Considering a new DAC to my Cyrus system

[cmcnally12]

 

[alpne1]

Just bought Audiolab M-Dac for my Cyrus 6a. I for one am very pleased with the performance, althogh the filters are subtle to my ears and dont make a massive difference. Good connectivity. I would recommend.

 

[BigH]

What is your budget?

You may want to read my post about DACs under £1,000.

There is also a group test in July WHF mag. Doubt they will test some of the ones like Benchmark, Metrum Octave Mk2 and John Kenny though.

 

[cmcnally12]

Thanks.

My budget is broad and I'm willing to spend 2000 pounds if I can see a difference.

I currenlty own a CD8SE, PreXpd, two 8 power amps (momnoblocs) serving sonus faber toy floorstanders.

After all the raving on the NAIM DAC I want to hear this thing. Question is how much better is it than a 1000 pound DAC.

CHORD Chordette

NAIM DAC

NAD M51

Cyrus DAC

Also wondering about the Audiolab you mention as it seems great value. I plan on slowly upgrading each one of my components over a long period. I assume the DAC will make the biggest initial difference.

Thanks

Craig

 

[BigH]

Thanks.

My budget is broad and I'm willing to spend 2000 pounds if I can see a difference.

I currenlty own a CD8SE, PreXpd, two 8 power amps (momnoblocs) serving sonus faber toy floorstanders.

After all the raving on the NAIM DAC I want to hear this thing. Question is how much better is it than a 1000 pound DAC.

CHORD Chordette

NAIM DAC

NAD M51

Cyrus DAC

Also wondering about the Audiolab you mention as it seems great value. I plan on slowly upgrading each one of my components over a long period. I assume the DAC will make the biggest initial difference.

Thanks

Craig

I think £2,000 is a bit too much. As for biggest difference I would say speakers will make the biggest then probably amp then DAC then cd transport.

I would look at these first: Benchmark £900, Metrum Octave Mk2 £800 and John Kenny £500.

 

[matt49]

Also wondering about the Audiolab you mention as it seems great value.

I have an Audiolab M-DAC going straight into a Cyrus X Power and Sonus Faber Venere 1.5s. The M-DAC is certainly worth a trial, if you can get one on loan.

If you did go down that route, you could sell the PreXpd, as the M-DAC has a very good built-in digital preamp. (I'm assuming your only source is the Cyrus CDP; if you have a turntable, you'd need to keep the PreXpd, as the MDAC has no analogue inputs.)

Matt

 

[cmcnally12]

My only source is the CD8SE at the moment however I want to think of the future with high res music files.

I also use the PreXpd with the AV pass through function to link with my AV amp rather than having seperate systems therefore i need an analogue input to a preamp.