soon to be

[kota]

Hi there

I will be getting a brand new Caiman SEG/Dorado from Stan soon to be used together with my Win10 laptop usb2 port into my NAC72 cd input. I have a Tidal premium subscription and also an external hdd drive where most of my cd's have been ripped to either in wav or flac.

At the moment I'm using this arrangement with a Cambridge DacMagic XS with fairly good results but I' sure the new kit will sound miles better however I need some advice first so here goes:

Do I need to install any drivers on my laptop or will the Caiman be recognized straight away by Windows? Also will a regular usb printer cable (at least 3M long) do the job?

TIA

Pedro

[StanleyB]

Windows will recognize the USB from the SEG. Use a good quality USB cable for audio.

[Baffleport]

Boa Noite Pedro,

Because you are using the dacmagic sx usb with windows 10 already, it is plausible that Caiman SEG works straight away, so there is no need for any (additional) drivers.
My Caiman MKII worked immediately with windows 7 without additional drivers.
In case of any problems, you can refer to the link below from Microsoft support pages.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-hk/help/4045958/usb-audio-device-can-t-be-used-on-the-first-connection-to-a-windows-10

The ‘official maximum length’ of the usb cable is 5 meters, but there are folks working with 15 meters long cables without any problems.

Regards,
Cor.

[kota]

Thank you both :)

[wee tee cee]

Pedro,
Silent a member on here made the same transition dac wise as yourself from dac magic to the seg, quite a performance jump for him.

usb wise spending some money is well worth it, furatech and lavri reference are two i would personally recommend.

give the seg time to burn in...im sure you will be delighted with it.

[kota]

Cheers for that but that's a bit steep for me. I'd rather buy more vinyl ;)

Any recommendations on something better than a simple printer cable but for less than say £35 or so ??

Best,

Pedro

[mikmas]

Cheers for that but that's a bit steep for me. I'd rather buy more vinyl ;)

Any recommendations on something better than a simple printer cable but for less than say £35 or so ??

Best,

Pedro

Lindy do very robust USB and HDMI cables for very reasonable prices IME ... I have a few of them:

https://www.lindy.co.uk/cables-adapters-c1/usb-c449/3m-usb-2-0-type-a-to-b-cable-cromo-line-p11345

[pitadavespa]

Hi, Pedro!

Do you have the SEG, already?
If yes, what are your findings about it?

Any issues connecting it to the NAC72? (I plan doing the same, soon)


Thanks,
Luis

[kota]

Hi Luís

Unfortunately I decided not to go through with it.

I wouldn't be taking the full potential of such a good dac to be used exclusively with my win10 laptop usb port so went for a lesser and cheaper one but which sounds real good with Tidal Hi-FI on my NAC72 cd input.

Sorry

[pitadavespa]

Pedro, nothing to be sorry :)

May I ask you what did you bought?

Thanks

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[kota]

I went for the iFi nano iDSD Black Label portable dac and it does it for me using the line out 3.5mm output but you can always try the Caiman SEG if you need the extra features it has. Stan will refund you if you decide against it which I sincerely doubt.

[pitadavespa]

Yes, I'm aware of Stan's "refund policy".
I'm already talking with him and I'll definitely buy one, although I'm unsure if it'll better my good, very well made (and slightly modified) Rotel RDP 980, but I've read so many good things over the years about Stan's DACs that I have to try one.

Obrigado, Pedro. ;)