I am about to get myself a Roksan K2 integrated to use in my HT with my Monitor Audio RX8s, but I already have a Oppo 980H DVD-player that has received acclaim for it`s good sound, but are there other alternatives that don`t cost too much that could enhance it`s sound even further? I was thinking of DAC`s such as Beresford Caiman, 7520 or others. How good are those compared to CD-players in Roksans price range?
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Roksan K2 - source?
- Thread starter jakja83
- Start date
The Oppo certainly sounds good by DVD player standards, and you'll improve this further with a decent DAC, but a dedicated CD player will still sound significantly better. Unless SACD is a priority, I'd suggest stretching your budget to the Marantz CD6003 - it's absolutely worth it if your serious about CD playback.
I have good SACD on my Oppo.
But won`t the Beresford outplay the Marantz? The oppo can read the bits and bytes and ship them off to the dac....
But won`t the Beresford outplay the Marantz? The oppo can read the bits and bytes and ship them off to the dac....
I would have thought the Oppo with a dedicated DAC such as Dacmagic or Caiman etc would sound better than the Marantz, although i have not heard the Marantz yet!
Last time I auditioned the DacMagic I found it a bit bright and light. How would the Caiman compare?
'Bright and light' might mean 'as the sound was meant to be'; opposed to 'harmonic distortion and too much bass'...
Beresford and DacMagic are the obvious choices for budget DACs. But there's a new Chinese alternative:
The Matrix mini-i.
It's got AD1955 chips, S/PDIF (BNC/RCA), AES/EBU (XLR), TOSlink and USB (only 48kHz) in; balanced and unbalaneced output, and a decent headphone amp. Internal power supply might be a weak spot.
It's got few, but positive reviews. Ships for $340. I've ordered one, and hope to get it next week.
Beresford and DacMagic are the obvious choices for budget DACs. But there's a new Chinese alternative:
The Matrix mini-i.
It's got AD1955 chips, S/PDIF (BNC/RCA), AES/EBU (XLR), TOSlink and USB (only 48kHz) in; balanced and unbalaneced output, and a decent headphone amp. Internal power supply might be a weak spot.
It's got few, but positive reviews. Ships for $340. I've ordered one, and hope to get it next week.
I compared head to head with another amp on recordings I was familiar with and the DacMagic was noticably more "edgy" and bright. But which was the correct one? I am not sure, it all boils down to preferences.
Listening to good recordings of accoustic music and human voices you'll get a reasonably good idea of which is most natural.
Also, a device that makes any recording sound equally smooth will probably add something that's not in the original recording. So why not add a few recordings that's known for bad sound to your test?
I understand, but basically what I am wondering about is: How would the Caiman fare against CD-players costing a bit more? I was specifically thinking compared to the Roksan K2 CDP.
plastic penguin
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- Apr 28, 2008
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Roksan and Arcam go well together, so I'm thinking along the lines of CD17. WHFI always reckoned the old MKIII was a good match with CD73T. I can actually vouch for that, when I tested the LIII with my 73 it produced wonderful dynamic and detail, allied to well controlled bass.
jakja83:I understand, but basically what I am wondering about is: How would the Caiman fare against CD-players costing a bit more? I was specifically thinking compared to the Roksan K2 CDP.
If you got a Beresford and had it upgraded at somewhere like Audio Upgrades you would have similar performance (IMO) as the K2 cd for a fair bit less money.
If you got a Beresford and had it upgraded at somewhere like Audio Upgrades you would have similar performance (IMO) as the K2 cd for a fair bit less money.
I have the K2 running into RX6 with the Kandy MkIII CD player and a DacMagic as the sources. The CD is better. By the tiniest of margins - certainly not the hundreds of pounds worth of difference between them in terms of RRP.
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