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Originally Posted by Andrew_WOT /img/forum/go_quote.gif
HeadphoneAddict already compared two. Check for his impressions in Colorado meet post.
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I think the impressions are also copied into this thread somewhere. wiatrob and Blutarsky and I plan to revisit the DACMagic next month after it is burned in and the sigma 11 PSU is completed.
At the 11/1 Colorado meet we used my Single Power SQ Wave XL balanced amp with XLR and RCA inputs (act as RCA loop out if fed XLR). We used the XLR out with ALO SXC IC for the DACMagic and Apogee, and RCA out for Stello (pendles silver IC).
In a nutshell:
1) The DACMagic was very nice sounding, but a little polite sounding and rounded at the edges. I think that was because the attack was a little softer than it should be and decay a little quicker than it should be. Timbre and Tone and Soundstage were good.
2) The Stello was more defined and dynamic, with better micro-detail.
3) The Apogee Mini DAC was just a little more detailed than the Stello, but a little more aggressive than the Stello.
A couple of people at the 11/1 meet were worried the Apogee might have the potential to be fatiguing if they listened for a long time (time we didn't have to test that out but it is not fatiguing to me) and they preferred the Stello. I preferred the Stello by a small margin with the Grados, but the Apogee with everything else.
A week later I compared a Lavry DA10 to the Apogee and I thought it is more similar to the Stello than the Apogee, but the DACMagic and Stello weren't around at the time to compare. In this case the Lavry was a little better with the Stax O2 Mk2, but the Apogee was just as good with everything else.
