Cambridge Audio DacMagic

[Kogarashi]

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/09/04/cambridge-audio-intros-dacmagic-upsampling-digital-to-analog-con/

Affordable! I hope the local distros stock it.

[japz]

Its scheduled for release in october so it will take a while before it reaches our shores should the distributor decide to stock it. Hope it sounds as good as the dac used in their cd player.

[[L]es]

how much ?

[[L]es]

oh.. 15k++ !!!!

[insyte]

Wow usb input and balanced output at an affordable price!!!

I want this too

[Kogarashi]

It is *rumored* that the DAC is similar if not the same as the one in the CA 740C.

[insyte]

No substantial reviews yet in headfi though Im guessing Benchmark DAC1 USB would still be better than this one, but for the price....

Any idea if there is a local distributor for this?

[Kogarashi]

Found out: USB input is castrated at 16-bit 48kHz similar to the Stello DA100. Sucks because I was planning to get this for 24-bit 96kHz material. A good resampler takes up 100% CPU
Maybe buy a cheap DVD player (can be used for SACD and DVD audio too)?

The Benchmark DAC1 USB still is the king at <=~1K USD.

[insyte]

Found out: USB input is castrated at 16-bit 48kHz similar to the Stello DA100. Sucks because I was planning to get this for 24-bit 96kHz material. A good resampler takes up 100% CPU
Maybe buy a cheap DVD player (can be used for SACD and DVD audio too)?

The Benchmark DAC1 USB still is the king at <=~1K USD.

Hmmmmm, this is kinda limiting, but not so much for an entry level dac... (hehe pagipunan na nga lang yang DAC1 USB )

[[L]es]

tongson, emu 0404 usb. takes up to 192khz from usb input. on my q6600 it takes up to 15% cpu usage resampling with ssrc high precision on high precision mode...

[donunus]

No substantial reviews yet in headfi though Im guessing Benchmark DAC1 USB would still be better than this one, but for the price....

Any idea if there is a local distributor for this?

avesco will sell it for 20,500 with down payment and a 3 month wait. they said they'll give it to me for 35,000 something if i wanted it fast. are they nuts?

[Kogarashi]

tongson, emu 0404 usb. takes up to 192khz from usb input. on my q6600 it takes up to 15% cpu usage resampling with ssrc high precision on high precision mode...

Oh nice. I've been eyeing the 0404 for a long time but Linux still has no full support for it, just a matter of time I guess. Maybe I'll buy them now before they go discontinued.

Does the 0404's USB input take in bit-perfect (without resampling) 16-bit 44.1 kHz and 24-bit 96 kHz?

[[L]es]

s'long as you use ASIO.

[insyte]

avesco will sell it for 20,500 with down payment and a 3 month wait. they said they'll give it to me for 35,000 something if i wanted it fast. are they nuts?

They are nuts. And what's with the 3 month wait? Are they shipping this by boat?

Oh nice. I've been eyeing the 0404 for a long time but Linux still has no full support for it, just a matter of time I guess. Maybe I'll buy them now before they go discontinued.

Same reason why I haven't gotten the 0404

[gelvi]

hello all,

I just finished setting up my humble home rig. here's a picture:

[[L]es]

gelvi, did you get that dacmagic locally ?

[Kogarashi]

Gelvi, Very nice!

How does it compare to your previous DACs/sources?

[insyte]

gelvi, did you get that dacmagic locally ?

x2 same question po sir

[gelvi]

gelvi, did you get that dacmagic locally ?

x2 same question po sir

I've asked a friend to buy it for me when he recently visited the US. I paid him P20,400.

[gelvi]

Gelvi, Very nice!

How does it compare to your previous DACs/sources?

This is my first standalone DAC so I really can't compare it with other similarly priced DAC units.

Here's my impression compared with the DAC on my CA Azur 640c v2. After a couple of listening sessions to a variety of music genres using my Beyerdynamic DT250 (250 Ω) headphones on a Stello HP100, to my ears, the DacMagic has a slight edge in sound quality compared with the 640c v2. The sound is a tad richer and a bit more textured. The bass and highs seem to have “more” umpf and depth.

For me, the DacMagic's main strengths are its excellent sound quality, its versatility and its price to performance ratio. It gets the job done nicely especially if you will be using this beauty to produce audiophile quality sound from computer based or music server based systems.