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recomend me a DAC please

taz

pfm Member
recomend me a DAC please
I have a Marantz sa7001 KI sacd player and a Marantz PM 7001 KI amp running into a pair of old B&W'S DM 603-s3 which
i have re-wired internally with solid silver cable and swapped a few caps with wilmslow audio jobs, I would like a new pair of
speakers this year for my 50th birthday up to around £1500 new or sh not bothered which, thing is buying a new cd player and amp
would be expensive and I thought maybe a good DAC might be the way forward ? or would that make the amp the weak link ?
anyway any help would be appreciated thanks
 
Ive had a few dacs,

Electrocompaniet

Bel Canto

Ps audio Digi iii BEATS the lot

Regards
 
old B&W'S DM 603-s3

If they're s3 they can't be that old! If they work well in your room you would be better spending money elsewhere - or at least that is my experience. I have thought of changing mine a few times, but have always discovered that the money was better spent elsewhere - they are actually remarkably good speakers. The only thing I would say is steer clear of amps that don't like difficult loads - they dip down to about 3ohms!
 
my budget will be (when i'm ready) about £1500, i was thinking about some monitor audio GS20's (iv'e had the GR20'S in the past) and should be able to get them s/h for about £700
I find the B&W's so far sound a bit "narrow" or "closed IN"
 
DacMagic is hard to beat if you like realism and musicality. Accuracy lovers may need to look elsewhere.

Hi barrymidd

I agree 'Dacmagic is hard to beat if you like realism and musicality'.

But what are you referring to when you say 'Accuracy lovers may need to look elsewhere.'?
 
Unless you are looking to investigate streaming I wouldn't add a dac to the Martantz - the difference will be very marginal at best.
 
Hi Taz.

This suggestion may seem like hard work but;

Flog all your stuff.

The Amp and cd should fetch around £400 ish. Don't know about modded speakers??

Then, with your two grand plus, you might like to investigate an Audiolab CDQ and a pair of active speakers. Perhaps some Dynaudios, s/h Adams or a plethora of others.

I think the cdq will wipe out the Marantz cd and preamp of the amplifier, and speakers with inbuilt amps have a lot going for them.

My last but one system was a 63 KI, MF amp and your speakers unmodded. I loved it to bits and had it for years. But in all honesty, the cdq is so far ahead it's outa sight (erm...as some say ;) ).

You might even keep your speakers and find them transformed with the cdq and a good power amp.

A Quad 909 is within budget, or a s/h bigger beast if you feel the need for real meat.

Cheers, Arthur.

Ps. This is all assuming you want to retain the services of a damn good cd player too.
 
Ive tried a few and have now got a Lavry DA11, which is a cracking DAC. Prior to this i owned a DAC1-HDR, Lyngdorf TDAi2200 with DAC, Supernait/HC2, various other amps with built-in DACs and a few Micromega Drive/DAC combos, had lots and lots of CDP's.

The Lavry is fantastic and makes my ADAM Deltas sound superb, the build quality on the HDR was slightly better IMO.
 
Electrocompaniet
Hello koi,

You have sold this one, apparently. Could I know why ? Because I'm thinking about buying one (I fairly like Electrocompaniet amps) but I can't really listen to it before I buy, as it's an auction.

Thanks.
 
Ive tried a few and have now got a Lavry DA11, which is a cracking DAC. Prior to this i owned a DAC1-HDR, Lyngdorf TDAi2200 with DAC, Supernait/HC2, various other amps with built-in DACs and a few Micromega Drive/DAC combos, had lots and lots of CDP's.

The Lavry is fantastic and makes my ADAM Deltas sound superb, the build quality on the HDR was slightly better IMO.

Spacey,
is the Lavry significantly better than the B'mark HDR or just different? Why did you change it?
 
It's not something i could really tell you TBH. They're quite different but i changed my whole system at the same time. The main reason for the change was to have matching green LED's. The DA11 is black with gold graphics. My all black ADAM deltas have identical green LED's to the DA11 and the X-Art HF and MF driver have golden/brown diaphragms.

The DA11 and HDR are both extremely good DAC's and both are excellent.
 
Im seriously considering a s/h hdr but having seen a few s/h and read your post I was wondering if its not all its cracked up to be and therefore off loaded quickly by owners.
At the moment in the kitchen I have freesat hd and blu ray via optical into a dacmagic- AVI integrated - Spendor 3/5r's. Im looking for a considerable uplift in SQ and then want to dump the integrated for a power amp. Thats where the HDR would fit and I just want to be sure its going to sound that much better than the dacmagic, even tho its not the most critical listening environment, esp when the taps are on and pots are getting banged in the background


PS. Does the HDR have an asynchronous USB input? their literature was a little opaque on this
 
It's not async but something inbetween IIRC. its there own take on things. Which is exactly what any input protocal is. The good thing about the HDR is all the inputs, and i mean every one sounds identical.

I'd not get too worried about async. It's a 'fashion' word IMO, which will be in the sales by next season.
 
No the best way to transfer timed data is via an Async USB or FireWire, protocol , if a manufacturer doesn't implement Async it simply means they don't know how to!
Keith.
 
Keith, that's a bit of an over generalisation. Async USB is a marketing tool, just like all the others. It's made a few people a lot of money and is now a licensed design.
 


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