Dac choice

[admin_exported]

Hello everyone,

I'm French,24 and new here

I own a Marantz pm6004 amp, Marantz cd 5004 and a pair of Cabasse MT30 jersey.

I'm looking for a DAC to connect to my computer and after hundreds of pages of review i'm still ( or even more) lost.

I' ve founded several deal and i wanted to know which one is the best regarding the audio quality and price ( between 200-500€/250-650$)

Musical fidelity DAC M1A at 400€/530$

Cambridge dacmagic 230€/300$ + M2tech hiface 115€/150$

Audio gd NFB3.1+digital interface 410€/530$

Thanks a lot.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

How about the Halide Design DAC HD. It retails for £389 in the UK. And includes the cables!!! Which is a big beal, I think, because you'll easily spend £200 on cables- USB to the dac and RCA to the amp. The drwback of the Halide Design is that you can't upgrade the cable, which means you are stuck with what you have.

Note: your amp has a pre-amp built in, which means that buying a dac with volume is kind of extra. So, unless you are thinking of spending your time and money upgrading (which many would say is the point in hifi as a hobby), buying a dac without volume is the thing to do, I think.

Also consider the HRT II+. It's good and not all that expensive.

Cheerio ...

 

[acalex]

Hello everyone,

I'm French,24 and new here

I own a Marantz pm6004 amp, Marantz cd 5004 and a pair of Cabasse MT30 jersey.

I'm looking for a DAC to connect to my computer and after hundreds of pages of review i'm still ( or even more) lost.

I' ve founded several deal and i wanted to know which one is the best regarding the audio quality and price ( between 200-500€/250-650$)

Musical fidelity DAC M1A at 400€/530$

Cambridge dacmagic 230€/300$ + M2tech hiface 115€/150$

Audio gd NFB3.1+digital interface 410€/530$

Thanks a lot.

Hi Charlie,

unfortunately the answer is not as simple as it seems. You REALLY have to get out there and try all of them before deciding as it is impossible to say which one is the best for the money. Where do you live in France? Lot of dealers and brands available, especially around Paris

 

[dragon76]

Charie - as just said, there are way too many factors that can influence your decision. My intial suggestion is if you consider M2Tech convertor, go for a new Hiface II version that seems to be much better than the original one.

In your price range you indeed have a pretty limited number of choices of usual suspects, like Arcam rDAC, MF M1, DacMagic Plus

If you use your PC to output signal thru USB, then you can also add Halide (as suggested) and HRT Streamer line of products. all the other USB DACs of good quality are much higher in price.

Given that you have Marantz equipment I presume you like more smooth sound versus analytical/detailed. Then I feel that Musical Fidelity may not be a good match to your system. I would say that Halide will indeed be a good fit.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks a lot for your answers.

I was told the same thing about the MF: too analytical..

None of you has ever listened to an Audio gd dac? i've read sevreal good review about them.

Do you think that connecting my CDP to a dac ( in this price range) would improve the sound of it?I ve seen this kind of use but maybe on lower end CDP

@Acalex I'm around paris where can I go to hear sevreal dacs?

 

[paradiziac]

I think you should decide if you want a USB DAC like the HRT/Halide or a DAC that you can also use with your CD player (or streamer such as Squeezebox) and (maybe) use a USB converter for computer duties if the on board USB isn't the best.

I've had an Audio-gd NFB-2 with a MF V-Link and also a V-DAC. The Audio-gd is very smooth, good body/tone of instuments (many budget DACs sound just a little bit "thin" for my taste), good bass, plenty of detail. Weak point is USB input (use a USB converter). Compared to the high-end, it loses a little maybe in dynamics/excitement/sheer musicality, but it's as good as anything at its price point.

 

[bluebrazil]

if its purely for computer playback try to listen to a chordette gem. its usb and bluetooth only but it has a very appealing sound.