Got my CA DacMagic, first impression (no fully run-in yet), it delivers
a wider, deeper and more dynamic soundstage, better clarity, i can hear
different depth of music with ease, it provides a very good and clear 3D
sound imaging especially at mid-range (vocal) frequencies. I tried them
at both
mowa;441850 Wrote:
I share your view. :) I returned a DacMagic, though I liked the nice
build quality and gadget-like looks. Being a gadget-lover, I'd love to
have kept it - but I just couldn't make myself do it after listening
tests. I put it on the digital output of my Duet receiver, and
Personally I think the SB3 analog output is very good. I've tried MANY
external DAC's now, and ultimately returned to the SB3 analog output
with no regrets at all. This will not be a popular view among
enthusiasts that want/enjoy the external DAC approach! But keep in mind
that not -everyone-
I listened to the Cambridge DAC Magic vs. the SB3 analog output on some
AKG 701's using a Sugden class A amp as a headphone amplifier, and I
could hear some very slight differences. The highs sounded a bit more
detailed with the DAC Magic. I couldn't hear any differences in bass.
The
I've tried a DAC MAGIC on my SB3 and for the life of me I can't hear a
difference between the analog outputs on the SB3 and the DAC magic,
except the DAC Magic is about 2 dB higher in level. Setting all levels
to match I can't hear a difference in A/B tests.
My setup is SB3 ( or DAC Magic) =
In my listening to the Cambridge DacMagic, the difference between that
DAC and the SB3 analog out was fairly easy to hear. Most notably, the
DacMagic bass went considerably deeper than the SB3 analog outputs (and,
as noted in my earlier post, I believe the DacMagic bass even went a
touch deeper
I didn't notice any difference in bass. But then I'm using Quad ESL's
which have absolutely great bass down to ~45 Hz and then really nothing
below 40, so I wouldn't be able to hear that.
I have a pair of AKG 701's and also some Sennheiser 600's, I'll check
it out with those, they both have low
I tested a Cambridge DacMagic side-by-side against my Benchmark DAC1 Pre
($1595), both taking simultaneous input from the SB3's optical and coax
digital outputs. (And I even tried swapping which DAC got the optical
and which got the coax, to make sure a possible difference there wasn't
tricka;385893 Wrote:
Look I did a a/b (blind) with a Lavry Da 10 and 47 Labs. The Dac Magic
while good for it's price was crap against the other two.
You get what you pay for.
Doesn't that mean you preferred the sound of the others? Why does that
mean it was crap? From this I don't know if
Note that the Cambridge DacMagic is powered by 12 volt AC, not DC. The
Little Pinkie supply mentioned earlier in this thread is 12V AC, but
many other external power supplies output DC.
--
TiredLegs
TiredLegs's Profile:
I like the reports for the Dac Magic from Cambridge Audio and I hope to
be able to get one later in the year to add to my SB Classic that I
hope to get for my Birthday in the summer..Also looking at the CA Azur
340A SE and some CA Speakers SL30 Sirocco Ultima ..I have all my music
on an external
GRC;393110 Wrote:
Just thought I'd add my 10 cents worth here. Bought a CA DacMagic a
couple of weeks ago while I was back in the UK and it's been on ever
since (whole system is left powered on 24/7 since it's solar
powered*).
It is - quite simply - the dog's danglies. More of
In the meantime I've got picture of DACmagics internals from Hi Fi News
(I have bought one), and I have to state that I'm not that impressed.
Not so bad but could be done better. The next thing, and the most
important one, is the god damn wall wart that really doesn't shine in
dark. I mean it's
Tubebox;393577 Wrote:
In the meantime I've got picture of DACmagic's internals from Hi Fi News
(I have bought one), and I have to state that I'm not that impressed.
