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Cambridge DACMagic, anyone? (THREAD II) - Page 9

post #121 of 625
8/4/09 at 12:57am
What kind of static issues?

I'm liking how it sounds more and more...not sure if that's burn in or my ears getting used to them. This dac seems to love acoustic/classical music.
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post #122 of 625
8/4/09 at 1:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by advan031 View Post
What kind of static issues?

I'm liking how it sounds more and more...not sure if that's burn in or my ears getting used to them. This dac seems to love acoustic/classical music.
like someone is frying bacon in my right speaker. It seems to happen at low volumes especially. I'd try to give it a few more days but my 30 is coming up and I don't want to get stuck waiting on warranty repair. I'm going to send it back and think about repurchasing it.
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post #123 of 625
8/4/09 at 2:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by roker View Post
like someone is frying bacon in my right speaker. It seems to happen at low volumes especially. I'd try to give it a few more days but my 30 is coming up and I don't want to get stuck waiting on warranty repair. I'm going to send it back and think about repurchasing it.
You tried other phones first, or checked your phones in an iPod or something?
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post #124 of 625
8/4/09 at 4:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Drubbing View Post
You tried other phones first, or checked your phones in an iPod or something?
speakers

yes

I tried it with and without. It keeps doing it randomly. I keep catching it. I'd hate to get rid of it. It sounds great. I might go for a repurchase, but I'm pretty bummed right now.
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post #125 of 625
8/4/09 at 7:13am
Given that the Dacmagic requires an amp in order to output to headphones or speakers, you should be examining the rest of your chain; check your cables, check your connections, check your amp, check your speakers

Try unplugging at the speaker end and swapping them over. If that does not provide an answer then try swapping the cables themselves over

Try using a different set of cable between the Dacmagic and amp. And try using a different input on your amp

It is all about isolating the fault. Only after all of the above can you say that it is the Dacmagic

10 minutes of your time to be sure is better than finding the same problem again with another Dacmagic
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post #126 of 625
8/5/09 at 5:45am
Well - I just pulled the trigger 5 minutes ago and purchased the Dacmagic - (brand new in sealed box for $479 CND shipped to my door). With my new ESW10JPN's and Grado HF-2's about to arrive any day now, teamed up with my LD MK III I'm quite anxious to 'hear' my purchases. Hopefully there will be no buyers remorse, and hopefully I can put my wallet away for a little while.
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post #127 of 625
8/6/09 at 5:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by thathertz View Post
IMHO you will get a significant increase in fidelity when using
320kbps MP3's but the Dacmagic really starts to shine when you
use lossless media.

This is a good and bad point with the DACMagic. I've had mine now for a couple of months and it has hundreds of hours on the clock. Although I could hear differences between lossless and 320 kbps before, the DACMAgic makes the differences extremely obvious to me - the 320 kpbs files sounding more like improved versions of low bitrate MP3 rather than slightly worse versions of lossless.

I've bought a few 320 kbps MP3 files from the Deutsche Grammaphon website and there is a pretty clear difference between those and the CDs or the FLAC downloads they offer.

The DACMagic is the reason, however, why I am not buying anything compressed any more (but I only bought compressed before because it was not available in lossless). If the DACMagic can reveal the differences so easily, then when I upgrade in the future to something serious, the differences will no doubt be even more marked.

This is not to say MP3 sounds bad via the DACMagic - it still sounds good, but lossless really does shine with it, whereas with other equipment you often wonder what the point was of using a lossless source.
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post #128 of 625
8/6/09 at 6:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by charliex View Post
Well - I just pulled the trigger 5 minutes ago and purchased the Dacmagic - (brand new in sealed box for $479 CND shipped to my door). With my new ESW10JPN's and Grado HF-2's about to arrive any day now, teamed up with my LD MK III I'm quite anxious to 'hear' my purchases. Hopefully there will be no buyers remorse, and hopefully I can put my wallet away for a little while.
That look to be a pretty good price.

I certainly got no remorse, as the above poster says though, for many it can e the first decent source, and as such will more easily reveal poorer recordings.

I haven't done much investigation into lossless Vs good bitrate, but I can hear which of why music is well recorded and which isn't - regardless of the same bitrate b/n the two. The DACmagic is able to do a lot more with the good stuff, though I'm sure this is true of all good sources, as the music is a source too.

It's one of those products that can start the slippery slop of walletness.
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post #129 of 625
8/6/09 at 9:14pm
Unfortunately I'm retiring from this thread. I returned it after not being able to isolate the static problem from the dac (different interconnects, different sources, different speakers, etc.).

It's random, but appears to happen more often when the dac has been on for a while (and once when I turned it on and played a couple of songs). I think I'm going to go dac-less for a while . . . wait for the next big thing . . . give my wallet a break . . . I had to eat 15 dollars in shipping.
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post #130 of 625
8/7/09 at 9:04am
hows the detail on the dacmagic? I have a lot of money to spend since i won lotto and i am trying to find a dac i prefer to the dac1
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post #131 of 625
8/7/09 at 10:25am
Same here i found a bag of gold weighs 15 tonne i need a new pair of slippers and maybe some cable for my dacmagic.
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post #132 of 625
8/7/09 at 1:47pm
I've not done any lossless v lossy investigations either. All my files are 320kbps CBR joint stereo lame mp3 (don't ask). I will be seriously pissed if I have to re-rip my CDs because I can hear a difference as I have been procrastinating and meaning to do it... oh well eventually

Ordered a cheap Ixos toslink to mini off Amazon for the iMac. I'm cheap so its not expected to get here until 10th~13th on free del. Curse the wait

Anyway, anyone done any mods for the DM? I'm not skilled enough to do something as simple as changing the op-amps which supposedly makes a huge difference

Some discussion has gone on for this company but for the money you could upgrade to a whole new DAC!
http://www.audiocom-uk.com/mod_inner.asp?id=82
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post #133 of 625
8/7/09 at 2:28pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by LFC_SL View Post
I've not done any lossless v lossy investigations either. All my files are 320kbps CBR joint stereo lame mp3 (don't ask). I will be seriously pissed if I have to re-rip my CDs because I can hear a difference as I have been procrastinating and meaning to do it... oh well eventually

Ordered a cheap Ixos toslink to mini off Amazon for the iMac. I'm cheap so its not expected to get here until 10th~13th on free del. Curse the wait

Anyway, anyone done any mods for the DM? I'm not skilled enough to do something as simple as changing the op-amps which supposedly makes a huge difference

Some discussion has gone on for this company but for the money you could upgrade to a whole new DAC!
.: Audiocom International :. Modifications : Cambridge Audio DacMagic
You need to re-rip Major task but you'll never use mp3 again.

I sent my DacMagic off to Audiocom for level-2 mods.
After a week I was told they could not remove the case
because of a stripped screw.

DacMagic came back un-modded.

I may still consider it in the future since there's nothing in this price range
(dacmagic + cost of mods) that excites me.

There are some caveats of course: you may not like the sound once the mods
are done and resale value doesn't really increase that much if at all.
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post #134 of 625
8/7/09 at 4:31pm
Was the stripped screw that thwarted your plans already there or because they messed up trying to get inside?
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post #135 of 625
8/7/09 at 5:47pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by LFC_SL View Post
Was the stripped screw that thwarted your plans already there or because they messed up trying to get inside?
I really don't know. The unit was brand new when I got it and I'd
never even tried to open it. However, I have to give the benefit of the
doubt since 'ADD' commented on a similar experience he had with a new
unit (earlier in this thread) - I think he had the same problem with a
shredded screw.
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