Can anyone recommend a Cambridge Audio DacMagic...

[jezbo]

... for enhancing the sound of my SB3? I've had my eyes on one for a couple of years now, but perhaps there's better out now for a similar price.

Currently my SB3 is fed directly through a decent Marantz amp + Mordaunt-Short speakers or Heed CanAmp + Beyerdynamic headphones. Music source is usually lossless flac files.

Also, for anyone who has actually got a DacMagic, what are the additional connectors I'll need to purchase?

[HeadBanger]

I've owned a DACMagic and the sound hooked upto my Receiver was very good - clear, punchy and neutral sounding too. When comparing it to the Receiver's analogue out it was clearly a big improvement. You can connect via optical or coaxial.

I bought a Marantz SR7005 to replace my Arcam A85 and when hooking up the Receiver into the Marantz via a digital input I couldn't reliably tell the difference between the Marantz and DACMagic so I sold it in the end.

[Willakan]

Cable-wise, you'll need either an optical cable or a coaxial cable, doesn't really matter which.
I own the now discontinued DACMagic: whether you buy the DACMagic+ or the DACMagic100 will depend entirely on whether you want a headphone amp. Even if you do, there are cheaper and better options than the headphone amp in the Plus.

[jezbo]

I'm happy with my Heed CanAmp so will go for the new DacMagic 100 I think - though I can't find the same level of enthusiasm in the reviews as in the previous version.

[rich.trish]

Why don't you just get a Touch. That's a big improvement on a SB3. I tried a DacMagic with my touch but it didn't provide the lift in performance I was looking for. I would get a touch and install Soundcheck's TT3

[gw43]

I had a SB3 and the DACMagic definitely improved on that. When I got the Touch I did try the internal DAC briefly, and whilst it was better than the SB3, I felt the DACMagic was the best of the three.

I will hold my hand up and say I did not test extensively. I had done that before when I tried a Beresford DAC against the SB3, and found little if any improvement. More extensive testing would have driven me to the edge of insanity, as the differences are slight, but in my opinion, noticeable. Which is "better" is a moot point. As I recall the DACMagic has a little more urgency, drive and space between the instruments. Overall, slightly more detail.

I did buy a 9v PSU from Maplins to run the DACMagic cooler, rather than using the stock PSU.

In terms of connectivity. I had a cheapo coax cable (£4), and replaced that with an equally cheapo Toslink (also £4). The optical is way cleaner sounding, and would be my way to go pound for pound.

To further mess with my head I'm looking at an Audiolab M-DAC or 8200DQ as a next upgrade, and use the pre-amp facility, and get myself a big power amp.

[trott3r]

Lo,

At 15:51 04/06/2012, you wrote:

>I had a SB3 and the DACMagic definitely improved on that. When I got the
>Touch I did try the internal DAC briefly, and whilst it was better than
>the SB3, I felt the DACMagic was the best of the three.

<snip>

>To further mess with my head I'm looking at an Audiolab M-DAC or 8200DQ
>as a next upgrade, and use the pre-amp facility, and get myself a big
>power amp.


I have seen the audio lab DAC as well but its a bit expensive at £600?
This is the one with the front ports isn't it?

I have looked at the DAC magic myself but it doesn't have enough digital
inputs for me. (3 and isn't the usb less than 96khz?)

With my equipment i have 6 digital device that i could potentially connect.
The SBT, 2*MDs, digital radio and 2 cd players.

It would be nice if i could find a DAC that had 6
inputs but its rather unlikely
when 3 is seen as having an above average number of ports.

The Rega DAC looks interesting though with 5 inputs (2*coax, 2*optical 1 usb)
It has been out for a little while and some are appearing on ebay which reduces
the price to more like my range.

Martin

Running MorphOS v2.6 (Nov 2010) on Mac Mini,
Moderator of MiniDisc,amithlonopen,bwfc Yahoogroups

[rgro]

Lo,

At 15:51 04/06/2012, you wrote:

>I had a SB3 and the DACMagic definitely improved on that. When I got the
>Touch I did try the internal DAC briefly, and whilst it was better than
>the SB3, I felt the DACMagic was the best of the three.

