DACMagic Plus Impressions - Page 12

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamesnz 

New Cambridge dac,

 

http://www.whathifi.com/news/world-exclusive-cambridge-audio-unveils-£19995-dacmagic-100

Wow! I'll wait and see how much it costs here. I've been waiting and watching the DAC game for a long time. I haven't bit the bullet yet...this looks interesting!

Cheers, thanks for setting that up. I was just being a bit lazy posting it here rather than a new thread. Plus it allowed people looking at the plus to see it.

The Cambridge ASIO Driver seen no any problem on my system, both lenovo notebook (Win 7 HP) and 2008 imac (bootcamp + xp).

As i know Dell is very poor connect with other devices, such as my office dell desktop computer, many usb reader can not working on.

Please try to use other computer, japanese brand (e.g toshibra ) and lenovo get better for music production and music enjoyment and no harmful.

Good setup ASIO is much better that WASAPI, but CoreAudio+COG on MAC is better that ASIO+Foobar and no headache.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kandiru 

OK, got the new system running.

 

Dell Precision 370 Win7 Pro cca. 2007 USB2.

Drivers set to "Exclusive" mode, so the Foobar

WASAPI plugin controls the action.

 

USB2 "audiophile" cable with separate

power and digital cables, ebay.hk

 

DM Plus USB2 drivers with linear PSU

 

Monster M1000i XLR-RCA

 

Parasound Zamp v.3

 

DYI Belden 10AWG 99.9% oxygen free, silver solder. gold plated ring terminals (butane torches run hot!)

 

ProAc Tablette 50 with sterling silver jumpers on Bell'O stands.

 

 

ASIO = FAIL, same at home on my 2010  Dell T7500. Winamp, WMP, plugins poor, Foobar freezes on all

systems. Ran a search "WASAPI better than ASIO" and i was surprised to see the results. Apparently if

you do not mix music WASAPi is just as good.

 

WASAPI = A-OK with MAIKO (or mother in most Slavic languages) plugin fro Winamp but still buggy, PERFECT with Foobar 24 bit.

 

So all testing with Foobar WASAPI.

 

I also tested the system with my Canton Karat M30 D's, they can't hold a candle to the ProAcs.

 

Sound is filling, soundstage is marvelous, Suburbs of Goa and Radio Jazz Plus excel. AVRO Baroque shines

too, Bartok Radio (national pride:) is reaching new heights.

 

This little Christmas adventure unfortunately exacerbated my chronic upgraditis again, so now i am in the process of replacing

my cables in the mancave separates system to match the new reference SACD player:)

 

I just wish manufacturers and software people talked more to each other, computer audio is so much fun but

very painful to implement.

 

 

Anyone compared the dacmagic plus and Asus Xonar Essence One? I have been looking at these two for my new headphones. They are in the same price range. Which one would be best as dac/heaphone amp.

Hi everyone! Another happy owner of the DM+ here!

I have a MacBook Pro with both Windows 7 and MacOS SL and the DM+ works perfectly with both.

In Windows I managed to make it work with ASIO and WasAPI, but I mostly use ASIO mode.

In MacOS everything is natively supported, so I didn't have to install anything. The only missing part is a but perfect player, and I'm planning to get BitPerfect as soon as v1.0 is ready.

I'm not experienced enough and my years aren't yet trained to detect subtiles characteristics of a system, but the difference between the onboard sound card and the DM+ was immediately and extremely clear. The integrated headphone amp is adequate to power my HD-650.

I'm not really sure about the differences between the 3 different filters. Yes, I understand the mathematical point of view, but when I try to find the differences I hardly find anything. I noticed that I mostly have "minimal" selected when I blind test the filters.

I have two "issues" though:

- sometimes when I turn the DM+ on I hear the "click" from the device, MacOS selects it as output device, but I can't hear anything from it and nothing is indicated for the "incoming sample rate" (leds are all off). This may be a driver problem, because I experienced it only while using MacOS and I just have to turn it off and on again to make it work.