Not so bad but could be done better. The next thing, and the most
important one, is the god damn wall wart that really doesn't
raven22;393578 Wrote:
If it is 12V look here. I'm considering it for my V-DAC, but the guy is
thinking about making one especially for the V-series so I'll wait for
that to happen.
http://www.rock-grotto.co.uk/pinkiev2.htm
Yeah, that's specifically dor V-DAC I doubt that the same would work
Just thought I'd add my 10 cents worth here. Bought a CA DacMagic a
couple of weeks ago while I was back in the UK and it's been on ever
since (whole system is left powered on 24/7 since it's solar
powered*).
It is - quite simply - the dog's danglies. More of everything IMHO
except perhaps
tricka;386213 Wrote:
You have to be joking...I would never describe the Lavry as harshor
ruthless. Comfirms my opinion of reviewers.
Well sometimes the manufacturer run ads for the product in the SAME
issues as the review for it.. go figure :)
If they get positive review's and then use
Look I did a a/b (blind) with a Lavry Da 10 and 47 Labs. The Dac Magic
while good for it's price was crap against the other two.
You get what you pay for.
--
tricka
Transporter +/- Lavry DA 10 - LFD Zero - Harbeth C7 es3's
Harbethed and lovin it
tricka;385893 Wrote:
You get what you pay for.
It's often the case with low/mid-priced gear.
--
Themis
SB3 - North Star dac 192 - Denon 3808 - Sonus Faber Grand Piano Domus
Themis's Profile:
tricka;385893 Wrote:
Look I did a a/b (blind) with a Lavry Da 10 and 47 Labs. The Dac Magic
while good for it's price was crap against the other two.
You get what you pay for.
The HiFi Choice team listened to the dacs blind also. They drew
different conclusions to you. Some of their remarks
raven22;385688 Wrote:
By the way, I bought a cable of 1,5 meters.
Good man :-)
--
Phil Leigh
You want to see the signal path BEFORE it gets onto a CD/vinyl...it
ain't what you'd call minimal...SB3+Stontronics PSU - Altmann
JISCO/UPCI - TACT 2.2X (Linear PSU) + Good Vibrations S/W - MF
JezA;385965 Wrote:
The HiFi Choice team listened to the dacs blind also. They drew
different conclusions to you. Some of their remarks on the Lavry were
treble .. a little ruthless .. slightly excessive ..slightly harsh ..
lack of bass .. a little forward .. so they weren't exactly as
JezA;385965 Wrote:
Some of their remarks on the Lavry were treble .. a little ruthless ..
slightly excessive ..slightly harsh .. lack of bass .. a little forward
..
You have to be joking...I would never describe the Lavry as harshor
ruthless. Comfirms my opinion of reviewers.
--
However, one of the major things against MF is the fact that it has the
input on one side and the outputs on another - very tricky to place in
the rack or wherever.
Cambridge audio is more versatile. The major thing would be the quality
of PSUs, that could make difference.
I don t know about MF
There's a picture of the insides of a DacMagic in this month's HiFi
News, where it gets a fantastic review - Disregard the asking price ..
it represents the benchmark below £1000. It also got a great review in
HiFi Choice, where it was in a review of 6 DACs, including the
Beresford. An
Tubebox;385481 Wrote:
However, one of the major things against MF is the fact that it has the
input on one side and the outputs on another - very tricky to place in
the rack or wherever.
Cambridge audio is more versatile. The major thing would be the quality
of PSUs, that could make
JezA;385642 Wrote:
There's a picture of the insides of a DacMagic in this month's HiFi
News, where it gets a fantastic review - Disregard the asking price ..
it represents the benchmark below £1000. It also got a great review in
HiFi Choice, where it was in a review of 6 DACs, including the
Yep, HiFi News February 2009.
--
JezA
JezA's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=21219
View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=53985
chefffe;376434 Wrote:
Guys,
Here in Germany we have a testmagazine called Audio which tested 4
cheap-DACS. The DacMagic placed 2nd (105pts. HighEnd Class) while an
amazing cheap DAC called V-DAC (110pts. Reference Class) won the test.
