[galacticsoap]

G'day Everyone,
 
Junior Head-Fi'er so please be nice   Love the forum, and the insights.
 
I stumbled on this forum while I was working interstate and looking to while away some hours. Until that moment my Beyer DT250 combo straight out of my sound car was doing the job for me, however like all of you I was in search of something a little more - perhaps a desktop amp I thought to myself.
 
Anyway, 2 weeks later I went a little over board via your for sale section and ended up with this:
 
-LCD 2 rev 2
-Cambridge Audio DacMagic
-Matrix M:Stage
 
The LCD-2 and DacMagic arrived in the last 24 hours to my utter excitement. I picked them up from the post office, finished work, picked-up a power-supply for the DacMagic and hurried off home. I couldn't wait to connect it all and spend the rest of night in bliss. Only I didn't experience that at all. 
 
Here's the configuration I was running:
 
Windows 64 Bit Core i7 Rig > Foobar > LCD-2 rev 2 > M:Stage > via RCA's > DacMagic > via USB > Windows 64 Bit Core i7 Rig
 
I experienced the following sound:
-Plenty of interferance
-No clarity
-Muffled Bass
-Static like highs
 
To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I tried to isolate the issue I best as I could and did the following:
 
1) Plugged my LCD-2 into my home audio receiver and the sound was fantastic, in fact I lost myself for a minute and had to pull myself out of the chair - that's exactly what I had hoped for with my desktop rig. So LCD-2 isn't an issue.
2) Swapped the RCA's with some different ones - no change
3) Swapped the USB cable to a different USB port - no change
4) Swapped the USB cable with another one, and tried a different port - no change
5) Ran the same configuration noted above, but plugged in my DT 250 - slight improvement in clarity, however a generally sub-par experience compared to the DT 250 running out of my standard audio out in my sound card
 
I'm not sure what to do now. I'm based in Sydney, and the following ideas popped into my head:
 
1) Try and connect with a local head-fier to see if I can isolate the issue to either the DAC or the AMP
2) Post here to see if there's any other ideas
3) Buy a USB>SPDIF converter and connect to the DAC via optical cable. However this seem's unecessary.
 
I've also tried the following configuration:
 
1) Matrix M:Stage running at 0db impedance and 20 db impendance - no discernable difference
 
Lastly the DAC tells me it's incoming sample rate is 44.1 - even when playing 720 FLAC via Foobar - I wonder if that's an issue?
 
2) The aftermarket powersupply I picked up for the DacMagic has the following measures:
INPUT: 100-240V 50/60Hz 0.4A
OUTPUT: 12V 1.5A
 
Any help would be appreciated.
 
Cheers,
Soapy
 

 

[Peshmerga]

Try a Toslink optical cable and/or SPDIF coaxial cable.  See if those work.

 

[Carl6868]

Quote:

 
Lastly the DAC tells me it's incoming sample rate is 44.1 - even when playing 720 FLAC via Foobar - I wonder if that's an issue?
 
 
Cheers,
Soapy
 

There is no such thing as 720 Flac ?
 
The Dacmagic will only play 44.1khz or 48khz through its USB input so that is correct and the power supply you have should be fine unless its faulty.
 
To try and find the problem connect the M-Stage to one of the tape outputs on your home receiver and see if it sounds ok, if it does then its probably the Dac at fault !