Quality of stand alone DACs

[Michaelholder1]

I was just wondering what peoples opinions are on the quality of stand alone DACs as it seems stupid to me to buy a good CD player, and then buy a good DAC on top of that because surely the DAC in the standalone DAC can be just as good as the one in the CD player? Seems stupid to have more than one DAC? Which is also why putting DACs in the amps rather than the CD player also seems a little odd.

I was also wondering how the newer Dacmagic compares to the older Dacmagic 2 mk2. As the Dacmagic mk2 is considerably bigger than the Dacmagic, while I know size doesnt neccessarily dictate quality of sound it does suggest it might be as good bar the addition of a usb input in the dacmagic.

 

[Lateralus]

If you have a good inbuilt DAC, no problem. But what if the DAC in your otherwise hi-fi CD player is low-quality? Then you can justify buying an external DAC. An external DAC may also be subjected to less electrical noise than the one built into the CD player.

 

[Cypher]

I tried several DAC's but I had the Musical Fidelity V90 DAC for a while now and it's the best DAC I've ever had. Wonderful musical sound and the sound is incredibly detailed. IMO it's a bargain for the 275 euros I paid for it.

Other DAC's at this price level sound fine too but this one tops them all

 

[matthewpiano]

I'm not surprised Cypher. I find the sound from the V90HPA Headphone amp to be outstanding, and that uses a simpler implementation of the same DAC. Listening to Qobuz Hi-Fi (FLAC streaming) the asynchronous USB input with either my Sennhesier or Beyer headphones is a consistently enjoyable and musical engrossing experience.

In the past I owned the original V-DAC and I enjoyed that a lot too - much more than the CA DacMagic.

Musical Fidelity are extremely good at producing these high quality little boxes.

 

[Gazzip]

What makes you think a standalone DAC or DAC/amplifier combo is aimed at the CD player market? Maybe it was 20 years ago but now they are more widely used for computer D to A conversion.

 

[Michaelholder1]

Well I was asking as I was going to get a DAC as i use my laptop alot for music, and then I was going to get a cd player as well, and realised there wasnt much point in getting a good cd player as well as a good DAC.
I was also looking at the Ipod docks for connecting your ipod dock to a DAC, does anyone know anything about them? Like the arcam drDock?

 

[NJB]

I use a Pure i20 dock with my iPod into a Beresford Bushmaster MkII DAC. The Pure dock has both analogue and digital outputs which makes it quite versatile, and allows you to start by using the internal DAC before upgrading to an external DAC, if you want to. My experience is (horrendous generalisation coming up) that modern external DACs sound much cleaner and detailed than the DACs in older CD players etc. I have seen comments that all DACs sound the same, but that is not my experience. I would suggest that whilst the core DAC chips are very similar, the surrounding circuitry is important with giving character to the output. As an example, a mate that borrowed my DAC gave it back with a comment that the treble sounded really overblown compared to his irDAC. He commented on the detail, but in his system it was all too bright and fatiguing. However, in my system it sounds great and his irDAC sounds much more restrained by comparison. My suggestion is to shop around as, with DACs, I do not think that performance and price are necessarily linked but system matching is the key to being happy long term.

 

[Native_bon]

Am currently still using the V90 Dac and it is just an excellent dac. I sold my M-dac & rega dac after I got this one. Very musical & easy on the ear.

 

[Singslinger]

I upgraded my CD player, which is the Esoteric SA-50, by adding the Jeff Rowland Aeris DAC, picked over the Bricasti DAC.

Magnificent upgrade, but costly. So yes, in my experience standalone DACs can make a difference - but at a price.

 

[Esra]

Which Dac you use it all depends what you expect.I also have a Fiio Taishan D03K and this little box is pretty amazing for just about 35 Euros and imo sounding as good or even better as other Dac´s with standard filter i have tried no matter if built in or external.On the other hand i didn´t heard any Dac in a well known electronic device where i would say it is unbearlable to live with.Sure there are dacs with fancy filter programs which might give you just the sound flavour you are seeking for.With standard filter which is sharp rolloff filter normally any dac should sound pretty the same.If people favour a certain dac it´s mainly because of the special filter rather than quality issues like jitter,clock etc..

 

[andyjm]

I was just wondering what peoples opinions are on the quality of stand alone DACs as it seems stupid to me to buy a good CD player, and then buy a good DAC on top of that because surely the DAC in the standalone DAC can be just as good as the one in the CD player? Seems stupid to have more than one DAC? Which is also why putting DACs in the amps rather than the CD player also seems a little odd.

I was also wondering how the newer Dacmagic compares to the older Dacmagic 2 mk2. As the Dacmagic mk2 is considerably bigger than the Dacmagic, while I know size doesnt neccessarily dictate quality of sound it does suggest it might be as good bar the addition of a usb input in the dacmagic.

There is no good technical reason for putting a DAC in a separate box, and at least one reason for not (the S/PDIF link). It has become fashionable to have a separate DAC, but unless the DAC in your CD player is deficient in some way (and it is not clear why it should be), save your money.

 

[Michaelholder1]

There is no good technical reason for putting a DAC in a separate box, and at least one reason for not (the S/PDIF link). It has become fashionable to have a separate DAC, but unless the DAC in your CD player is deficient in some way (and it is not clear why it should be), save your money.

Well yes but if I just get the CD player then I cant use my laptop? But if I get a budget CD player with a good DAC then I can use both my CD player and my laptop and possibly add an Ipod dock with a digital out later on. I have been talking witha guy and think I am going to get a dacmagic for £100. I understand most people seem to prefer the Musical Fidelity DACs but it seems like such a good price I dont see why not?

 

[Michaelholder1]

Well a quick update, found a V-DAC for £130, and the CA dacmagic im supposed to be buying is £105. So bearing in mind that the dacmagic retailed for more and is much better rated on Whathifi, is the V-DAC really going to be worth it? Plus this is a V-DAC version 1 not 2? Or would people agree that that is a good price for the CA DAC?

 

[iMark]

We bought a DACMagic about 4 years ago while visiting relatives in the UK. Best thing about it that it improves the sound of the TV, our Airport Express and our Bluray Player when used for playing CDs. The only thing not great is the implementation of USB but we never use that.

I could recommend ditching CD players in favour of either streaming of ripped CDs in lossless quality or using a DVD or Bluray player as a transport for playing CDs.

 

[Michaelholder1]

Well I was planning on using the usb function with my laptop but if that doesnt sound good I'll probably just get an ipod dock with a digital out and use that. Yeah i was thinking of maybe just getting a blu ray player instead of a Cd player. The advantage of that is a lot of blu ray players can also do streaming and use dlna.

 

[Michaelholder1]

Well I was planning on using the usb function with my laptop but if that doesnt sound good I'll probably just get an ipod dock with a digital out and use that. Yeah i was thinking of maybe just getting a blu ray player instead of a Cd player. The advantage of that is a lot of blu ray players can also do streaming and use dlna.

 

[Native_bon]

Well I was planning on using the usb function with my laptop but if that doesnt sound good I'll probably just get an ipod dock with a digital out and use that. Yeah i was thinking of maybe just getting a blu ray player instead of a Cd player. The advantage of that is a lot of blu ray players can also do streaming and use dlna.

YEAP