Anyone with experience with Line Magnetic DAC?

[listening-in97]

Anyone heard the new Line Magnetic DAC? It's, I think, a Korean company based in China. No reviews on the interweb that I can find. I can get it for about 500 British pounds where I live. It would replace my Asus Sonar Essence ST, to be fed into a Rega Brio-R, to Monitor Audio Silver RX1. Listening mostly to 24/96 vinyl rips of jazz, acoustic, rock, and FLACs for everything else (More from The Field pls!)

The other contender is the Peachtree DAC iT, which is a bit cheaper but not available in my city. Am planning to replace within 12 months the MA with PMC Twenty 21s, as small room dictates the speakers are up against the wall, so I like the forward firing port. Due to LM's rep, I am guessing this DAC might punch above its price tag and become a permanent fixture in the kit.

Thanks for any help!

:help:

Stats -

LM-502CA digital DAC

receiving and decoding 32bit/192kHz high resolution digital signals.
ESS 9016 DAC chips, five digital inputs: AES/EBU, BNC, USB, OPTICAL, and COXIAL.

asynchronous

separate power supply for Analogue and Digital part: Toroid power transformer for Digital part while EI power transformer for Analogue part.

Digital circuit has taken high speed rectification circuitry while Analogue parts has taken 6Z4 for tube rectification.

Two pieces of 12AU7 are employed at Tube buffer plus solid state output stage:

Frequency Response: 15Hz～50kHz
Sampling Rate: 32bit 44.1KHz 48KHz 88.2KHz 96KHz 176.4KHz 192KHz
Digital Input Impedance: 75Ω
Output Impedance: 2kΩ (Tube), 600Ω (Solid State)
Dynamic Range: 120dB
Size (W×D×H): (376 x 345 x 191.5 )mm
Output Voltage: 3V+-0.5dB (Tube), 2.5V+-0.5dB (Solid State)
THD: 0.5% (Tube), 0.02% (Solid State)
Power Consumption: 24W

 

[listening-in97]

Sorry forgot to mention the source is my PC, Windows 7. The Rega and MA's were my first hi-fi purchase, and in trying to get away from compressed digital files sounding thin, I overcompensated and the two, while not in danger of producing listening fatigue, lead to a sound firmly on the warm side. Am hoping the PMC might add some clinical-ness to it, so I don't want to get an overly surgical DAC, as I hope the future speaker purchase will be doing that job. Also, the other UK-US DACs in the 500 pound price range don't, acording to reviews, seem they will add such a step up on the Asus card, though I get internal noise is a pronlem.

Thanks again.

 

[listening-in97]

Sorry forgot to mention the source is my PC, Windows 7. The Rega and MA's were my first hi-fi purchase, and in trying to get away from compressed digital files sounding thin, I overcompensated and the two, while not in danger of producing listening fatigue, lead to a sound firmly on the warm side. Am hoping the PMC might add some clinical-ness to it, so I don't want to get an overly surgical DAC, as I hope the future speaker purchase will be doing that job. Also, the other UK-US DACs in the 500 pound price range don't, acording to reviews, seem they will add such a step up on the Asus card, though I get internal noise is a problem.

Thanks again.

 

[cheeseboy]

to be honest, the asus is a very good card, and I honestly don't think you'll hear a 500quid difference if you swapped it for the dac you are suggesting.

 

[listening-in97]

Thanks cheeseboy. I was hoping to tap into my home field advantage to find a Chinese treasure. But I guess the area I should put my cash into is the speakers. By most accounts, the Rega should handle speakers costing up to 2,000 pounds or so, could be wrong!

There is no 2nd hand market in Hong Kong, not even on local ebay really, so you have no choice to bin the kit or list it for overseas sale and ship it on a cargo ship a la Indiana Jones, delivery date 2033

Appreciate the input though

Cheers

 

[listening-in97]

Thanks cheeseboy. I was hoping to tap into my home field advantage to find a Chinese treasure. But I guess the area I should put my cash into is the speakers. By most accounts, the Rega should handle speakers costing up to 2,000 pounds or so, could be wrong!

There is no 2nd hand market in Hong Kong, not even on local ebay really, so you have no choice to bin the kit or list it for overseas sale and ship it on a cargo ship a la Indiana Jones, delivery date 2033

Appreciate the input though

Cheers

 

[cheeseboy]

s'ok, I know what you mean about finding the treasure Apologies, I totally missed the whole tube section on the dac, was looking at a different thing! Looks nice regardless so maybe get one anyways

I take it there's no way you could demo one?

 

[listening-in97]

Cheeseboy, I can demo one - at a shop about 30 min away by bus. Just wanted to get an idea if anyone has heard one. It seems that I need to spend upwards of 1000 UK pounds on a DAC to get a hearable difference in the sound, which means I will get the PMC before any DAC.

Cheers again

 

[BigH]

I would try this one the Epiphany E-DAC. only £99. Also known as the ODAC.

You don't need to spend £1,000, the John Kenny is said by quite a few to better than the Benchmark which is £900.

 

[listening-in97]

Thanks BigH - I had not heard of the Epiphany - it's a bit cheaper than my Asus Sonar Essence, but who knows, it might prove competitive. The John Kerry I have come across, and its def something I am keeping an eye on. Thanks for your reply

Cheers

 

[BigH]

Your welcome only came across it the other day as well, if I needed a dac for computer thats what I would try.

If you need more inputs the Metrum Octave Mk2 is getting very good reviews, its made in Holland and is about £800.