DacMagic queries

[admin_exported]

Hi,

Any ideas please:

Would a DacMagic improve the two channel sound of a Blu-Ray player such as the Pana BD35?

Would a DacMagic make a DVD player such as a Philips DVD633 (circa 2000 when it cost about £100) a reasonably good CD player? What current CD player would this combo compare to?

Thanks alot

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Branoc:
Hi,

Any ideas please:

Would a DacMagic improve the two channel sound of a Blu-Ray player such as the Pana BD35?

Would a DacMagic make a DVD player such as a Philips DVD633 (circa 2000 when it cost about £100) a reasonably good CD player? What current CD player would this combo compare to?

Thanks alot

Depends on your amplification. HD audio in 2.0 will probably be better than an analogue stereo sound through the DacMagic.

I would suggest that with the Philips you would get at least the same level as your PM6002s but if it's a good transport, and you have a good stereo amp, anything up to the £500 mark (imo).

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Gerrardasnails, I'm not going down the HD Audio route (happy with trad 2 channal) - so do you think running a Blu-Ray through the DacMagic would be better than just connecting the 2 channel analogue outs to my amp? I've not got a Blu-Ray player but am planning ahead.

Regarding playing CDs, normally Richer Sounds are quite good about lending stuff out so perhaps I'll ask them. Could be interesting!

 

[Anonymous]

Check this thread here http://whathifi.com/forums/t/184195.aspx

For once I feel (nearly) "qualified" to answer. lol

I have been running my Sony blu-ray player into my stereo amp via the DacMagic for a short while only, but overall I can say that I'm happy. I find the best sound doesn't come via the BDP but via my laptop to the DAC (on a simple USB connection) while playing lossless files (or at least 192, 320Kbps).

That said the DacMagic (to my ears) only makes a small difference when playing CDs on my BDP. It only becomes apparent at the sound gets pumped up. I'm currently listening to some d'n b and I have the volume at around -45dB before I can "hear" the DacMagic (sitting about 5m away from the speakers).

 

[Peter Larsen]

I have tried what you ask with my Denon DVD-1940 via coaxial to my DacMagic and could not hear any difference AT ALL. Not like with my Cambridge 640C v2 which has been greatly improved soundvice with the DacMagic.

Instead I experimented a bit with the Denon player and instead of connecting the stereo analog cables to the stereo out of the Denon I connected the cables to the left/right of the 5.1 analog output and in settings I just set sub, center and surround channels to none. Boy, did that make a difference in sound. Suddenly movies have a firm bottom, voices are much more distinct and the overall sound no longer sounds compressed (I did check that digital compression was set to off). I thought the output would be the same, but for some reason the downsampling of the 5.1 signal to 2.0 stereo through the 5.1 analog outputs works better than using the stereo outputs that always downsamples to 2.0 no matter the settings.

Hope this helps a bit.ÿ