Pre amp bridging 2 power amps

[BigH]

interesting reading. For me, I like to have a decent CD player, but I personally would spend at least twice as much, maybe 5 times as much on the amp. I personally find amps change the sound a whole lot more than a CD player. But maybe it depends on what kind of sound you are after.

Whilst returning the latest amp I've had on home demo today, I asked about the Chord 2cute as there was one on display at the counter. They said the 2cute was probably their favorite piece of equipment under £2k. Whilst I'm sure better cd transports make a difference, apparently the 2cute lifts a veil from the music where you didn't think one existed beforehand. They liked it a lot and suggested adding the 2cute to a budget cdp (used as a transport) may deliver bigger gains than purchasing a more expensive cdp.

Yes of course this makes sense. Individual DACs will sound completely different. (Well, it's all relative). Bypassing a cheaper DAC in the cdp for the £1000 Hugo should be like lifting a veil or I'd want my money back. I'm guessing if that DAC was in a cdp it would be about £3000.

is the hugo 2cute worth trying it seems a lot of money for a small box with not meany inputs or outputs and no XLR s on it for £1000 ? is it any better then what i have on demo now

Worth a try, I think Analogue Seduction will have one in stock.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

Audio lab dac going back this afternoon booked a demo on the Cambridge flagship pre/ power amp to see what they are like as it does not cost nothing to see

 

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Hay sabbath.the 2qute and Hugo are two different dacs with the Hugo the most expensive and also has an on board headphone amplifier you most definitely don't get much in the way of connectivity with the chord dacs but they're built well and over on the naim forum it's either Hugo or naim dac-v1 that gets most accolades when it comes to dac units.So if naim forumees are talking about something not naim it must be worth a look.

 

[BigH]

Hay sabbath.the 2qute and Hugo are two different dacs with the Hugo the most expensive and also has an on board headphone amplifier you most definitely don't get much in the way of connectivity with the chord dacs but they're built well and over on the naim forum it's either Hugo or naim dac-v1 that gets most accolades when it comes to dac units.So if naim forumees are talking about something not naim it must be worth a look.

Yes different DACs but sound wise very similar, some say the 2Qute is better but if you want to use headphones and the portability the Hugo is the one to get. "The 2Qute offers support for up to 32-bit/384kHz audio via coax and USB, and 24-bit/192kHz over optical. DSD64 is supported on all inputs and DSD128 is supported via coax or USB (all via DoP)."

[font="Trebuchet MS, Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, san-serif"]So its fairly future proof if you want to go down the download/DSD path.[/font]

 

[busb]

Right today I went to richer sounds with my abrahamsen amp and marantz sacd 8005 player and had a demo with a audio lab M-Dac+ I thought I would try out this dac as from older posts on this thread some people like mark thought it might be a CD player problem that maybe I needed a top CD player to make the most out of what I got . To be honest I thought I would not hear much of a difference in any detail from using the m-dac + as this dac cost £800 and not been out long but the older model won a lot of awards

right the demo they hooked up my abrahamsen and marantz with a pair of Dali opticon 6s what I used to have so I knew what they would sound like we used XLR leads as well as RCA leads I had taken some CDs with me so nothing was new to me only the new dac for a start I could not tell the difference between the new sound and the old sound then switching to marantz dac sound until we switched to the balanced inputs that was slightly louder so I knew that XLR is normally slightly louder so I turned down the volume a little bit so it matched the RCA input volume this sorted that out I kept switching back and then understood that the new dac sounded better on the XLR inputs the dac was more detail and more open more headroom but still not night and day better my wife thought it sounded more detailed so I thought I would take it home on a home demo to see if it sounds different at home and it does I do like it more natural more involving more head room and good detail .

i am still not 100% sure if I am doing the right thing I have 13 days before I have to take it back but would like people's thoughts on whether this is the way to go because £800 is a lot of money on a pointless upgrade but to me it sounds better so just goes to show buying a new amp would have been pointless as the abrahamsen is very capable amp and the chaps in the shop were impressed by the abrahamsen amp so if I did keep this dac I would use the marantz as a transport as its well built.

I'm borrowing a Chord Hugo TT the week after next but it is really expensive & TBH, I'm not convinced my current system justifies £3k on a DAC. My M-DAC is very, very good but reviews suggest the M-DAC+ is better & good value. The + version is has got more inputs than the Chord but is considered to be a little behind the standard Hugo let alone the TT.i If I come to my senses, I'll go for the +

The designer of the original M-DAC is a big fan of XLRs over RCA. My system is fully balanced from DAC to the power amp's input stages - I have not reverted back to RCAs to see if there's a reduction in SQ - but they are certainly physically very superior.

the m-dac plus is very well made and I do like the XLR inputs which gives it a cleaner sound but slightly louder then using RCAs which you have to watch as I feel that's what makes you think it sound better but when you compare it with the onboard dac on the CD player and match its output both dac's sounded the same it did for me . I will have a play tomorrow before taking it back . I just found that there is a lot of setting that I did not understand and I was interested in the filters that it has but just felt there was not much in it between the onboard dac on the marantz so whether there some magical setting that I have missed that will make it sound amazing I do not know

My original M-DAC sounded quite harsh for the 1st week then just sounded very good as it still does. I don't know how the new + version behaves (your one may have been run in anyway). Fow a while, I listened to the DAC in my Panasonic TV fed from the HDMI output of an AppleTV - it sounded a lot better than I expected!

DACs do sound different from each other but those differences may not be immediately obvious. I'm still hearing differences such as greater detail as I play stuff I'm familiar with for the 1st time through my newish speakers so some differences take weeks or even months to bare fruit.

the m -dac plus I have on demo was brand new they opened the box for me to demo the chap in the shop thought he could hear more head room in the sound it maybe the case I am not sure we tried RCAs and XLR and found that it sounded better on the XLRs but since then I found out that the XLRs output is a little louder and I do not have to turn my amps volume much but I matched the input levels on both XLR & RCAs so they both sound the same in volume and this is how I found out that the marantz 8005 dac sounded the same as the audio lab m-dac plus on the same volume levels switching between the two . As you have the m-dac what setting do you use for cd play back to get the best out of the dac ?

You returned the M-DAC+ I see. I was playing CDs on a CA Azur 751BD connected to the audiolab via a Chord 0.5m to Coax 1, TV to Optical 1 & the Mac Mini via USB using the DAC's remote to pause/play, forward etc

 

[Blacksabbath25]

Right had a demo on the Cambridge pre / power amp total cost £2700 and using the roksan m2 CD player which I had a demo on I felt that it was well built and the power amp was very heavy I felt the sound had the same deep bass as the abrahamsen but felt the sound was not as clear in the treble as the abrahamsen but this may have the speakers as this setup sounds terrible with Dali opticon 6s which are normally detailed speakers but found they lacked sound stage in the treble top end but sounded OK in the bass department so the dealer change the speakers to tannoy revolution Dt 8f as he did not have anything bigger in floorstanding speakers to match my Dali opticon 8s which have a massive sound stage but the tannoy's sounded a bit better with the Cambridge setup the bass was even better with thump low down and mid range but still The top end was not big It maybe a case of using the right speakers with this pre/ power from Cambridge but it never floated my boat not for that kind of money and I made sure it was running in bridged mode . I think the lesson I've learnt is what I have is really good value for the money I have spent and the abrahamsen is still top value and you would have to spend a lot more then £2700 to beat it that's my opinion here