[nbaptista]

Hi all,
I´ve been using a Cakewalk USB sound card connected to my Hi Fi and sounds great.But I wonder if with a good Dac I would get much better results.The Dac I would like to buy is Cambridge DacMagic.I wonder if I should buy it because the Cakewalk just sounds great

This is my soundcard,made by Roland
Cakewalk UA-1G USB Audio Interface :: Overview

 

[Iniamyen]

Broadly speaking, the item you linked to is a DAC. It looks like it has an ADC as well though for recording.

Whether or not *another* DAC would be an improvement depends on your source material, interface, the DAC chip used, etc etc...

I don't think that you'll hear (or measure) much of an improvement moving to another DAC at the same price point. However there are many DACs costing thousands and thousands of dollars that might yield some improvement.

 

[nbaptista]

Well,the sound card costs 100 € and the DAC Magic costs 338€,to be more exact!

 

[ROBSCIX]

See if you can get the DACmagic on a trial basis, take it home try it out. If you like it keep it. If you notice no difference then your wasting your money. What your using for speakers/cans will play a part also.

 

[nbaptista]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROBSCIX /img/forum/go_quote.gif See if you can get the DACmagic on a trial basis, take it home try it out.

I can´t do that!

So I have to gamble,that´s why I am asking you!

 

[Hybrys]

Why can't you do that? A lot of places allow a 30 day return now a days. Unless you're buying it privately, not from an authorized reseller.

 

[nbaptista]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hybrys /img/forum/go_quote.gif Unless you're buying it privately, not from an authorized reseller.

Well,they just allow me to spend the some money in another material!They don´t give me back to money,and this is a great retailer,where I have plans to buy it.The others don´t have it in stock,so don´t borrow me it!

 

[CSMR]

I don't know about the Cakewalk card or the company that makes it. But for around $100 you can get a low end card from a pro-audio company (e.g. E-MU) which will have analog out indistinguishable from live feed, i.e. perfect, so you don't need to go over that budget.

 

[nbaptista]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CSMR /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't know about the Cakewalk card or the company that makes it.

It is Roland.

 

[money4me247]

short answer: don't waste your money.
 
long answer: Cambridge DacMagic uses the WM8740 dac chip. while implementation & everything else may be important as well, you can find this dac chip at 1/4 the price in FiiO E7 ($70) vs FiiO E70k ($89) vs E17 ($120) vs iBasso D-Zero ($100). all those are portable dac/amp combos. if implementation is worth $300+ to you... lol. there are also a lot of other high-quality options in the $100-300 price range including the great performancerice $70 HiFimeDIY Sabre USB DAC 2 with an external PSU (ESS Sabre ES9023 dac chip), the popular $100 schitt modi dac (AK4390 dac chip), the $200 audio-gd nfb 12 (w/ ESS sabre's flagship ES9018 dac chip), the $300 M-Stage Dac (PCM1792 dac chip), and the $300 emotiva xda-2 usb dac (AD1955 chip). since everything sounds great now, I would consider these cheaper but high-quality options to see if you can notice a significant sonic improvement before jumping to something that expensive.
 
edit: ooops... didn't realize this was asked 3 years ago. =S