New dac up to £350 or so?

[bobbasrah]

That little M2tech dac really needs to be coupled with the EVO interface though then you are into £600+ territory, John Kenny's dac would be cheaper
http://sites.google.com/site/hifacemods/home/hiface-dac
Have you seen the DM+ for sale on pfm? the guy who is selling is a good guy, I have purchased off him in the past.

And way less complicated or expensive than John's example.....

[synsei]

The "ask for a few recommendations on a forum" strategy seems a bit like marrying a women who is a total stranger because your mate said she was a good shag.

HAHAHAHA, that's classic John!!!

[Cans]

I think you have to compare the rdac and the dacmagic plus for.that sort of money. Do you need a quality headphone output too tho? The Caiman has a far better headphone output than the dacmagic + ,but you can go from the digital coax out of this to the dig coax in of the Caiman with very good results.

[wee tee cee]

I had a great day at Ali Tates place having a bit of a play with cables/amps and dacs. We had a v -link in play with a mark grant wtb/supra co-ax.
I took my mf m1, Ali had an array of lovely DACs ranging from an off song valve hybrid, audio note valve hybrid DAC, and chinese £60 job.
My personal preference was the audio note, however the chinese cheapy was uncomfortably good (no usb, co-ax optical only).
My own MF M1 I prefer to the dac majic ( which my son has adopted),gatorised caiman and a rega which I had for a weekend and really didn't synergise with my system at all.
Horses for courses, but I would seriously consider some of the cheaper left field choices.
Tony.

[bobbasrah]

Would Ali's trio have the first off-song hybrid being the chinese dac with valve stage, and the third be the same chinese DAC, only original ?

[Ali Tait]

Yes, the first is the one Nick built for me using the AK4396 dac board from Ebay. Seems one problem with it is the Sowter output trannies don't perform to their claimed specs. Nick has ordered some O'Netics trannies from Bud Purvine which will address the problem. I have been fiddling with it, and have managed to get it sounding pretty good again, though still not as good as it has sounded in the past. At it's best it was superb, as good or better than anything else I've heard. nick has several other ideas to try though, including fully regulated supplies for the board, and also for the valve output stage. It'll need to go in a bigger box though!

You're correct again with the third being a stock built version, only thing I've changed is the SPDIF input cap. Personally I thought it sounded at least as good if not a little better than Tony's M1, sounding a little warmer and more analogue - like to my ears. Just down to personal preference though. A good result given the low cost. No USB input though, but given the low cost, a V link or similar would still give a great usb dac for little money. Nowt to touch it at the price and a fair bit more IMHO.

[bobbasrah]

Clear enough Ali.
I'm sure Nick will do the business on the hybrid, and you will be gobsmacked all over again.
Still tracking that little DAC's progress re mods, along with one other, but as usual it is difficult to choose with all the hyperbole spinning. Stupid really as the cost of the one you have is peanuts (not the one with the bottles obviously).
Interesting, your observation on Tony's DAC though.

[Ali Tait]

Well I think it just shows how good this AK4396 board is. The chip has been used in some pricey commercial kit.

[jandl100]

... I cant help wondering if getting to know a bit about digital audio before you part with your cash might be prudent.

Amidst this ever-growing tsunami of uber-geek technobabble, a little knowledge would be far worse than none, I suspect!

At least Richard knows that he understands nowt, rather than kidding himself that he's a bit of an expert!

[so speaks an anti-streaming old fogey ]

[DSJR]

I'm concerned about the comments on the Sowter transformers!!!!! if they're not to spec, then they should be sent back pronto for checking. Sowter are far too well respected for them to just send out any old cr@p to their customers. The two very expensive (and complex) Rega phono stages use them I notice and, at the prices charged for these two devices, they would have had a choice of what transformers to use.