Cambridge DACMagic, anyone? - Page 33  

My DacMagic arrived last night from a local shop. Nicely packaged is all I can say for now because I couldn't find an optical cable.

Will post impressions this weekend.

I have 4gigs in my desktop, though none of it is shared for video (i have a separate card with its own vRAM). There has been ZERO change in my memory usage whether using the DM or not

@Knight: since your memory usage doesnt shoot up immediately, and instead progressively increases over the process of hours, id check for any software updates to any and all programs you have running in the background - this sounds a lot like a memory leak. also, running a virus and spyware check may be in order

What is the process that eats that memory exactly? ASIO4all?

It seems that if it is audio related, something could be writing audio to a RAM buffer and not letting it go.

I'd say the first step would be to figure out the activity of each app/process like I indicated above. I think that the Windows task manager may do this, but I don't recall.

That's what I guessed.
I'll check my Task Manager when the RAM consumption is really high.

If it is it may just be a bug in the ASIO4all program/driver, the DacMagic uses a standard driver for USB audio devices, can't really think why it would cause this.

If you confirm this just use the dacmagic without the ASIO/asio4all for a couple of hours, if "nothing happens" you have a definite culprit

I was thinking of buffer as well. In that case closing foobar and asio4all should clear the buffer, right? Try that if your laptop is hitting 95%.

No such issues here, dont see any unusual memory usage. Not sure whats goin on on your laptop.

Edit: Have run some comparisons directly between the DacMagic and EMU0202. I can't say the DacMagic is better anymore, infact quite the opposite. Yesterday, my immediate impression was that it sounded more fuller and rounder. But after more AB testing, I must say there are a few issues.

The bass doesnt work universally for all songs, its emphasized, sometimes ends up being overbearing. Tool's Aenima album ends up sounding slightly muddy on the Dacmagic. This is also directly the fault of the treble extension of the Dacmagic. The EMU clearly has better treble extension and definition. The Dacmagic treble is rounded off and rolled off. Its not precise. The ride hits arent as sharp as the EMU.

The Dacmagic definintely adds more soundstage overall, and gives some air around instruments, but this works only for acoustic parts, and songs where instruments stand out. For metal, rock, and band oriented music, this doesnt really add any significant benefit.

Overall, while the Dacmagic is definitely an improvement over the Sony CE595's cd output, it doesnt sound universally appealing on my headphone rig, some "audiophile" recordings sound better due to instruments standing out better and sounding fuller and clearer, but for general music listening, and I am preferring the EMU over the Dacmagic. The treble is my biggest issue, and the bass is overbearing in some songs, listening to "A Fair Judgement" by Opeth now, the ride and hi hat is so much better on the EMU compared to the Dacmagic. Same with "Jimmy" by Tool.

I must say I am slightly dissapointed, I guess I was very excited yesterday after such a long wait, I just wanted it to sound better so badly that I didnt listen critically.

Since it does work on my speaker rig and sounds better than my CE595's analog out, I think i'll keep it for now. Unless I feel otherwise over extended listening over the weekend.

Edit: Oh and burn in must've been 6-8 hrs, so lets see if burn in changes anything

How does it sound with optical and coax input? When we played with one at the Colorado head-fi meet last month we only tried optical. Maybe USB isn't quite as good in your case?

Well I tested the Dacmagic on my speaker rig using optical from the Sony CDP, but havent tried the Glite+770 with that setup. From my 3-4 hour listening session, I really liked what it did to my Primus P362, maybe I will try the same setup with Glite+headphones over the weekend and post some updates.

Perhaps there is some system mismatch, I had an EMU 0404 couple years ago for computer use but it was surpassed (and sold) last year by Keces 151 USB Dac.....great performance/value product for $250.

First 24hrs I wasn't sure I preferred the Dac Magic vs Keces 151 since it initially seemed a bit brightly lit although very detailed. After 48hrs however the Dac Magic blossomed and sound became sweeter and more refined while still keeping its edge in fine detail retrevial, very happy with this Dac. Bass in particular is much tighter/clearer with individual plucked notes with bass string decay now audilble and much clearer drum strikes and longer note decay........I can now hear very deep into instrument mix of metal songs that before were just indescript wave of noise

Noticeable improvement over Emu 0404 and slight upgrade from Keces 151, for a great price of $399........plus more flexible input options and balanced cable option

MS Vista Computer -> Dac Magic USB -> Little Dot Mk V amp -> Senn 600/650

The culprit might have been the "always resample" check box in asio4all. I just noticed that the 48khz light was on instead of 44.1. I switched it off now.

Lateralus seems to sound better now. Treble is all there. I don't know, I'm just confused now, I think I just need rest

I'm gonna leave more impressions for later now, will leave it running till sunday and then have another AB session. As of now however, the resample thing seems to have fixed some issues. (atleast I think so :S)

EDIT: People thats it. Its the damn Always Resample checkbox on ASIO4all. Make sure you uncheck it!!! That was the problem all along. It sounds fantastic now. MFSL version of GNR's Use your illusion is mindblowing, I have never heard the damn thing sound this good. Finally, I can relax and enjoy the music!

Better than your 0202?

Has anyone tried playing back 24bit/96KHz files using ASIO4ALL with optical out to the DacMagic? When I tried, Foobar gives me the following error:

Unrecoverable playback error: The ASIO device does not support specified sample rate (96000Hz)

However, it works fine when not using ASIO. Is this a problem with ASIO itself?