- I hear a high pitched noise coming from the DM+ all the time. I don't know if this is normal. Has anybody else experienced this?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrono251 

Hi everyone! Another happy owner of the DM+ here!

 

I have a MacBook Pro with both Windows 7 and MacOS SL and the DM+ works perfectly with both.

In Windows I managed to make it work with ASIO and WasAPI, but I mostly use ASIO mode.

In MacOS everything is natively supported, so I didn't have to install anything. The only missing part is a but perfect player, and I'm planning to get BitPerfect as soon as v1.0 is ready.

 

I'm not experienced enough and my years aren't yet trained to detect subtiles characteristics of a system, but the difference between the onboard sound card and the DM+ was immediately and extremely clear. The integrated headphone amp is adequate to power my HD-650.

 

I'm not really sure about the differences between the 3 different filters. Yes, I understand the mathematical point of view, but when I try to find the differences I hardly find anything. I noticed that I mostly have "minimal" selected when I blind test the filters.

 

I have two "issues" though:

- sometimes when I turn the DM+ on I hear the "click" from the device, MacOS selects it as output device, but I can't hear anything from it and nothing is indicated for the "incoming sample rate" (leds are all off). This may be a driver problem, because I experienced it only while using MacOS and I just have to turn it off and on again to make it work.

- I hear a high pitched noise coming from the DM+ all the time. I don't know if this is normal. Has anybody else experienced this?

DM+ click sound on start should normal, it from internal relay.

Start DM+ before switch on MAC and switch off MAC before switch on DM+, it is because sometime MAC can not recognize that when DM+ power, all USB use external power may affect, this problem easy come from MAC that WIN because MAC is a unix based system, better detect the USB device when boot up.

High pitched noise may come from ground or external noise, try switch GROUND/LIFT near the USB jack on back, if not try use a better (thick wire) USB cable with filter .

Here is one question:

Have any one do any direct comparison between Schiit Bifrost and DM+?

I am really interested in the result of these two.

BTW I am current using ipod touch -> RPX-35 -> HD800, so a upgrade in source is very much needed!

Thanks

hi all i plan on buying a DM+ but i am not sure to go for the Silver or Black color.

anyone help me decide? and the faceplate is aluminum right?

and can the wolfsons be switched out for something better or any part upgraded?

Does anybody know if the DM+ supports integer mode? I program I use indicates that the device should be compatible, but when I activate that mode I can hear weird stuff like random sounds which are completely unrelated to music (and then the program crashes).

@sclee:

Thanks for your answer.

It always works if I turn it on before the Mac, so that must be the cause.

I tried to change the ground/lift switch, but there's no difference. I don't hear the high pitched noise in the headphones, as it comes from the device. It is not annoying even if I use open-back headphones (it's like the noise made by old CRT televisions), but I wonder if it is normal for the DAC to make that noise.

@extrafuxxyllama:

Faceplate is aluminum, that is correct.

I have the black version and I love the color. With the blue LEDs I think it's extremely cool! :D

I don't have an HiFi system to connect it to (maybe in the future...), but I currently use it with my computer, so I keep it next to the screen. If you want to place it with your system, your taste might help you decide, in particular if you have the chance to check it out in a shop (that's what I did).

I don't know if you can change the ICs, maybe somebody else can help you with that.

I'm not sure if the DM+ supports Integer Mode but if you're using Audirvana, try launching it in 32-bit mode.  You can do a "get info" on the app and set the option in there (OSX).

I had the same problem and now it works after the 32bit mode setting is enabled.

Black gets my vote. Just looks sexy! But, it depends on what other equipment you have...

there different shades of silver between manufacturers but black is black.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by extrafuzzyllama 

hi all i plan on buying a DM+ but i am not sure to go for the Silver or Black color.

anyone help me decide? and the faceplate is aluminum right?

and can the wolfsons be switched out for something better or any part upgraded?