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Which outboard full-sized DAC should I buy?

post #1 of 5
1/8/11 at 10:41am
Thread Starter 

USB 2.0, FireWire 400/800, or even PCI, just as long as it's NOT an internal soundcard. I've been thinking about something like the Cambridge DacMagic and I want to know if it's a good buy. I could invest a lot in this, up to $600 so I wanna pay for something premium so I don't have to upgrade for a while. I will be using them with headphones but a built-in headphone amp isn't necessary. I can always add one if I need to.

 

I don't like to think about DACs as something that 'colours' the sound but if that has to be taken into consideration then I'll be listening to everything through it and my main music tastes are electronic. I'll probably be using the ATH-M50s as I'm also going to produce some music.

 

I'll be using it for listening to music, not really recording anything so it only needs to be a DAC. Is the DacMagic a good choice? Or is there anything else I should look into?

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post #2 of 5
1/8/11 at 1:25pm
Thread Starter 

bump

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post #3 of 5
1/8/11 at 3:07pm
Thread Starter 

bumpety

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post #4 of 5
1/8/11 at 3:18pm

The DacMagic might have been ok when it was released, but today I wouldn´t go for it anymore. I runs the lower spec Wolfson chips and still has the original price. These days there are a lot more recent (and better) options. If you want something neutral within that budget, I´d personally go for the Meier StageDAC or the Audio-gd NFB-2/3. They are both neutral sounding designs that run the latest high end Wolfson chip in a dual mono configuration (compared to the older worse chip in dual mono @ DacMagic). The power supply design is more comprehensive in both as well compared to the DacMagic.

 

If you can stretch the budget a bit, then there will be options like the Eastern Electric Minimax DAC (has a tube stage, but the DAC chip it uses is a hardcore neutral one) or the Audio-gd NFB-1. 

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post #5 of 5
1/8/11 at 5:50pm

Dont go overboard, the M50 doesn't scale well enough to spend very much on a DAC/AMP. Most people enjoy the M50 straight from portable devices. An amp is really only going tighten up the sound a bit.

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