[Calvin&Hobbes]

Audio (German) hifi magazine states following: CA DACMagic uses two Wolfson WM8740 chips. MF V-DAC uses Burr-Brown DSD-1792 chip. BTW: does a V-DAC thread already exist?

 

[DaMnEd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calvin&Hobbes /img/forum/go_quote.gif Audio (German) hifi magazine states following: CA DACMagic uses two Wolfson WM8740 chips. MF V-DAC uses Burr-Brown DSD-1792 chip. BTW: does a V-DAC thread already exist?

Thanks for the info. Nice DAC.

 

[Fosu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calvin&Hobbes /img/forum/go_quote.gif BTW: does a V-DAC thread already exist?

No it doesn't. But you should make it.

 

[dallan]

One did exist but it got shut down or locked down temporarily because a member of the trade was making claims of his own over there in opposition to the vdac.

 

[dallan]

The title was "Musical Fidelity V-dac?" - that is actually the thread i was reading and ready to buy when one of the posts sent me to an English article that compared the v-dac to the dacmagic, which at the time i hadn't known about. The article favored the dacmagic so i went this way.

 

[kool bubba ice]

They have a full page ad in my S&V mag.. And they are pushing this dac to the gaming/console crowd. Somthing I never thought I'd see.

 

[smuh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by anadin /img/forum/go_quote.gif Your are all buying the wrong DAC. I've had the DacMagic and in my opinion the V-DAC is the better sounding DAC. at only £150 its a true bargain. Mark my words once people start getting the V-DAC you will soon hear how good it is.

"Audio" a german hifi-magazine comes to the same conclusion. For pure SQ they think the V-Dac is outperforming the DACMagic, but the DACMagic is still a bargain for all the option and still sounds great.
The V-DAC's design (no real frontplate, inputs on the front, outputs on the back) allows very short signal lengths and seems to concentrate on SQ alone.

I have not heard either of them as I am very happy with my Paradisea+ in my current setup

 

[schalliol]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kool bubba ice /img/forum/go_quote.gif They have a full page ad in my S&V mag.. And they are pushing this dac to the gaming/console crowd. Somthing I never thought I'd see.

Yeah, it's a real chunk of change for a typical console gamer, especially when I would expect most would be playing with 5.1 audio if they have the bucks.

 

[schalliol]

Those that have this unit out there, what's the power connection like? I see that there's a DC input. How long is the cable and does it have a wall wart or a cable and brick? I suppose there may be a difference between the USA and European version, though I'm mainly interested in the USA version.

Thanks!

 

[StanleyB1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dallan /img/forum/go_quote.gif One did exist but it got shut down or locked down temporarily because a member of the trade was making claims of his own over there in opposition to the vdac.

They were not claims. They were a link to a shorter version of a test review carried out by a UK HIFI magazine called What HIFI. You can of course read the full article in the November issue.

 

[kydsid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by schalliol /img/forum/go_quote.gif Those that have this unit out there, what's the power connection like? I see that there's a DC input. How long is the cable and does it have a wall wart or a cable and brick? I suppose there may be a difference between the USA and European version, though I'm mainly interested in the USA version. Thanks!

The US version has a wall wart, pretty big one. The cord isn't terribly long, but is long enough to get from my power conditioner on the floor to the top of my stack on the desk, I would guess three to four feet and some slack left over. Of course I think it says on the unit and in the manual that use of another power supply voids the warranty.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by schalliol /img/forum/go_quote.gif Those that have this unit out there, what's the power connection like? I see that there's a DC input. How long is the cable and does it have a wall wart or a cable and brick? I suppose there may be a difference between the USA and European version, though I'm mainly interested in the USA version. Thanks!

wiatrob says he looked at his and discovered it is a 12v AC, not DC, so he had to abandon plans to build a sigma 11 PSU for it.

 

[schalliol]

Interesting, so it takes in 1.5A 12V AC. I guess it has to transform it down to DC inside, right?

I'd still be interested in hearing what kind of power supply and length is used if anyone knows.

 

[oldson]

would either or both of these dacs (dacmagic/ v-dac) be a big improvement over my zero dac?

 

[dmashta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calvin&Hobbes /img/forum/go_quote.gif CA DacMagic in summary: POS: unspectacular neutral sounding, allround equipped, NEG: at this price no complaints at all. Excellent: sound 100 (RCA), 105 (balanced).

anadin or anyone who has heard both care to expand a little further on the differences between the two? i'm not sure i understand how "unspectacular" neutral can sound. after all, i'd think you want the dac to be as neutral and transparent as can be. any colorization, warmth, etc you can tweak further down the chain via the amp and headphones.

and unless the v-dac sounds that much better, i'd think the aesthetics and extra features of the DM (balanced output, sampling rate LEDs) would make it the more attractive (no pun) option. i mean, the DM looks nice next to your rig whereas the v-dac looks like something that you'll definitely want to hide away, next to your other power bricks. yes i know this is all secondary to the sound.