Cambridge Audio Dacmagic

[Alec]

the record spot:And has anyone tried an M-AUdio Flying Cow or Superdac just out of interest....?!?

no, 'fraid not. just googled them tho and cant find much on teh super dac, and the cow thingy id dismiss on looks alone im afraid.

 

[the record spot]

Yep, looks more like a novelty item, but it's aimed at professional/studio than home use in the main. Upsamples though and good for A/D as well as D/A conversion, so handy for anyone looking to digitise vinyl or tape and not waste money on those plastic efforts found in the weekend supplements of the various papers but still get a good product.

EDIT: Found this on one site; talks about using it as a converter for a computer but Hi Fi World have previously rated this (the 24-bit model) as an impressive piece of hardware. Maybe worth seeking this out after all...

"MIDIMAN's new Flying Cow, a professional external digital audio converter, introduces a cost effective way to get all of your audio conversion needs out of the world's noisiest environment - your computer - and onto your desktop or in your rack. If you are using a two channel digital I/O card in your computer, the Flying Cow A/D and D/A converters deliver cutting edge technology and crystal clear audio from 20-bit, delta sigma converters with 128x oversampling and a dynamic range of nearly 100 dB (A-weighted), all in a standard half-rack package.

The Flying Cow provides both AES/EBU digital I/O, on XLR connectors and S/PDIF digital I/O on RCA connectors. Analog I/O is available on balanced XLR connectors and unbalanced 1/4" connectors. Input gain to the A/D converter is adjustable from the Flying Cow's front panel and calibrated LED signal-level ladders aid in setting this gain for optimal dynamic range and signal-to-noise. A/D sample rates of 48, 44.1, 32 kHz and Word Clock are selectable from the front panel. The D/A circuitry will automatically lock to the sample rate of the incoming digital bit stream. And, the Flying Cow remembers all parameter settings even after power-off. With it's 20-bit super high sonic performance the Flying Cow, is the best choice not only for computer based digital audio needs but also as a dedicated A/D and D/A converter for all DAT recordings."

 

[Anonymous]

Drummerman, you are abolutely right. That goes for the Cyrus CD8SE in particular.

 

[batonwielder]

drummerman:Valid lesson I've learned ... don't buy version 1 of a new product. Wait a few months and any gremlins should be engineered out. Even more poignant if a product has been rushed out on to the market though I'm not saying that's necesserely the case here.

I usually wait until version 3...when it's on its way out...ÿ

 

[John Duncan]

Cambridge Audio CEO:
You'll be glad to hear that we're flying over a batch of DACMAGICs early next week so they should be in Richer Sounds shops during the following week (w/c 6th Oct) once they've gone through Richer's central distribution system. Sorry for the slight delay.

James Johnson-Flint, CEO, Cambridge Audio

Ta, and good to see you. As for the v1 thing, if you need a beta tester..............

And when's the 640/740/840N Network Media Player that I designed for you coming?

 

[Anonymous]

JohnDuncan:Well I'm getting one to play 24/192 files from my computer, which should kick CD butt..........
Reading the specifications I noticed it says:

Digital input sampling frequencies supported: 32kHz, 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz

So 192kHz audio would have to be downsampled to 96kHz before being sent to the DACMagic, right? Which then upsamples it to 192kHz before converting it to an analog signal.

The specifications can be found here: http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/specifications.php?PID=320&Title=Specifications

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the offer however no need for a beta tester on DACMAGIC, this product has taken over a year to bring to market and is fully debugged I can assure you, some of our existing beta testers ensured this a while back. Our only problem has been that the testers have stalled to return their DACs to us as they have become so attached to them (and one is an owner of the other DAC you mention on this forum)! If any of you are still considering waiting for a v2 or v3 version you will be waiting more than a year.

With more posts on the WHF forums than Claire ;-) I'd certainly like to take you up on your offer to beta test forthcoming products. Please use our support system on the Cambridge Audio website to pass on your details to me, or send a note by snail mail and I'll ensure you are added to our list. Thanks!

Ahh, and an "N" Network Media Player - fully you should mention that - watch this space in 2009. Any more bright ideas??

 

[Anonymous]

Don't know if the CA CEO is still looking at this thread, but does anyone have the spec of the USB input of the new DAC? Apart from being restricted to 16bit I've found no info on what chips (eg pcm2705 or other) are being used.

