DAC For Roksan Kandy K2 and B&W 685: MDAC or REGA DAC ?

[admin_exported]

Thanks Clare and all forum who advice me to upgrade my amp to a Roksan Kandy :clap: . I finally bought a second hand Roksan Kandy with a Roksan CD and my B&W 685’s have reached an other performance level.

I am planning to upgrade my DAC, now I am using the Marantz’s SR5003 Cirrus Logic connected via toshlink to an Airport Express. I ‘m considering the Audiolab MDAC and the Rega DAC. I have two questions:

a) Will those DACs improve the wireless SQ of my setup?.

b) Although MDAC is recommended by WHT with Roksan Kandy, some consider more suitable for the B&W 685-Roksan Kandy combo the Rega DAC because they think MDAC could sound Clinical and Analitical in this case.

I’m not sure I can demo both, I live in Spain , so I need your ever wise advice.

Thanks. Kind Regards.

 

[plastic penguin]

Good to hear you're happy with the Kandys. Which ones are they? K2 or LIII?

Tricky one to answer. Personally I think a good CDP has a very capable dac already, so couldn't really say if a separate dac will improve things significantly.

If, on the other hand, you need to use a dac for downloading, TV etc etc then the Rega dac will probably match the Kandys better. But you'll need to audition one (or preferably both) for yourself to be sure.

 

[Anonymous]

They are the K2s. I will use the DAC with the Airport Express mainly , I like the Kandy Cd 's sound very much, so If the DAC's sound if good enough I could use the coaxial out of the Kandy CD like an additional option.Thanks Plastic Penguin for your advise, Kind Regards

They are the K2s. I will use the DAC with the Airport Express mainly , I like the Kandy Cd 's sound very much, so If the DAC's sound if good enough I could use the coaxial out of the Kandy CD like an additional option.

Thanks Plastic Penguin for your advise, Kind Regards

 

[plastic penguin]

You'll need to hear one for yourself TBH.

 

[Anonymous]

Finally i will audition the audiolab Mdac (650 euros) and the Young (1000 euros). Depending the results i'll try the Rega Dac. After demoing I will share my impressions with the forum.Godd Weekend

Finally i will audition the audiolab Mdac (650 euros) and the Young (1000 euros). Depending the results i'll try the Rega Dac. After demoing I will share my impressions with the forum.

Godd Weekend

 

[DavieCee]

I got a Beresford Caiman DAC for my full Kandy set up.

Hooking the CD player up to the DAC made zero diffence so I wouldn't recommend it for that.

However, I use an ATV1 and occasionally USB my Macbook Pro. The sound from the ATV1 identically matched the CD player and the USB connection exceeded it. I sold my CD player because of this.

Not really an answer to your question but confirmation that you are on the right path for the AE.

 

[ISAC69]

Hooking a DAC to a CD will improve the sound only if it is a cheap CD but the ROKSAN KANDY's CD is very good ,

I don't see any point to connect it to a DAC ...

 

[SteveR750]

Hooking a DAC to a CD will improve the sound only if it is a cheap CD but the ROKSAN KANDY's CD is very good ,

I don't see any point to connect it to a DAC ...

+1 I would expect that the Kandy DAC in the K2 player is as good as the REGA or the Audiolab. TBH a separate DAC is only really useful if you use other digital sources, it's rarely going to improve an integrated CD player, you're just going to add more cables and jitter into the chain.

 

[plastic penguin]

Hooking a DAC to a CD will improve the sound only if it is a cheap CD but the ROKSAN KANDY's CD is very good ,

I don't see any point to connect it to a DAC ...

+1 I would expect that the Kandy DAC in the K2 player is as good as the REGA or the Audiolab. TBH a separate DAC is only really useful if you use other digital sources, it's rarely going to improve an integrated CD player, you're just going to add more cables and jitter into the chain.

Ahem... I did point this out in my first post.

 

[plastic penguin]

Hooking a DAC to a CD will improve the sound only if it is a cheap CD but the ROKSAN KANDY's CD is very good ,

I don't see any point to connect it to a DAC ...

+1 I would expect that the Kandy DAC in the K2 player is as good as the REGA or the Audiolab. TBH a separate DAC is only really useful if you use other digital sources, it's rarely going to improve an integrated CD player, you're just going to add more cables and jitter into the chain.

The dreaded double post.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry the misunderstanding:

I will use the DAC mainly for my Wireless music through Airport Express, now I convert from digital to analogic by means of my Marantz SR 5003's Cirrus Logic DAC, so the main question here is if the new DAC will improve the musical performance of the Cirrus Logic to the point it deserves to pay the price of the MDAC, Rega or other DAC.

Thank you very much for your posts, any help is welcomed

.