DAC Magic compared to my Arcam CD192

[Andy H]

I've had my DAC Magic a few days now and I've finally got around to doing a back to back with my cd player.

The dac is being fed by a Sonos system.

Before the comparison I thought the dac was great, Whilst I still do my opinion has changed just a little.

The dac has more bass and sounds a bit more dynamic, great you might say, but then comes the vocals and midrange. The cd is better in this dept, vocals sound more natural, more refind you might say and the cd picks the little/subtle things out of a track better.

The highs/treble sounds a little bright on the dac as against the cds smooth treble.(I prefer it smoother).

Before the comparison I posted on here that I thought the dac was the best thing since sliced bread. I still think it is VERY VERY GOOD, but just not quite as good as my cd player. I'm not very good at describing the sound, it is a lot closer than the above describes.

This is of course is just my opinion, someone else may prefer the way it sounds. I will be using the dac with the Sonos 90 - 95% of the time, but when I want to get the best sounds, like when I'm listening alone, to some floyd etc then the cd player will be used.

 

[Anonymous]

Andy H:I've had my DAC Magic a few days now and I've finally got around to doing a back to back with my cd player. The dac is being fed by a Sonos system.

Maybe that's the problem. My DM improved quite a bit over 70+ hours of playback time. The treble became smoother, the bass became better controlled, the balance improved. Do the same test in 6 weeks and let us know!

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Andy H:I've had my DAC Magic a few days now and I've finally got around to doing a back to back with my cd player.

The dac is being fed by a Sonos system.

Before the comparison I thought the dac was great, Whilst I still do my opinion has changed just a little.

The dac has more bass and sounds a bit more dynamic, great you might say, but then comes the vocals and midrange. The cd is better in this dept, vocals sound more natural, more refind you might say and the cd picks the little/subtle things out of a track better.

The highs/treble sounds a little bright on the dac as against the cds smooth treble.(I prefer it smoother).

Before the comparison I posted on here that I thought the dac was the best thing since sliced bread. I still think it is VERY VERY GOOD, but just not quite as good as my cd player. I'm not very good at describing the sound, it is a lot closer than the above describes.

This is of course is just my opinion, someone else may prefer the way it sounds. I will be using the dac with the Sonos 90 - 95% of the time, but when I want to get the best sounds, like when I'm listening alone, to some floyd etc then the cd player will be used.

Fair play Andy. It does make you think that the next wave of cd players in the £700-£1000 bracket, digital in should be part of the package. At the moment, the 840C seems to be the only (or at least one of the only) spinners in that range that offers you the DAC for other components too.

 

[Andy H]

This thought did cross my mind. I don't want to give the impression that I don't like it BECAUSE I DO. I bought it because out of the box the Sonos sounded pants, the dac has improved things immeasurably. It really is a good bit of kit.

If it does improve, I'm in for a treat.

 

[the record spot]

Re: Chainrock's post above - might this not be more to do with your ears becoming accustomed to the sound? Burn in for a DAC? Must admit, I have a little trouble understanding that one to a degree. A CD player I can see, turntable even, but the electronics in a DAC...hmmm! Half an hour to warm up and it should be ready to go?

 

[Andy H]

I couldn't agree more. I do like the idea of an external dac though, only because you can upgrade without replacing the whole thing.

I am still mightily impressed though, it was the best thing I could get for the money I had. I think the next step up your looking at approx £800 ish.

 

[Andy H]

I agree I am accustomed to the sound of the cd.

As for the burn in, I'm not sure myself, I have read quite a lot if people saying it does improve in time, only time will tell.

 

[Anonymous]

the record spot:Re: Chainrock's post above - might this not be more to do with your ears becoming accustomed to the sound? Burn in for a DAC? Must admit, I have a little trouble understanding that one to a degree. A CD player I can see, turntable even, but the electronics in a DAC...hmmm! Half an hour to warm up and it should be ready to go?

I also thought the same way as you, record spot. However, I am 100% sure it is not me getting used to the sound as there was a very noticable improvement. There were multiple threads of DM owners noticing a significant improvement - so i don't think i am in the minority.

There were certain things that bothered me about the sound in the beginning - but the same tracks now sound smoother and better detailed.

 

[Anonymous]

Andy H:I agree I am accustomed to the sound of the cd. As for the burn in, I'm not sure myself, I have read quite a lot if people saying it does improve in time, only time will tell.

May I ask whether you are feeding the DAC with lossless files?

As regards "burn in", my Cyrus amps came with recommendations by Cyrus engineers to play music through them for about 3 days' worth of time to allow the electronics to bed in.

 

[John Duncan]

One last test - would love to know what happens if you feed lossless and the Arcam via its digital out into the DAC and do a comparison...just to see if the Arcam's DACs are the bit that's better, not the transport

 

[Andy H]

Yes all files ripped in flac.

"One last test - would love to know what happens if you feed lossless and the Arcam via its digital out into the DAC and do a comparison...just to see if the Arcam's DACs are the bit that's better, not the transport"

Good idea John, I'll give that a try this weekend.

 

[Craig M.]

thats pretty much how i found it andy, compared to my kandy cdp the dacmagic had a lot of bass (too much for me), poor dynamics (kandy strong point), good treble (kandy weak point), but what suprised me was the midrange - the kandy battered it, it was particularly noticeable with female vocals. there was maybe a touch extra detail with the dacmagic, but i don't think its quite capable of beating a good 600 quid+ cd player.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Craig M.:thats pretty much how i found it andy, compared to my kandy cdp the dacmagic had a lot of bass (too much for me), poor dynamics (kandy strong point), good treble (kandy weak point), but what suprised me was the midrange - the kandy battered it, it was particularly noticeable with female vocals. there was maybe a touch extra detail with the dacmagic, but i don't think its quite capable of beating a good 600 quid+ cd player.

