DAC recommendation

OK, the favourite (without audition) has rapidly become the Beresford TC-7510.

Any comments on this product?

Richard

I have just got one of the Cambridge Audio DacMagics and can tell you that I am very pleased with it. Reviews have been excellent and in the UK it costs £199 which is a good price. Well worth checking out though they have been hard to get hold of and I had to wait two months for mine. The situation is getting better of late though. Check out the Cambridge Audio web site.

Regards

Mike

I have to agree with Mike.

I bought a CA DACMAGIC today for £199 from Richersounds in MK and having got it home and set it up with my ZP90, well, words cant describe the difference.

I only got my Sonos at xmas and I love it but if I am honest, I found the sound to be quite, well, boring.

Put the DACMAGIC on and dear god, my ears are getting smacked senseless!!!!!!

I cant put into words how good it is, its took the sound of my Sonos to levels I didnt think exisited with the Sonos.

Just playing Everybodys Changing by Keane and my ears are just getting a real treat!

Hand on heart, £199 and you wont look back!

I read the DACMAGIC gets better when you wear it in.

If its this good out the box, roll on breaking in!

BUY ONE!!!!!!

Sam

i'm using a benchmark DAC1. this device was winning many awards and has best recommendations from many studios.

find all info and reviews at benchmarkmedia.com

Mars

Unfortunately Richer Sounds are only selling them through the shops at the moment because of demand. Eventually demand will settle and you should be able to buy them off the Internet.

Regards

Mike

I have to agree with Mike.

I bought a CA DACMAGIC today for £199 from Richersounds in MK and having got it home and set it up with my ZP90, well, words cant describe the difference.

I only got my Sonos at xmas and I love it but if I am honest, I found the sound to be quite, well, boring.

Put the DACMAGIC on and dear god, my ears are getting smacked senseless!!!!!!

I cant put into words how good it is, its took the sound of my Sonos to levels I didnt think exisited with the Sonos.

Just playing Everybodys Changing by Keane and my ears are just getting a real treat!

Hand on heart, £199 and you wont look back!

I read the DACMAGIC gets better when you wear it in.

If its this good out the box, roll on breaking in!

BUY ONE!!!!!!

Sam
Sam,

After your SONOS is connected to the DACMAGIC via optical, how is it then connected to the AMP / Stereo system you have. I only ask as was it originally connected by RCA and now you have introduced the DAC you have noticed the significant difference ?

The reason being, I have a Prologic Midi system which unfortuanatly doesn't have optical input. So, would i loose the benefit of purchasing the DAC once the SONSO is connected to the DAC via optical and then connecting the DAC to the RCA phono inputs of the midi system ? At the moment the SONOS is connected to the Midi obvioulsy by RCA only.

I am sorely tempted by one though :)

Many thanks

Tissy

For the DacMagic to work it's tricks the output must be fed through RCA cables. If you use the digital outputs it runs in pass through mode, with no DAC functions or filtering benefits.

With the system you have mentioned, you would connect from the Sonos to the DacMagic using either of the digital outputs, and then from there to your amp using RCA cables.

I hope this makes sense.

Mike

My concern was is it worth spending the £200 where effectively i will be going from a new digital connection and then back to what is effectively analogue. Obvioulsy the SONOS is connected via analogue already, so wanted to ensure it was worth it.


Why should the sonos be connected analogue?
Analogue to digital to analogue again makes no sense at all! But the sonos gets digitalized input, so theres no problem.

Just looking at the TechRadar site and came across a new DAC review. A little pricey at £1950 though.

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/audio-visual/hi-fi-and-audio/amplifiers/bryston-bda-1-488837/review

Mars

You would not be going ADA you would be DDA, and as Avee says it all gets converted to analogue before you get to hear it anyway.

Mike

As I understand it, this Cambridge Dac is an easy way to upgrade the sound quality of my zp 100. Is a Dac more important than the quality of the amp?

Its the best £200 I have spent in a long time, the difference is instant from the moment you plug it in.


I don't agree with Samboy - the difference to ZP90 built-in DAC is not large. The built in is very good.

As I understand it, this Cambridge Dac is an easy way to upgrade the sound quality of my zp 100. Is a Dac more important than the quality of the amp?

Differences of DACs or amps are small. What really makes the big difference, is the speakers. Before concerning about differences of DACs or amps, spend thousands on the speakers.

I have both - an amp for about 5000 Pound and one for about 500, and I tell you: Forget about the difference, especially in non-classical music.

I'm really interested in classical music. I have read that the DACMagic may be good for popular but is not good
for classical. I wonder what recommendations there are specifically for classical music from a ZP80.

Many thanks,

Jerry

This is what I don't get about the hoopla around DAC's. If the purpose of the DAC is to catch errors in the decoding (especially jitter), how could a DAC be "good" for one type of music, but "bad" for another? The way I see it the recording is the recording, and unless the DAC is otherwise coloring the music, why should it matter what style of music it is? And if the DAC is coloring the music, then it isn't a DAC, it's a DSP, and should be labeled as such.

If you ask me, it's all snake oil, and statements like a DAC being favorable to certain types of music don't help that image.

This is what I don't get about the hoopla around DAC's. If the purpose of the DAC is to catch errors in the decoding (especially jitter), how could a DAC be "good" for one type of music, but "bad" for another?The purpose of the DAC is to convert the digital signal to an analog signal. It will not catch errors in the digital input signal, it will process what it gets. A typical DAC will contain several blocks:

(1) A digital interface - typically some flavor of S/PDIF (coax or Toslink). The data is contained in a serial stream; the digital interface (a) converts this serial data to a format usable by the actual D/A converter chip and (b) extracts the sampling clock from the data stream. The extracted sampling clock will contain some jitter passed through from the input stream (although usually attenuated) and will introduce some jitter of its own. Details of circuit design and implementation will determine the quality of the recovered clock signal - a poor clock will definitely adversely affect performance. How good the clock needs to be is a subject of ongoing debate.

(2) The extracted data and clock are fed to the actual D/A converter chip (usually a chip, can be a module in some esoteric DACs). There are several topologies which are used for the D/A converter and there are ongoing arguments over which performs better sonically. More integrated D/A converter chips may include some smoothing filters and line output amplifiers. Again the performance of the D/A/converter chip and the care which is taken in designing the chip into the DAC are critical to the performance of the DAC. We are now dealing with an analog signal, so power supply noise, board layout, decoupling design, all can have an impact. Better designs generally cost more both in terms of development costs and BOM (bill of material).

(3) Depending on the D/A chip chosen and the system design philosophy there may be additional analog filters/amplifiers in the DAC. These require the same level of design and care as any preamp design. Again, better designs usually cost more. At one extreme some pretty expensive DAC designs use vacuum tube (valve) amplifiers in their output stage.

(4) Power supplies - inside the DAC there are both high-speed digital sections and precision analog sections. Proper power supply design is necessary to keep digital noise out of the analog signal path. It is also necessary to keep a stable digital supply to minimize jitter in the clock recovery process.

There are many areas where a DAC design can be screwed up. "A DAC is a DAC" is an oversimplification.

To amplify some of what I read, from computeraudiofile:

Classical Music with a wide dynamic range was a little different story. The DacMagic doesn't extend up or down as far as I prefer and the sound was congested at times.

Jerry

This sounds like bullsh**. The poor man has to write something, and since all of that stuff sounds alike, he just writes anything.

I am still waiting for DACmagic, and up to now am using musical fidelity v-dac, which is really fine also with classical music.

I'm going to compare them both, as soon as DACmagic finally arrives after 6 weeks of waiting up to now.

Greetings from Germany: Mars