Upgrade from the Dacmagic +?

[SteveR750]

A couple of years ago I tried out a number of DAC (thread in here somewhere) and concluded that the only noticeable improvement to the DM+ (caveat in my system and room and musical tastest) was the Chord Qute, but the the relative improvement nowhere near justified the of over £900, approx 3 times that of the DM+, the latter works extremely well using it's native USB 2.0 ASIO driver (which also transforms the dacmagic XS as well).

However, times change, and I now will be using headphones a lot more than I have done in recent years, and Joel has done a great job is supplying me with some DT880s. The headphone amp in the DM+ though is not as good as the DAC section by some margin, probably a lot to do with the ridiculoulsy high "<50 ohm" output impedance (which means they could be up to 49 ohm etc) which is adding too much harsh brightness to the upper mid / treble depending on the phones used (it makes my SR80s almost unusable).

So, I'm after something to potentially either replace the DM+ or compliment it in the form of a headphone amp. I've listened to the Audiolab M dac and thought it was inferrio, so that's off my list. A Hugo would be nice, but not at £1400, and the qute doesnt have a headphone amp. The beyerdynamic A20 looks very interesting, I've already also ordered an A200p (from Joel again) so at least will get some flavour of what its signature might be) .

I'm open to other suggestions, though probably ruled out the Caiman II as I can't be bothered with battery power for my main system, and I suspect it won't better the DAC I already have. In truth, I am so impressed with the Caspian, that I've been pestering Roksan to come up with an M2 Pre / Power with a built in DAC / phone amp, so far all I've seen is the K3, which probably isn't the answer, though I could be wrong as I've not seen any reviews of it yet.

 

[CnoEvil]

Hah, I bet you thought I was going to recommend a DS, but...

If you fancy something a little different, what about looking at Metrum Acoustics:

http://www.iglooaudio.co.uk/category/metrum-acoustics/

 

[SteveR750]

Hi CNo, hey, you know I'd forgotten about the DS....but I recall looking into that particular option a while ago. I want to keep the PC as my source, as it's already paid for! So, what's this Metrum Acoustics that you speak of...?

 

[CnoEvil]

It's a NOS Dac that's well thought of:

eg. http://www.the-ear.net/review-hardware/metrum-acoustics-octave-mkii-dac

They also do a headphone amp.

I'm away for a week, so that's your lot.

 

[SteveR750]

Hmm, at that price I'd probably spend the extra for the Hugo, on the basis that I thought the Qute was good, and the QBD76 was something else, especially as the Aurix is only a headphone amp only. I'm more tempted by something like the beyerdynamic A20 headphone amp, as this will work off the cambridge DAC output.

 

[Anderson]

Have you seen the new Cambridge Audio CXR range, includes a revamped DAC.

 

[SteveR750]

No, and worryingly I've been to the CA page a few times in the last couple of days looking up dm+ and XS specs, as well as quizzing them about their multitude of USB drivers. I'll take a look, but what about this new fancy Roksan DAC? Why no reviews anywhere?

 

[SteveR750]

Probably because there isn't a new DAC that I could see, other than a new amp with an inbuilt DAC, which looks the same as the DM+ :

‘DacMagic’ digital inputs and digital to analogue conversion.

To journey deeper into the music you love, the CXA80 has been designed from scratch with high performance digital to analogue conversion. This is thanks to a high specification 24-bit 192kHz WM8740 DAC chip from Wolfson that is at the core of our award-winning DacMagic range. Two optical inputs and one co-axial digital input are provided as well as an asynchronous USB Audio input for incredibly low jitter, so you can play your music directly from your PC or Mac. Add an optional BT100 Bluetooth dongle to your CXA80, for instant aptX quality streaming direct from your smartphone or tablet.

EDIT:

Theres a new Azur 851D.

2nd EDIT: It only got 4 stars from WHF, therefore it must be stunning.

 

[Anderson]

You're right, I was looking at their new network player, looks bloody nice if nothing else. Network features as a bonus to DAC OP?

http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/products/cx-series

 

[SteveR750]

Maybe, but then I'm back to a Linn DS!

 

[pauln]

You might want to post this on the headphones section as well where someone like Dalethorn might see it.

I am shocked that you would consider spending 3 times as much on a dac/amp as what the phones cost. You would get way more improvement in sound quality if it were the other way around.

If you have bought the 600 ohm dt880's then the 50 ohm output impedance doesn't matter as the ratio should be no less than 8 - and yours would be about 12 or more depending on the actual figure for your Dacmagic+

There is a lot of good information on several headphone sites, far more than you will get here. You would be fine with something much much cheaper, like an ODAC. If you want something more hifi looking, the Teac stuff is well regarded but still more than your phones cost.

Edit. Apologies, just seen your post in the headphones section. Very surprised at Joel's claim that these sound virtually as good as phones costing £1000. I much preferred the HD650's but then it's personal taste really I suppose. I purposely didn't listen to anything more expensive for fear of liking them too much - I couldn't justify (to myself or my wife) spending a grand on a set of cans.