DAC Vs CD73T.. We Have a Winner

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I have been the happy owner of a CD73T for approx 4 years, and have enjoyed many hours of listening with both my previous Arcam amp and my more recent Cyrus 8vs2. However, for flexibility reasons and curiosity, i purchased a Firestone Audio Fubar 2 USB DAC a few months ago and have finally got everything set up correctly, will all my music ripped to lossless WAV and on a WD 1TB Hard drive and hooked up to an old Toshiba Laptop. I had previously posted about how pleased i was with some cheap Maplin speaker cable as a temporary replacement for my rumour 2, but within the last week i have replaced this again with my Chord cable. WOW is all i can say, it's like somebody has blown some dust out of my speakers or something, the sound is superb. I have had several long listening sessions since, whilst doing some A-B listening comparisons with my CD player and believe it or not prefer the sound of the DAC. I think it also helps that i can just put WMP on random and don't have to get up to change CD's etc, but i also find myself listening for much longer. I know there are better DAC's out there but i think this is a great start, and certainly won't be upgrading my CD players anymore. Seems to me that it is much more cost effective (providing you have a laptop or PC etc) for me to stay down the DAC path. Imay well purchase the "supplier" power upgrade for this box to see if that makes a positive difference to the sound. Just thought i would post about the happiest i have ever been with my stereo which has been growing now for apporx 15 years!
 

John Duncan

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FrankTheTank:believe it or not

I believe

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Gerrardasnails

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FrankTheTank:I have been the happy owner of a CD73T for approx 4 years, and have enjoyed many hours of listening with both my previous Arcam amp and my more recent Cyrus 8vs2. However, for flexibility reasons and curiosity, i purchased a Firestone Audio Fubar 2 USB DAC a few months ago and have finally got everything set up correctly, will all my music ripped to lossless WAV and on a WD 1TB Hard drive and hooked up to an old Toshiba Laptop. I had previously posted about how pleased i was with some cheap Maplin speaker cable as a temporary replacement for my rumour 2, but within the last week i have replaced this again with my Chord cable. WOW is all i can say, it's like somebody has blown some dust out of my speakers or something, the sound is superb. I have had several long listening sessions since, whilst doing some A-B listening comparisons with my CD player and believe it or not prefer the sound of the DAC. I think it also helps that i can just put WMP on random and don't have to get up to change CD's etc, but i also find myself listening for much longer. I know there are better DAC's out there but i think this is a great start, and certainly won't be upgrading my CD players anymore. Seems to me that it is much more cost effective (providing you have a laptop or PC etc) for me to stay down the DAC path. Imay well purchase the "supplier" power upgrade for this box to see if that makes a positive difference to the sound. Just thought i would post about the happiest i have ever been with my stereo which has been growing now for apporx 15 years!

I would have only been shocked if you said the Arcam was better.
 
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Anonymous

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Has anybody much experience in other DAC's within a "similar" budget to the Fubar, i.e Dacmagic, VDAC or Beresfords, that they can compare to the Fubar. I'm not desperate to upgrade at the moment, as i said i'm very happy, just wondered about upgrading in the future. As we all know, upgraditis is invevitable. I think for the time being i may just look into the "supplier" upgrade as this is meant to lead to improved dynamics etc. I think for £80 it's worth a punt.

Thanks guys.
 

John Duncan

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Trying to remember who had the Fubar and went for a Beresford - may have been Chebby. And I think idc bought the Fubar off him (including the upgraded power supply) and was very pleased with it.

Gerrard and I have DACMagics and can vouch for them unreservedly, but not sure I would do so as an upgrade to the one you've already got - I'd suggest you'd need to spend quite a bit more for a worthwhile improvement.
 
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Anonymous

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Cheers for that John!

I know Chebby defo HAD a Fubar, from previous posts so maybe he will pop along and give his thoughts. Like i say, i'm very happy at the moment so not bothered about swapping it for another DAC. I think the question should just be "Is the Supplier a worthwhile upgrade for £80?" I have seen a couple of online reviews saying that it is a worthwhile investement, but it's always good to hear people's opinions on here.

Thanks
 

Gerrardasnails

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JohnDuncan:Trying to remember who had the Fubar and went for a Beresford - may have been Chebby. And I think idc bought the Fubar off him (including the upgraded power supply) and was very pleased with it.

Gerrard and I have DACMagics and can vouch for them unreservedly, but not sure I would do so as an upgrade to the one you've already got - I'd suggest you'd need to spend quite a bit more for a worthwhile improvement.

I've now heard a Beresford, albeit the 7510, and with a budget system and can definitely now say that the transport plays a major role in stereo playback. My Dad only has a Sony DVD recorder (very good one though and I doubt that the transport is anything but solid). I have connected up the dvd player to the Beresford using coaxial and then the Beresford to a media player using optical. Using 320kbps mp3s only, the dvd player was thrashed - not even close! I really believe that the reason lossless files (especially) sent to an external DAC, are much better than a lot of cd players is because there is no physical transport involved. The DAC plays some part obviously but as John says, you will need to spend quite a bit to notice another improvement.
 

John Duncan

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Yes, thought so - and idc bought it. So since he has both, he's the best person to advise. Maybe a specific post with 'fubar supplier power supply upgrade' will catch his attention.

cheers

JD
 

John Duncan

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Gerrardasnails:I've now heard a Beresford, albeit the 7510, and with a budget system and can definitely now say that the transport plays a major role in stereo playback.

I refer the right honourable gentleman back to my original 'Air and Magic' thread so many moons ago...
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Gerrardasnails

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JohnDuncan:Gerrardasnails:I've now heard a Beresford, albeit the 7510, and with a budget system and can definitely now say that the transport plays a major role in stereo playback.

I refer the right honourable gentleman back to my original 'Air and Magic' thread so many moons ago...
emotion-5.gif


Yes, I know - you da man!

I'm heading up to your place of work on Friday!
 

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