KLJTech
1000+ Head-Fier
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- Aug 12, 2008
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I know that this sounds like an easy question since as music lovers and audiophiles it’s always easy to say “of course you need to upgrade to the _____” fill in the blank. I’m currently using a Auzentech Prelude sound card in my PC and have DH Labs Revelation interconnects running from the card to my preamp. I’d like to know if I would hear a worthwhile improvement if I were to buy one of three stand alone DAC’s and just use the Preludes coax output.
The reason the choice is from these three DAC’s is because I can get a discount price on these units and if not for the discount I wouldn’t be spending the money at this time. The DAC’s I’d be choosing from are the PS Audio Digital Link III, the Music Hall DAC 25.2 or the Cambridge Dac Magic. Has anyone here used the Prelude with any of these units or listened to that card and any of these units enough to know for certain that the purchase of a standalone DAC would be a noticeable improvement?
When listening to music from my PC I use Foobar2000 and all of my music was ripped using EAC and in FLAC format. At the moment I’m using a B&K preamp and an Aragon 4004 amp with either B&W 805’s or B&W CDM 1NT’s (sometimes I use Magnepan 1.6’s that normally are used in the living room) with a Velodyne sub. When using a headphone, which is a lot of the time, I use the Cute Beyond with Supplier with either my Grado 325i’s or AKG 701’s.
I’ve owned and enjoyed a few different DAC’s in the past with a regular CD transport but I’ve never used the digital out from a soundcard to a DAC and I’m unsure of how much improvement any of the three DAC’s mentioned would make.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
The reason the choice is from these three DAC’s is because I can get a discount price on these units and if not for the discount I wouldn’t be spending the money at this time. The DAC’s I’d be choosing from are the PS Audio Digital Link III, the Music Hall DAC 25.2 or the Cambridge Dac Magic. Has anyone here used the Prelude with any of these units or listened to that card and any of these units enough to know for certain that the purchase of a standalone DAC would be a noticeable improvement?
When listening to music from my PC I use Foobar2000 and all of my music was ripped using EAC and in FLAC format. At the moment I’m using a B&K preamp and an Aragon 4004 amp with either B&W 805’s or B&W CDM 1NT’s (sometimes I use Magnepan 1.6’s that normally are used in the living room) with a Velodyne sub. When using a headphone, which is a lot of the time, I use the Cute Beyond with Supplier with either my Grado 325i’s or AKG 701’s.
I’ve owned and enjoyed a few different DAC’s in the past with a regular CD transport but I’ve never used the digital out from a soundcard to a DAC and I’m unsure of how much improvement any of the three DAC’s mentioned would make.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
