Thinking about buying a DAC

polk500

Well I'm thinking of buying a DAC for Christmas and the local audio store have the Arcam rDackw on sale for $439.00.

When I looked at them on line they are a discontinue product but great reviews.

So as far as Dac's go what brands do you like and what a fair price for a good DAC?

My Budget is around 500-700.

Thanks
Roger

BlueMDPicker

I've had my Schiit Gungnir for a couple of months. To my ears, it blows away my PS Audio DL III, plus has more input options. It's at the top end of your stated range.

http://schiit.com/products/gungnir

steveinaz

Definitely look at Cambridges' offerings in that price range. Big bang for the buck.

sucks2beme

audio-gd nfb-3. You can buy them for $250 all day long used.
The arcam is a pretty good choice as well.

tonyb

Look at PS audio nuwave, Cary Exciter also. Many flavors in that price range.

EndersShadow

I have a Audio GD NFB-5 for sale currently in the flea market. Dont know what differences are there between the NFB 3 and NFB 5

cstmar01

I had the arcam and moved to my highly modified music hall that runs both tube and solid state. Also for sale lol.

They well the same dac modified for about 800 which uses better op amps, caps etc. I really like it and had to move up a bit to improve upon it.

I also like ps audio perfect wave but higher than your price point and wyred. I've used the lower end schiit and don't mind it but a little to much top end for me.

polk500

Thanks for the feedback folks.

Will have to do some reading on the ones that were suggested.

I'm listening to Pink Floyd DSM on the Azur 650c it have twin dac's and it sure sounds sweet?
Been using the SB for so long and it's so convenient I forgot about the CD player.

Cheers
Roger

erniejade

I would suggest sell the Cambridge Azur 650C, get an oppo 105 and you get the best of both worlds in one unit.

4xoddic

I recently scored a TEAC UD-501 within your price range. Your equipment list does not include what computer OS you're using. I have seen comments that the Sabre chips don't play as well as TI's with Macs. At this point, I'm not ready to make statements on my UD-501.

Xmas should = a competitive DAC marketplace, especially returns (used) on Amazon. Prices falling on PCM-only DACs reflect the arrival of the DSD bandwagon. I'm about to make my first DSD purchase:

Santana Abraxas: DSD file created by Gus Skinas from the original Sony Super Audio CD cutting masters.

http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/94947/Santana-Abraxas-DSD_Download

I've found Archimago's DAC tests & musings to be valuable (at least his rec for a Belkin Gold USB cable will save me $).

http://archimago.blogspot.ca/2013/05/measurements-teac-ud-501-dsd-performance.html

"The TEAC UD-501 performed essentially the same as the Oppo BDP-105 from what I see here. This is good and provides a nice comparison with the level of performance out of the SABRE32 DAC. Again, this level of performance certainly is consistent with the subjective listening of DSD64 and DSD128 material I reported earlier."

tonyb

Maybe ....maybe not. I certainly wouldn't influence my decision on which to buy based on graphs. How it sounds....that's the ticket.

polk500

I guess I should mention I planned to stream the Squeeze Box through the Dac.

Via a Mit AVT 1 toslink cable or maybe a UBS cable; not quite sure yet as I don't know much about Dac's yet still reading up on then too get my learn on.
As for the computer that I use to run the Media Server on for the SB it's and old Dell laptop running Microsoft XP that sit in the electronics room.

Cheers
Roger

4xoddic

^^^
agreed, thus "subjective listening of DSD64 and DSD128 material I reported earlier."

zingo

http://app.audiogon.com/listings/da-converters-musical-fidelity-x-dac-v3-2013-11-20-digital-98122

http://app.audiogon.com/listings/da-converters-audio-gd-dac-19-dac-original-owner-dual-pcm1704-chips-2013-11-11-digital-84152-salt-lake-city-ut

http://app.audiogon.com/listings/da-converters-benchmark-dac1-highly-regarded-professional-audiophile-2013-11-18-digital-94608-emeryville-ca

polk500

DSkip wrote: »

I could be wrong, but I think a few extra bills would put you in a much better performance bracket, where you could look at things like the Oppo 95/used 105 and the W4S. Actually, selling the 650C might put you in that bracket and make the Oppo 105 a big contender as a DAC + CDP.

I was looking at your sig and curious if you have done any power cable upgrades yet?

Hello,

I've upgraded all the cables to 16 gauge heavy duty from 18 gauge standard cables that came with most the equipment.

And I purchased one off of eBay for my parasound paid $100.00 plus shipping real heavy cable heavy duty ends nice blue casing (sorry can't for the life of remember the name I'm at work at the moment) only thing I don't like about that one is that it's very stiff.

So the cables are fine I think nothing I would but in my sig.

Maybe the closer I get to the edge of the Rabbit Hole I may invest in better power cables.

Cheers
Roger

polk500

So after reading lots of reviews, almost pulling the trigger a few times finally decided on the Cambridge Audio Dacmagic 100.

Well actually the wife did she had been listening to me talk about it for a few weeks and when we were at Visions Electronic a few days ago I was showing her the Dac and she when back the next day and picked it up as a Christmas Gift.

Only thing is I have to wait till then to try it out and she even had one of the girls wrap it and put it under the tree like I wasn't mature enough to wait.

Love the wife.

Cheers
Roger

aboroth00

polk500 wrote: »

So after reading lots of reviews, almost pulling the trigger a few times finally decided on the Cambridge Audio Dacmagic 100.

Well actually the wife did she had been listening to me talk about it for a few weeks and when we were at Visions Electronic a few days ago I was showing her the Dac and she when back the next day and picked it up as a Christmas Gift.

Only thing is I have to wait till then to try it out and she even had one of the girls wrap it and put it under the tree like I wasn't mature enough to wait.

Love the wife.

Cheers
Roger

Congrats bud! I'm sure she won't mind as long as you keep the DAC mostly wrapped. Just cut out the holes where the cables go!

zingo

Congrats on the new DAC!

polk500

So I got the Dacmagic 100 set up and a few days listening and I must say I like what I hear. ( the wife is gone for the weekend so I've had a chance to really sit down and listen for a few hours)

Now at first I didn't cuz I had it hooked up wrong, I went digital from the SB touch to the Dac and digital the AVR listen for a while figured something was wrong asked a few questions got the answers and corrected it when with Mit interconnects from the Dac to the AVR.

One of the first things I noticed was that the sound stage was wider and the sweet spot was wider not sure if that makes sense ?

When I would sit on the couch to read and listen to some tunes with the SB I would have to sit with in a 3' area on the couch to get a good stereo sounds pass that and I would loose the imaging.

Now with the new Dac the SB sounds fantastic ( It sounded good before this just increased the goodness) The sweet spot is wider
quite impressed I must say. Music is sweeter sounding seems like i can hear more detail.

Now it's a not night and day improvement, I've done some A & B testing while not as I said night and day but certainly a very nice sonic improvement well worth the 3 bones

Cheers
Roger