what is going to be the best dac for £500 rega or modded dac-magic????????

[smuggs]

i have a dac-magic and i the amount of spotify i use is loads so everybody is going mad over the rega dac. or for £300 i can get a level 3 upgrade on my dac magic which seems to be then alot higher spec than the rega. anyone heard a modded dac-magic

 

[mitch65]

i have a dac-magic and i the amount of spotify i use is loads so everybody is going mad over the rega dac. or for £300 i can get a level 3 upgrade on my dac magic which seems to be then alot higher spec than the rega. anyone heard a modded dac-magic

This one rears it's ugly head again!! Lol!
the Rega is a great dac full stop. How it compares to a modded dacmagic? Difficult. I've had the standard dacmagic and for money it's probably unbeatable but the Rega is miles better in comparison (before anyone jumps down my throat it is just my opinion). Worth mentioning that I sold my dacmagic for the same amount I bought it for (£200) on flea bay and bought the Rega for £445.00, or in real terms £250.00. :bigsmile:

 

[Anonymous]

I use a modded Magic which I would like to think is better than the Rega but there is no easy way of me finding out. My logic is that spending the cash on components rather than a whole new DAC you would be getting better value, especially with those Burson ops. But I'm sure you can't go wrong with either. The upgrade makes a huge difference so don’t think of it still as a DAC Magic because it sounds completely different. Either way hopefully we can get an opinion on the differences from someone who has owned both, but I fear there isn't anyone.

 

[Anonymous]

Im planning on selling my beresford 7520 for a rega dac in june. Would like to see more reviews of it first or what people think. From what i have read over the past couple of months, it seems that the rega dac is much much better than any standard dac below its price range. Against a modded dacmagic im not sure though.

 

[the record spot]

Another option would be the Spitfire II DAC - for the money, this has to be shortlisted for the Awards next year. It's a superb performer for the cash - got mine on offer for £150, but the TSP is £250. I have to say I'm bowled over by this unit. Tiny little thing, three inputs (USB, coax and optical) with the option of an additional offboard power supply from Firestone Audio (via the excellent Audio Elevation in Doncaster or one of the other UK suppliers who stock the range) for just a whisker of £100.

I found the DacMagic great for connectivity, but out of its depth in making the music sound anything more than a facsimile of how it should. All the bits were there (upsampled even!), but there was no lifelike dynamic in there. The Spitfire II has that missing ingredient. What it lacks in inputs, it delivers in their place a confident, assured and highly musical sound. Bass depth is astonishingly good. The treble will be a problem if you already have bright speakers and amplification, but if all that is in order, you'll have an absolute winner on your hands. I can't recommend it highly enough and wish WHF would clap hands on one to review!

(EDIT: Thought I'd post this as a possible "third way" in addition to the other two you have - the Rega DAC and the modded DM might well be a significant step-up, but this might be worth some thought if you're looking at improvements for reasonable money).