budget player wolfson dac ...

[indietronic]

hello all!

first of all do wolfson dac's WM8740 and WM8741have significant differences ? if yes which one is preferable ?

my quest is for the best pick in budget cd-players list featuring a wolfson (or a pair of.) dac ... can you suggest your favourite one ?

(nad amp + epos m12.2 speakers)

 

[Anonymous]

The Wolfson 8741 is slightly better, exhibiting a 128dB signal to noise ratio, as opposed to 120db of the 8741. Both are superior to 16 bit CD, which has a potential dynamic range of 96db, although you'll never ever find a recording with anywhere near that!

If I remember correctly the 8740 is about £2, and the 8741 is almost £5?

Properly implemented these will sound exactly the same, and it is likely that other parts of the digital source will determine sound quality difference.

What are the products you are looking at, and the rest of the system?

 

[indietronic]

CAMBRIDGE AUDIO azur540c v2 (1 x Wolfson WM8740), CAMBRIDGE AUDIO azur640c v2 (2 x Wolfson WM8740), PIONEER PD-D9 (Wolfson WM8741), REGA APOLLO (Wolfson WM8740), ARCAMs (featuring either 8740 or 8741) etc...

but the most affordable for me to buy would be CA 540 v2 ...

another solution for me would be to buy DacMagic and connect it via coaxial to my marantz 5003.

dunno yet (other gear is in the parenthesis above)

 

[Anonymous]

The DAC chip alone will not determine the differences between those CD players.

Personally I would buy the DAC Magic as it is more future proof. Not only can you use the computer as a source, but improve the sound of legacy sources such as compact discs and Freeview.

 

[MykhailM]

I had Wolfson WM8740 chips CD player in mono configuration mode, and I heard quite a few Wolfson based product, out of them all a Tube design product on Wolfson chips bit them ALL. This tells me a great deal about an importance in the chip implementation and the circuit design. I highly recommend to look at separate components such as CD transport and a Tube DAC, ones you hear how a well designed gear sounds you wouldn`t go back to all in one so to say gear. I use MB™ DAC -WM1 Tube DAC on Wolfson WM8741 chips in dual mono and its is entirely different level. If you pare a good transport to it you should be satisfied.

 

[chebby]

Why have you resurrected four ancient threads (from six and seven years ago) to spam Wolfson DAC chips?

Wolfson doesn't even exist anymore. (Bought out by Cirrus Logic last year.)