Recommendations for M1 DAC or M-DAC?

[admin_exported]

I have a slightly aged system at home:

Arcam A65+ Amp

Marantz CD63 SE

B&W 601 S2

All What Hi Fi recommended back in the day!

I'm looking to add a DAC fed from my Macbook Pro directly or through AppleTV, Airport Express, or from the CD

would the Musical Fidelity M1DAC be overkill for this system? I'd also stretch to the Audiolab M-DAC if this offered major advantages

Although the system is long in the tooth it still sounds pretty good to me

I also have a slightly more budget system in my office:

Cambridge Audio Azur 640A

Cambridge Audio Azur 640C

Mordant Short Avant 902i

I'm also interested in looking at a DAC for this, running from AP (or rarely from the CDP)

would I be better looking at a cheaper 2nd hand DAC as that system is quite limited?

All help appreciated!

Thanks

 

[Shanka]

Hi,

You really need to try and hear both DAC's to see which you prefer, I was personally dissappointed with the MF dac and much prefered the mdac with my Caspian system.

However in my system with Arcam and BW I use a dacmagic and am very happy with this, I would certainly add this to your list and is much cheaper than the other two mentioned.

This may confuse matters for you more but maybe also check out the Arcam rdac as well, I am about to do this myself so will be intrigued if you do how you get on.

Good luck.

 

[Juzzie Wuzzie]

Or just run the Airport Express (with inbuilt DAC) for a while and see if that meets your needs? I just removed the external DAC between my AEX and Naim 5i, and can't tell the difference. Just an expense saving / delaying suggestion.

 

[quadpatch]

Maybe this isn't the best place to put it, but I just ordered the M-DAC from Custom Cable for £480 (20% off this weekend). I have listened to it with a bunch of headphones and have been drooling over it ever since. I can't wait to get it!!

http://www.custom-cable.co.uk/audiolab-m-dac-digital-to-analogue-convertor.html

 

[Anonymous]

M-DAC 8)

 

[dragon76]

+1 for M-DAC. I have been a long time fan of this and it works great for me. Meanwhile I am not sure if this expense will be justified with the system you have, but it never hurts to have better source. You should definitely listen to both and make decision for yourself.