CA DacMagic - any good?

[JTC]

Wanted primarily for TV/AV duties (2 channel only) but if this beastie is good enough I'd be prepared to also try connecting the SB+ digital outputs (and the CDP too). A tad more than I was planning to spend (if it were to be TV/AV only) but looks quite nice and not daftly priced either...

 

[internet radio]

Look at the musicalfidelity Vdac mk2 in your price range £199 and listen to both. Feed back here always welcomed on your experience.

http://www.musicalfidelity.com/products/V-Series/V-DAC/V-DACII-review.pdf

 

[TheDecameron]

I got a used dacmagic from here for the same use you intend to put it to, for Freesat tv and radio as well as DVD in the kitchen. Works very nicely.

 

[NeilK]

Dacmagic is pretty good - like the 740 and 840 CD players it suffers from the "badge snobbery" of some potential buyers.

I've had a lot of DACs (started in the '90s as I was interested in the digital domain and spent a lot of time with different transports and DACs including a rather nice dpa reference DAC. When looking to try out a squeezebox based system I auditioned both MF and CA and preferred the CA. The MF is more compact (and certainly the Mk II looks a lot better) but lacks the balanced out of the CA. There was not a huge gulf between them but it eventually came down to the CA being more "fluid and well balanced" whilst retaining the dynamics and analytical ability of the V-DAC.