<snip>

>To further mess with my head I'm looking at an Audiolab M-DAC or 8200DQ
>as a next upgrade, and use the pre-amp facility, and get myself a big
>power amp.


I have seen the audio lab DAC as well but its a bit expensive at £600?
This is the one with the front ports isn't it?

I have looked at the DAC magic myself but it doesn't have enough digital
inputs for me. (3 and isn't the usb less than 96khz?)

With my equipment i have 6 digital device that i could potentially connect.
The SBT, 2*MDs, digital radio and 2 cd players.

It would be nice if i could find a DAC that had 6
inputs but its rather unlikely
when 3 is seen as having an above average number of ports.

The Rega DAC looks interesting though with 5 inputs (2*coax, 2*optical 1 usb)
It has been out for a little while and some are appearing on ebay which reduces
the price to more like my range.

Martin

Running MorphOS v2.6 (Nov 2010) on Mac Mini,
Moderator of MiniDisc,amithlonopen,bwfc Yahoogroups

Keep in mind that the Rega DAC's direct USB input implementation only supports 44.1/48 khz rates. If you want to fully use Triode's USB implemenation on the Touch, you'll need a USB/SPDIF converter to allow up to 24/96 via optical or up to 192 via coax into the Rega.

[trott3r]

Lo,

At 16:21 05/06/2012, you wrote:

>trott3r wrote:
> > Lo,
> >
> > At 15:51 04/06/2012, you wrote:
> >
> > >I had a SB3 and the DACMagic definitely improved on that. When I got
> > the
> > >Touch I did try the internal DAC briefly, and whilst it was better
> > than
> > >the SB3, I felt the DACMagic was the best of the three.
> >
> > <snip>
> >
> > >To further mess with my head I'm looking at an Audiolab M-DAC or
> > 8200DQ
> > >as a next upgrade, and use the pre-amp facility, and get myself a big
> > >power amp.
> >
> >
> > I have seen the audio lab DAC as well but its a bit expensive at £600?

snip

> > This is the one with the front ports isn't it?
> >
> > The Rega DAC looks interesting though with 5 inputs (2*coax, 2*optical 1
> > usb)
> > It has been out for a little while and some are appearing on ebay which
> > reduces
> > the price to more like my range.




>Keep in mind that the Rega DAC's direct USB input implementation only
>supports 44.1/48 khz rates. If you want to fully use Triode's USB
>implemenation on the Touch, you'll need a USB/SPDIF converter to allow
>up to 24/96 via optical or up to 192 via coax into the Rega.


Yeah its something to bear in mind.
I do however use the SBT locally with a flash drive attached to the usb port.
I could use the SD card slot but its more convenient to use the USB.

I only have up to 24bit 96khz music ATM so I would use the optical or SPDIF
if i got the Rega.

Martin N

Running MorphOS v2.6 (Nov 2010) on Mac Mini,
Moderator of MiniDisc,amithlonopen,bwfc Yahoogroups

[campmountainman]

... for enhancing the sound of my SB3? I've had my eyes on one for a couple of years now, but perhaps there's better out now for a similar price.

Currently my SB3 is fed directly through a decent Marantz amp + Mordaunt-Short speakers or Heed CanAmp + Beyerdynamic headphones. Music source is usually lossless flac files.

Also, for anyone who has actually got a DacMagic, what are the additional connectors I'll need to purchase?

I bought the dacmagic to connect to my SB3. Previously I was using a Musical Fidelity X24 dac but the Dacmagic was an improvement over this in terms of detail, soundstage and smoothness. I connected them with a co-axial SPDIF cable which seemed to work best.

Later I upgraded to the Logitech Touch. Strangely the sound sound improved significantly over the SB3. I suspect the Touch had less jitter. Anyway, I found a decent optical connector ($30) worked better than a much more expensive co-axial cable I was using previously. Sounded cleaner and smoother with more detail. I suspect noise was been sent via the shield of the cable.

I installed soundcheck's Touch Toolbox 3.0 and the sound became better still with more clarity and detail.

I did modify the Dacmagic to bypass the output capacitors on the RCA outputs. This did make quite a difference to the sound and improved the bass considerably.

I am going to try the balanced outputs on the Dacmagic as they are claimed to provide better performance.
I will keep you Posted.
Cheers