This DAC is already available from 150GBP (ebay UK). I
Peter314;382912 Wrote:
Why? What is so special about this length?
It's to avoid reflections of the digital signal - 1m or less is too
short.
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue14/spdif.htm
--
Phil Leigh
You want to see the signal path BEFORE it gets onto a CD/vinyl...it
ain't what
Thanks for the interesting link. I'm not sure that I have grasped the
physics but I will take away the practical lesson to use longer spdif
cables :)
--
Peter314
Peter314's Profile:
Phil Leigh;379406 Wrote:
I'd recommend a 1.5m coax spdif cable between SB and DAC. cost is not a
factor but length is!
Why? What is so special about this length?
--
Peter314
Peter314's Profile:
yes, use digital output of SB3 either coaxial or toslink s/pdif to
the dac.
--
auronthas
Auronthas
Tajima Power Conditioner #61614; Squeezebox 3 / Cambridge Audio 540C
V2 #61614; VDL The Source (CA) / AQ Copperhead (SB3) #61614; Krell
KAV-400xi #61614; Chord Carnival Silver Plus / VDL
auronthas;379385 Wrote:
yes, use digital output of SB3 either coaxial or toslink s/pdif to
the dac.
I'd recommend a 1.5m coax spdif cable between SB and DAC. cost is not a
factor but length is!
--
Phil Leigh
You want to see the signal path BEFORE it gets onto a CD/vinyl...it
ain't what
I am in the process of installing SB3, and considered getting the
Cambridge Audio DacMagic. Can it take the output from the SB3, or do
you have to bypass the SB3 internal DAC(if that can even be done). I am
new to all of this.I do understand that I must use the DacMagic
analogue outputs to my
hi,
sounds really interesting!
please allow one practical question:
after mains power-up, when driving it with s/pdif from a sb classic,
does the decoder come up by itself, as it was configured when switched
off, or does it need any additional configuration?
(eventually i would like to hide
Guys,
Here in Germany we have a testmagazine called Audio which tested 4
cheap-DACS. The DacMagic placed 2nd (105pts. HighEnd Class) while an
amazing cheap DAC called V-DAC (110pts. Reference Class) won the test.
This DAC is already available from 150GBP (ebay UK). I bought one and I
am
duesentrieb;376321 Wrote:
hi,
sounds really interesting!
please allow one practical question:
after mains power-up, when driving it with s/pdif from a sb classic,
does the decoder come up by itself, as it was configured when switched
off, or does it need any additional configuration?
Got my DacMagic today :-) and just had a very enjoyable first listening
session. This SB3 + DacMagic combination seems vey promising.
Instantly, you realize that the results are miles ahead of what you get
from the inboard SB3 DAC.
In the coming days I will be able to compare to a large extent
Hi BoyScout, please let us know the comparison between CA 640C and SB3 +
CA Dacmagic. I hope the latter sound warmer, musical. My current
digital source is CA 540C and SB3.
--
auronthas
Auronthas
Tajima Power Conditioner #61614; Squeezebox 3 / Cambridge Audio 540C
V2 #61614; VDL The Source
The Computer Audiophile has also posted a review recently. Here it is:
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/Cambridge-Audio-DacMagic-Review
--
Jaco
Jaco's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10726
View
Further to my original post I can confirm the UK supplyer is now listing
the DACMAGIC on their website for mail order (it was store pick up only
1 month after the original release) and therefore presumably is back in
stock. The link is
mswlogo;359008 Wrote:
I'm always skeptical when I see this. The Default Sound Card Drivers
will butcher the sound because it will resample 44.1khz to 48khz and
run through the OS's mixer.
ASIO or DirectSound (both of which would require drivers from the
vender) are the only way to get
fuzzyT;359295 Wrote:
The other only way to bypass the mixer is to use a Mac.
