New dac up to £350 or so?

[Gromit]

Having been fortunate enough to get a brief listen to one in my rig a couple of weekends ago I'm very close to ordering a new DacMagic+. Whilst my Caiman was a wonderful little device, keeping me very happy for quite some time via its optical and coax inputs, I really want the convenience of async USB (ie as in what the DM+ offers). The DM+ sounded better than the HiFace/Caiman combo, which is some going or the money imho.

I'd like to keep my options open though - the new CA DacMagic 100 looks like it'll be very good (and I dare say broadly similar to the DM+ sonically) but I don't know when it's going to be released - and I'm not the most patient of people.

So, what else is there out there up to the stated budget which could fulfil my needs? The rDac could fit the bill but it's been out for a while now, and the onward march of digital/dac technology seems to be progressing at quite a rate these days.

Thanks, as always, for any suggestions.

[wee tee cee]

schiit bifrost is a bit over budget but seems to be getting good reviews.

[tubehunter]

i'v had a fair few dacs....

currently got a rdac connected via asyn usb.
24bit 96kz asio4all/foobar from pc, best sound yet!
i tried optical and coax connections, nowhere near as good.

[StanleyB]

currently got a rdac connected via asyn usb.
24bit 96kz asio4all/foobar from pc, best sound yet!
i tried optical and coax connections, nowhere near as good.

That's very worrying. Could it be that the async software is injecting too much extra information into the original audio signal? That might account for the apparent difference in performance.

[roob]

Richard
Are you using a Mac?
If so use a player such as Audirvana or Pure Music which has Integer option in its audio setup, then find a dac that has a usb input than is integer capable, according to CA the Arcam is.
I have just started using this method into the XMOS USB2 interface of my dac and it is a revelation, kicking the ass of optical, spdif and my clock locked transport into the same dac.
I used to have a John Kenny modified Hiface which was very good, the Xmos interface was on a par I thought until I started using integer mode in PM.
You will need to be using an OSX pre Lion as Apple removed integer support in Lion.

[StanleyB]

I have just started using this method into the XMOS USB2 interface of my dac and it is a revelation, kicking the ass of optical, spdif and my clock locked transport into the same dac.

Any chance of giving a breakdown of what the improvements were? i.e. was the bass more solid, or the treble warmer, etc.?

[roob]

I am pretty crap at describing things in hifi terms but here goes.
Everything is much clearer in the mix, you can now pinpoint where each musician is in the mix, bass is not deeper just better defined and textured. I have been listening to Superbass Live by Ray Brown, three stand up bass players playing together and you can follow each one playing a slightly different melody with each bass exhibiting a different tone and position in the mix, one left, one right and one centre it was quite uncanny.
Female vocals such as the well produced Patricia Barber albums are so lifelike now and are almost"in the room"
I have tried OSX Lion/ PM without integer support and it is not a patch on SL/PM with integer.
This guy on CA sums it up better than I can

- Everything is more musical, for example a piano sounds like a piano.

- Soundstage width and depth has a huge improvement.

- Every instrument has his place in the soundstage.

- Zero distortion (only when there is distortion in the recording).

- No listening fatigue at all.

Your milage may vary of course but if your dac has a XMOS usb interface then its a no brainer

[Welder]

Good bit of kit that XMOS USB2 interface.

[roob]

John
I did not realise how good until this week.
I was an early adopter of Lion so I was unable to use integer mode in PM.
A couple of days ago the HD in my Macbook went tits up so I replaced the drive and installed my old Snow Leopard discs with integer support and I am glad I did, no way will I be "upgrading" again to Lion despite its other nice features unless Apple reinstate integer support.

[Krisbee]

Richard
Are you using a Mac?
If so use a player such as Audirvana or Pure Music which has Integer option in its audio setup, then find a dac that has a usb input than is integer capable, according to CA the Arcam is.
I have just started using this method into the XMOS USB2 interface of my dac and it is a revelation, kicking the ass of optical, spdif and my clock locked transport into the same dac.
I used to have a John Kenny modified Hiface which was very good, the Xmos interface was on a par I thought until I started using integer mode in PM.
You will need to be using an OSX pre Lion as Apple removed integer support in Lion.

Roob which DA are you using? A DAC with XMOS USB audio class 2 chip, good firmware, galvanic isolation etc at £350 would be worth thinking about ...

Gromit,

What about using a dfferent USB to SPDIF convertor into the Caiman? The latest MF V-link 192 is, I think, based on the XMOS chip.

http://www.musicalfidelity.com/produ...v-link-192.asp

There's also a cheaper cyp device, the cyp au-d160

http://www.digitalaudioblog.com/2011...p-au-d160.html

The convenience of Stan's DACs are hard beat: heaphone amp, fixed and variable out etc ... I wonder what features Stan caould produce in a £350 priced product. Better power supply/regulation and asynch USB would be on a lot of people's wish list.