I don't think that's "pretty much" how Andy found it?

The 192 was originally £900 and from what I've read, Andy is saying that they are very close.

 

[Craig M.]

more bass and poor in the mid compared to cdp. no mention of poor value from me.

in the interests of fairness, i will also say the kandy was better then my beresford as well, for different reasons though.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Craig M.:more bass and poor in the mid compared to cdp.

"poor" to me is a negative and he didn't use that word or any other negative word in his mini review. Out of interest, did you go for the Beresford because you liked it more then the DM or because you needed a solution and it was a good price? If, as expected, it's the former, do you feel that it is comparative to your Kandy cdp?

 

[Craig M.]

maybe poor is too strong, no where near as good, is that better

i think its all relative, and obviously depends on what you are comparing it too. i don't think the beresford is "better", just different. less bassy, a sort of "airier" presentation. but plenty of folks (your good self included) reckon the dm will nail any cdp upto a grand. i disagree. as far as i know, i gave the dm every chance with lossless and making sure the mac was set up right, maybe my expectations were too high after reading some posts on here, but i was quite disappointed. i reiterate though, system matching comes into it, and the beresford is a better fit with mine. i'm still not happy though. but once my new speaks are here, i will look into a new source.

i only bought the dm and then the beresford after trying to buy a benchmark from thomann in germany (very cheap there) and getting frustrated with trying to sort out a money transfer.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Craig M.:
maybe poor is too strong, no where near as good, is that better

i think its all relative, and obviously depends on what you are comparing it too. i don't think the beresford is "better", just different. less bassy, a sort of "airier" presentation. but plenty of folks (your good self included) reckon the dm will nail any cdp upto a grand. i disagree. as far as i know, i gave the dm every chance with lossless and making sure the mac was set up right, maybe my expectations were too high after reading some posts on here, but i was quite disappointed. i reiterate though, system matching comes into it, and the beresford is a better fit with mine. i'm still not happy though. but once my new speaks are here, i will look into a new source.

Fair enough. You have a very very good amp so maybe it showed more blemishes than my 840 does.

Which speakers are you getting?

 

[Craig M.]

atc scm 19. got offered a very good price for a new pair. but i promised the guy i wouldn't post the price or where i got them from. but it was good enough to take a punt and think i could sell on maybe without loss if i don't like them. as you say, i think my amp is amazing in the midrange, might be a factor.

as an aside to the whole lossless streaming v cdp, on benchmarks site, they reckon the vast majority of quality cdp's are capable of a bit perfect digital output. i plan on checking this out in the relatively near future with a file comparison program. i tried to compare my dvd player and 360 with the mac, but both put out a 48 khz signal rather then 44.1.

 

[Anonymous]

Oh no. And here I was thinking I had decided to buy the DAC Magic... now not so sure. Beresford TC-7520 instead? How on earth am I going to audition these against one another. Hmm hmm.

 

[Craig M.]

the beresford has a 30 day money back guarantee, you could get one and then take to richer sounds to compare. i think it's worth comparing them as they sound quite different.

 

[Anonymous]

I am going to get the DAC Magic and the Beresford TC-7520 to compare over the weekend and I'll post comments (-:

 

[lazar1980]

debt_collector:I am going to get the DAC Magic and the Beresford TC-7520 to compare over the weekend and I'll post comments (-:

Well, thats really cool cause I sold my cdp yesterday and currently sourceless

Looking forward for your review.

 

[manicm]

Craig M.:

maybe poor is too strong, no where near as good, is that better

i think its all relative, and obviously depends on what you are comparing it too. i don't think the beresford is "better", just different. less bassy, a sort of "airier" presentation. but plenty of folks (your good self included) reckon the dm will nail any cdp upto a grand. i disagree. as far as i know, i gave the dm every chance with lossless and making sure the mac was set up right, maybe my expectations were too high after reading some posts on here, but i was quite disappointed. i reiterate though, system matching comes into it, and the beresford is a better fit with mine. i'm still not happy though. but once my new speaks are here, i will look into a new source.

i only bought the dm and then the beresford after trying to buy a benchmark from thomann in germany (very cheap there) and getting frustrated with trying to sort out a money transfer.

What lossless format are you using?

I know this will take up hard space but, and I'm not alone in this and maintaining lossless is lossless all things being equal, AIFF sounds better than AL, rip a favourite CD and you'd be surprised. Need iTunes.

Aiff also supports album art and tags, and is widely supported, but I repeat it's uncompressed so will = WAV.

 

[Anonymous]

Looks like we're not quite there yet with streaming music setups.

I'm currently running my Airport and Cyrus CD8X into my Dacmagic (source swiching) - CDs into the Dacmagic sound markedly better than lossless files via Airport Express which has me scratching my head a little. The airport is pretty old, maybe that's having some bearing on the sound quality.

That said the DacMagic doesn't sound bad, and is damn useful for playing the multitude of promo MP3s I get sent from record labels at home. It needs to be left on for a bit, as from cold it sound pretty 'confused'

 

[Anonymous]

ddias, my experience is different from yours. I have compared my Audiolab8000CD via digital co-axial into DACMagic, plus a friend's Cyrus CD6SE direct into the PreVS2, versus Apple Lossless files into DACMagic via a fairly new Airport Express. Both of us agreed there really isn't much in it and sometimes found it hard to tell which is which. Lossless sounds "different" from CDs and again sounds "different" from using the Audiolab as CD Transport BUT I would not say the sound quality is any worse than CDs. The DACMagic (and Beresford 7520 for that matter) is very good value for money and I don't plan on getting another CD player ever!