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recomend me a DAC please

getting back to the thread,
Arthur I did consider selling the lot but at the moment thats not likely to happen, the speakers are 8' apart and 6" from the back wall, room is 15' x 12' with the speakers fireing down the room, the system is on a dedicated spur, good mains cables, VDH D103-II from cd to amp and at present zanash solid silver speaker cables, but i have some 4mm van damme and some sonic link AST 200 to try, I also have some home made solid silver ic's to try.
thing is iv'e lost some top end detail since I downsized from a tri vista set up and MA GR20'S which is understandable, my aim is to get this detail back
 
taz said:
getting back to the thread,
Arthur I did consider selling the lot but at the moment thats not likely to happen, the speakers are 8' apart and 6" from the back wall, room is 15' x 12' with the speakers fireing down the room, the system is on a dedicated spur, good mains cables, VDH D103-II from cd to amp and at present zanash solid silver speaker cables, but i have some 4mm van damme and some sonic link AST 200 to try, I also have some home made solid silver ic's to try.
thing is iv'e lost some top end detail since I downsized from a tri vista set up and MA GR20'S which is understandable, my aim is to get this detail back
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:D. certainly understandable. Sounds like the thing to do may be to search for a tri-vista dac? Could take a while though.
 
finesensations said:
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.'?
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"Accuracy" has become a fashionable word to describe the "flat earth" type of sound. You either like this type of presentation, or you prefer something with a bit more emotion. Personally, I love the woody tones and "in the room" presentation of the DacMagic, but the bass is not as accurate as a Naim DAC and if you are after accurate response rather than tonal richness then the DacMagic will be less appealing to you.
 
A DAC shouldn't have a sound,it should be completely transparent, althuogh If you want a tone control, you can try NOS or something with a valve stuck in it.
Keith.
 
barrymidd said:
"Accuracy" has become a fashionable word to describe the "flat earth" type of sound. You either like this type of presentation, or you prefer something with a bit more emotion. Personally, I love the woody tones and "in the room" presentation of the DacMagic, but the bass is not as accurate as a Naim DAC and if you are after accurate response rather than tonal richness then the DacMagic will be less appealing to you.
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Hi Barry

Thanks for your insight.
 
Purite Audio said:
A DAC shouldn't have a sound,it should be completely transparent, althuogh If you want a tone control, you can try NOS or something with a valve stuck in it.
Keith.
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Every DAC I have ever heard (and that is most of them) have some sort of characteristic sound about them. IMO none of them are "transparent" and I am not sure that it is even a desirable trait. The trick is to match components to achieve synergy. I think digital differences are less easy to pin down, but that doesn't mean they can be ignored.
 
My take on this is that at every price point there are hundreds of different makes and models of HiFi equipment, the use of the word "better" is subjective, as each and every one of us has different needs and also hears things and perceives things in a different way.
HiFi to most of us has changed a lot over the years since I became hooked (early eighties) or at least the way we use it has. Do I miss my Roksan xerses and those black dinner plates that where as soft as toffee and damaged as easily ? Naaaa not one bit, but the system I built didn't involve computers or AV gear to get in the way, now I have 8 speakers in the same room, 2 amps, bloody great plasma hanging of the wall etc and a family to go with it. I guess I do crave/miss the single minded way I could concentrate on "the music" I am guessing the "accuracy" you speak of is part of what I am seeking in that when I listen to say Elenaor Mcavoy I wan't to hear her in my living room, not just to hear her but to almost feel her presence, and hope fully without needing a second mortgage to do it, my question about the DAC is in a way asking can technology give me what I am looking for without the need to spend big bucks on a several thousand pound CD player ?
 
Taz
As I said before, that "in the room" sound you want is there in spades with the DacMagic, and yet the DacMagic is arguably less "accurate" than some DACs. I can only conclude that it is not about "accurate" presentation. Intuitively, I would say the opposite it likely to be true and again it leads us down the path to synergy being of prime importance.
 
Purite Audio said:
A DAC shouldn't have a sound,it should be completely transparent, althuogh If you want a tone control, you can try NOS or something with a valve stuck in it.
Keith.
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Keith you saying all the DAC's you sell sound the same? so the DAC202 isn't worth more than the cheapest DAC you stock ;)
 
Maybe you can borrow one? They are going for £150 - £200 on Ebay and will fetch that if you decide to sell it on. As you say everything is personal taste, but IME the DacMagic is worth many times that in terms of sound quality.
 
taz said:
So basically your recomending I try a dac magic ii ? with my current setup ?
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Like Rob said a few post ago, the player you have is excellent, you'll struggle to improve on it in any meaningful way, its the best part of your system by far.
The only reason i'd buy a dac is get access to the vast universe of music available via the internet (that's if you want to use a computer as a source!) you could even use the headphone out of the computer (at a push) into your amp.
 
taz said:
speakers are 8' apart and 6" from the back wall, room is 15' x 12'
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Yeh they will sound closed in that close to a back wall, mine are about 3' out into the room, also about 8' apart but this room is about 24' x 13' and they are along the long wall so a fair distance from the side walls. Not exactly conventional positioning, but it works well in this room. In a previous smaller room I had them "golden ratio" positioned, which along a 12' back wall would be about 3'4" from the side walls and 5'5" from the back wall - that was IME the only way they worked in small rooms... So you may want to invest in different speakers... but give that a try if you can!
 
Just as an odd suggestion hear, but if detail is your thing and as your room isn't huge you could simply get some new speakers and be done with it.

I can happily recommend a pair of AVI NuNeutrons, they are superb in all respects despite the naysayers on here.

Or, Even better, imo, a pair of Leema acoustic Xero's. These have astonishing bass even for much bigger speakers and the detail produced will be very difficult to surpass for less than absurd money.

You could then wait a bit (June-ish) and see if Audiolabs new Dac/pre is worth the hype (the CDQ certainly was) and use your cd player as transport. This will also give you a lift into computer audio should the mood take you to experiment.

Even adding a good power amp to this lot will still leave you with lots left to spend on music and girls :D

And both these speakers are happy quite close to a back wall.
 
The best I can manage is about 12" from the back wall, as I said before lifes a compromise
it now seems as though we have 2 different thoughts as to whether the dac magic would be an upgrade for the Marantz or not ? some say yes some say no ?
 
TheDecameron; I used to have a Dacmagic; I now own a DAC1 HDR. The Dacmagic is good for the money, but there is just no comparison in terms of sound quality - the HDR is in a completely different league. I'm using mine straight into some active ATC 100 ASLs. It doesn't have an Async USB input as such - the design is based around an ASRC which uses asynchronous resampling on all of the inputs - coax, tos and USB. There are several technical papers on their site which explain the virtues of this.
 
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