Again read the Benchmard DAC manual and you will see that Mac OSX is
very bad at sample rate conversion. I was surprised to read that Vista
got it right first. Pretty surprising that MS would do anything good
for
sxr71;359797 Wrote:
If you read the Benchmark DAC instruction manual you will learn that in
the case of Windows Vista the upsampling routines are excellent. Also
Benchmark claims to have a driverless way to bypass the kmixer. I
wonder what Cambridge has implemented.
I agree Vista has hooks
Themis;359010 Wrote:
I suppose that without drivers means that the default USB drivers are
used. I don't think it goes through mixer etc.
The only way to bypass the Mixer (i.e. Volume Control) on windows is to
use ASIO or DirectSound. You need drivers for that specific device to
use ASIO or
The other only way to bypass the mixer is to use a Mac.
--
fuzzyT
fuzzyT's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=13
View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=53985
Does anyone know what is in the output for line out? opamps or a discret
circuit? Seems to me that DACs seem to be crippled by a poor line
output, and switching a opamp with as HDAM module or valve stage can
have enormous benefits - more so than the quality of the DAC itself.
I'm interested to
mswlogo;359008 Wrote:
I'm always skeptical when I see this. The Default Sound Card Drivers
will butcher the sound because it will resample 44.1khz to 48khz and
run through the OS's mixer.
ASIO or DirectSound (both of which would require drivers from the
vender) are the only way to get
ajmitchell;351437 Wrote:
The USB input connects direct to PC without drivers to act as a very
high quality sound card...
I'm always skeptical when I see this. The Default Sound Card Drivers
will butcher the sound because it will resample 44.1khz to 48khz and
run through the OS's mixer.
ASIO
BigTony;358956 Wrote:
Does anyone know what is in the output for line out? opamps or a discret
circuit? Seems to me that DACs seem to be crippled by a poor line
output, and switching a opamp with as HDAM module or valve stage can
have enormous benefits - more so than the quality of the DAC
Yes thanks for the correction. It does have manual switching between two
digital and one USB source on the front panel.
BTW, the distributor in the UK (Richer Sounds) is currently out of
stock online (as of Oct/Nov08)but has some in loca stores
--
ajmitchell
I don't know whether to be grateful to rwortman for his clarification,
or to be resentful because that was the main excuse I had for not
buying it just yet...
If it had a remote (and possibly some analogue inputs) it would be my
perfect solution, along with some powered speakers. Use as a
The poster above mentioned that the DacMagic does not do input
switching. This is wrong. There are three switchable inputs. One USB
and two that have both S/PDIF and Toslink connections. What you can not
do is connect to both the S/PDIF and Toslink connection on the same
input.
--
rwortman
Have you had time to try out the USB input on the Dacmagic and, if so,
could you please share your impressions? I'm interested in how this
will match with a PS3's and PC's USB.
--
bugmenot
bugmenot's Profile:
Sorry this is not a priority for me right now, but I did just post some
pics
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?p=352250#post352250
--
ajmitchell
ajmitchell's Profile:
Check out my other hobby http://ajmitchell.shutterpoint.com;
Hide and seek? ;-)
--
Nuuk
Nuuk's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4844
View this thread:
Lol, sorry I have recently taken down my photos but not removed my sig
line
--
ajmitchell
ajmitchell's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=800
View this thread:
System as tested:
Speakers: Hyperion 938 (http://www.hyperionsound.com/HPS-938.htm)
Classe: CAP-2100
(http://www.classeaudio.com/delta/detail-cap-2100.htm)
Source: SB3 (interconnect misc digital)
DAC: Cambridge DACMagic (interconnect Nordost Red dawn)
Review
I own three SB3s and a couple of SB2s
ajmitchell;351437 Wrote:
So there you have it. A cost effective upgrade with few drawbacks (no
remote, no switching, no upsampling on digital out, effectively only 1x
digital input).
How have you determined that it doesn't upsample on digital out and
uses it only as a pass through? Is
thats whats in the manual and on some review sites.
--
ajmitchell
Check out my other hobby http://ajmitchell.shutterpoint.com
ajmitchell's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=800
View this thread:
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