 

[John Duncan]

Cambridge Audio CEO:
Thanks for the offer however no need for a beta tester on DACMAGIC, this product has taken over a year to bring to market and is fully debugged I can assure you, some of our existing beta testers ensured this a while back. Our only problem has been that the testers have stalled to return their DACs to us as they have become so attached to them (and one is an owner of the other DAC you mention on this forum)! If any of you are still considering waiting for a v2 or v3 version you will be waiting more than a year.

With more posts on the WHF forums than Claire ;-) I'd certainly like to take you up on your offer to beta test forthcoming products. Please use our support system on the Cambridge Audio website to pass on your details to me, or send a note by snail mail and I'll ensure you are added to our list. Thanks!

Ahh, and an "N" Network Media Player - fully you should mention that - watch this space in 2009. Any more bright ideas??

Just call me Nostradamus

My design is copyright though (not that I can find the picture, and let's face it it was a 640c with a Sonos screen stuck on it, so there may be other copyright "issues" there, but hey).

And I would be delighted to be a CA beta tester, am a big fan, and can also spell "NDA" - am sure Clare or Andrew could pass on my details directly?

regards

JD

PS Quantity does not equal quality, as people here will readily attest.

 

[Anonymous]

It's a C-Media IC capable of 44.1/48k USB transfer that passes the audio data straight to the Texas DSP for upsampling/filtering

 

[Anonymous]

Cambridge Audio CEO:

It's a C-Media IC capable of 44.1/48k USB transfer that passes the audio data straight to the Texas DSP for upsampling/filtering

Thanks for that. Hope it's recognised in Linux. Just off to check the ALSA docs. Is there any feedback from your testers on the SQ over a USB conncetion compared to optical/coax?

 

[Anonymous]

If you have a choice the coax and optical inputs are better. That said you won't be disappointed with the SQ over USB, there has been quite some effort implementing it. My team are really into what they do.

 

[Eric2]

James, this looks a great product but would love to see a higher end version with a better DAC etc and support for 24/192. Any chance we might see one in the near future?

 

[Anonymous]

Don't know if Cambridge Audio CEO is still reading this but i've got a question about shipping dates. I've put in a pre-order in Norway and at first they said mid-to-late october. Now they have pushed it back a couple of times and are saying late november at the earliest.

I understand that the US and UK markets may be a higher priority, but could you say anything about shipping dates for the rest of us?

Thanks btw, for posting and for this (at least on paper) amazing product!ÿ

ÿ

ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Is is possible to have multiple inputs connected to the DacMagic, eg coax from a CD player and optical from an Airport Express. If so does one get preference. Planning on avoiding the USB input based on your advice, everything has optical or coax

thanksÿ

 

[John Duncan]

Well it has three separate coaxial or optical inputs (ie three inputs, each of which can be either optical or coax, but not both) plus the USB I think, will just check.

 

[John Duncan]

Yah, three inputs plus the USB.

 

[drummerman]

I would really be interested where this DAC fits into the product hyrarchie (I can never spell this damn word) at CA. Is the quality comparable to the DAC implementation of the 740 series player, less or better??

 

[John Duncan]

Tech specs of the innards suggest around the 740 mark, but balanced connections suggests 840. I'm going to go out on a limb though and say that the transport is the key (cf Cyrus SE), so am expecting lossless from HD to be better than the output of the Primare, thus making it 840 territory.......

We'll see when it arrives (since nobody wants to say, except Andrew).

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks John, I should've checked the CA site.

good though that it has plenty of inputs.

@drummerman, I'd like to know that as well. On a par with 740 would be good, better than 640 would make sense, given that it is nearly as much.

 

[Anonymous]

reading a bit further it isÿ

2 coax or optical plus USB

1 digital out / pass through for recording etc I guess.

1 balanced out

1 analogue out.ÿ

 

[John Duncan]

Ah right ok - sorry, I just looked at the picture, I don't do reading

 

[John Duncan]

Though will check to see what happens when one plugs both coax and optical into one input - since I have the same CDP/Airport Express setup you mention.

 

[drummerman]

yes. Thanks John, appreciated.

I just cannot believe CA would release a product that is comparable to their £750 player when used with a £20 dvd player as transport. £550 for a transport, r/c and larger case would'nt sound like good value and could kill sales of the cdp's completely if thats the case.

 

[John Duncan]

Not necessarily, there's an awful lot of bias towards the CD Player as a source, even here - the DAC's still a bit of a niche product I'd say.