here’s its info:
hw vers: 1.3
sw vers: 1.9
s/n: 5407
run: 22286hrs
the only time i have issues with exact clock mode is with long runs of usb, which exact mode needs time to settle into, after which (
~5-10mins) the dropouts stop. never had exact mode issues with any of my spdif sources, including an hdmi de-embedder’s spdif 24/192 output (from a dvd-audio). all the gear gets its power from a common balanced transformer (cinepro), which may be making things easier for exact mode.
i tried using neutrik xlr-rca adapters (the ones that came with my lavry da11) to reduce the vega’s xlr output by half, but i get distortion after only a minute or two of playing it that way.
i too am curious what its digital attenuation does to the s/n and distortion figures,
and wonder how close these tables are to real world application...
i believe each numerical increment equals 0.5db on the vega, e.g., a reading of 70 would mean -15db of attenuation.