advertisement


recomend me a DAC please

AndyU said:
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.
Click to expand...

thanks Andy for hitting this one on the head
 
regarding the DAC1. a couple of years ago, their engineer posted to this forum for a bit. when i asked him how musical the device was vis-a-vis equipment like naim/linn, he said he didn't understand what musicality was. that's like a porn star hopeful who doesn't understand sexuality.

vuk.
 
vuk said:
regarding the DAC1. a couple of years ago, their engineer posted to this forum for a bit. when i asked him how musical the device was vis-a-vis equipment like naim/linn, he said he didn't understand what musicality was. that's like a porn star hopeful who doesn't understand sexuality.

vuk.
Click to expand...

Ah yes, musicality.

What's that then mr happy?:confused:
 
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.
Click to expand...

"Flat Earth" is far from accurate, where did you get that idea Barry? It's all about PRAT and certain peaks and troughs in the frequency response to fool people into thinking they're getting something that sounds better.

DACs should be transparent and have a flat frequency response, anything that is competently designed these days should only sound massively different to another if it's broke.

If the OP will be sticking with CD playback then I wouldn't bother with a DAC, his CDP is more than good enough.
 
well for now I think I will have a week or so trying the various cables I have, sell my Quad bike (which I never use) and start looking for some nice sh speakers up to around £750 ish
maybe some room tweaks, see where that takes me, it's funny init but the other day I was offered an AVI Lab series system, that was CD, PRE AMP, PWR AMP & TUNER for just £800
and right now i'm skint, typical, as it sounded really nice through the MA gs 10 speakers
 
matt j said:
"Flat Earth" is far from accurate, where did you get that idea Barry? It's all about PRAT and certain peaks and troughs in the frequency response to fool people into thinking they're getting something that sounds better.

DACs should be transparent and have a flat frequency response, anything that is competently designed these days should only sound massively different to another if it's broke.

If the OP will be sticking with CD playback then I wouldn't bother with a DAC, his CDP is more than good enough.
Click to expand...
As I am not a "Flat Earther", perhaps someone from that tribe could define it for me, as I seem to be under a misapprehension.
 
'Flat Earth' doesn't relate to a flat frequency response, in fact it couldn't be any further away.

Anyway that's enough from me, I shouldn't have wandered into the land-of-make-believe section as I'd promised myself I'm done with all that, back to the Off Topic room I go...
 
barrymidd said:
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.
Click to expand...

Barry I must take mine out of the kitchen system and try it in the main one because I dont actually know what it sounds like. I just hooked up the telly to it and it sounds better than the analogue output.
 
arthur said:
Ah yes, musicality.

What's that then mr happy?:confused:
Click to expand...

I think the concept of 'musicality' was invented by Linn, or it could have been Naim, to draw attention away from the fact that their speakers had horrific colourations - to me it implies the opposite of neutral.
 
Purite Audio said:
There are no sonic advantages to using an ASRC, although the manufacturer might like you to believe that!
Keith.
Click to expand...

I am sure there are many features that are important in designing a DAC - but since neither you nor I have or could design one, I wouldn't pick on any single one as being critical. Asynchronous USB is the current flavour of the month; as far as I understand these things it shouldn't make as big a difference to an ASRC DAC like the Benchmark as it does to a DAC with a PLL. This would seem to be borne out by Stereophile's measurements.

Here is a technical paper outlining Benchmark's approach to USB.

Here is a technical paper outlining Benchmark's reasons for using ASRC.
 
Few years ago after i have read all those great reviews i bought Benchmark and after two weeks gave it back. For me the sound was to lean and dry, maybe it is good for a studio where you have to listen to all possible details, but it was definetly not my taste. I prefer warmer, full sound, and not something i call "dry lean wire".

I know that Benchmark has a group of followers, but it is not everybodys taste.
 
The Benchmark HDR is an excellent DAC, it just requires correct system matching as do all components. ATC and Benchmark are both very good stable mates, on and off the playing fields.
 
AndyU said:
I think the concept of 'musicality' was invented by Linn, or it could have been Naim, to draw attention away from the fact that their speakers had horrific colourations - to me it implies the opposite of neutral.
Click to expand...

There is no such word as musicality - it's bollox.
 
AndyU said:
I am sure there are many features that are important in designing a DAC - but since neither you nor I have or could design one, I wouldn't pick on any single one as being critical. Asynchronous USB is the current flavour of the month; as far as I understand these things it shouldn't make as big a difference to an ASRC DAC like the Benchmark as it does to a DAC with a PLL. This would seem to be borne out by Stereophile's measurements.

Here is a technical paper outlining Benchmark's approach to USB.

Here is a technical paper outlining Benchmark's reasons for using ASRC.[/QU







I believe they also state that they have 'completely eliminated' jitter!
Read up about Async data transfer, there is a god thread about it on the Wam at the moment.
Keith.
Click to expand...
 
All technical papers are always great and since the begining of digital age they where companies claiming that "our dac has zero jitter" etc.

Zero oversampling, 16x oversampling, upsampling, PLL loop, reclocking, buffer, master clock, deltran etc.

Most important is the sound coming out of the device, i don't care about the technology used inside.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top