Spec me a DAC

Jamous

Jamous

Jamous

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Joined
7 Jan 2007
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Scotland
Hi all, I'm planning on connecting my pc to my amp via a DAC so I am looking for a new DAC.

I am hoping to keep it £200 and under, I have looked around and swotted up on Cambrdge DACMagic, Beresford 7510/20, Zhaolu and even those DAC kits on Ebay look a laugh to play around with.

Anyone got any recommendations or any experience of these or other DAC's?

Cheers
 
I'd recommend any musical fidelity DAC 2nd hand, most will be abit over £200 but if you can spare the cash, it'd be well worth it. There's a MF a3 DAC on ebay at the moment for £380, something like this would give another level of perfomance compared to budget DACs. They're always cropping up on ebay so it's worth keeping an eye out, some for closer to your £200 budget.

Failing that, just get a dacmagic.
 
Jamous said:
Hi all, I'm planning on connecting my pc to my amp via a DAC so I am looking for a new DAC.

I am hoping to keep it £200 and under, I have looked around and swotted up on Cambrdge DACMagic, Beresford 7510/20, Zhaolu and even those DAC kits on Ebay look a laugh to play around with.

Anyone got any recommendations or any experience of these or other DAC's?

Cheers
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Hi

There's also the musical fidelity vdac which acton gate audio have on offer atm for £129.00

Website here :-

http://www.acton-gate-audio.co.uk/p...ductName=Musical Fidelity VDAC&ProductID=2693

Incidentally it's better to ring and order than do it through the website.

Hope that helps.
 
Hmm, I like the look of both of these, I don't need a headphone facility either.
I've been looking at the "Zero" DAC as well.
I'm amazed at how many low-cost DAC's are around at this price-point.
 
Jamous said:
Hi all, I'm planning on connecting my pc to my amp via a DAC so I am looking for a new DAC.

I am hoping to keep it £200 and under, I have looked around and swotted up on Cambrdge DACMagic, Beresford 7510/20, Zhaolu and even those DAC kits on Ebay look a laugh to play around with.

Anyone got any recommendations or any experience of these or other DAC's?

Cheers
Click to expand...
How are you going to connect the DAC to your computer?
USB, optical or coaxial

I can't help you but I'm looking at getting a USB DAC at some point and if you want one too I'll keep an eye on this thread :)
 
wolvers69 said:
What about a Xonar Essence? I believe they have good quality DACs in them.
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I'll take the Pepsi challenge with my Beresford 7520 + TH4032 over any soundcard anyday of the week .....zero contest. This combo brings out so much detail it's scary for the money, you're looking at £1k+ DACS to improve any.

Opamps,signal paths,power regulation all play a part also which is where a PC soundcard can't compete even if it has decent specs and a good DAC.
 
Just bought an Audio-GD DAC - 19MK3 to use with a SqueezeBox 3, present DAC is a ZeroDAC (upgrade version) which I found was better than the DACMagic (against which it was compared), so hopefully it will be dispatched on Sunday...
 
jbloggs said:
Just bought an Audio-GD DAC - 19MK3 to use with a SqueezeBox 3, present DAC is a ZeroDAC (upgrade version) which I found was better than the DACMagic (against which it was compared), so hopefully it will be dispatched on Sunday...
Click to expand...

Their Reference One DAC is a monster, if the exchange rate keeps improving a bit it might take a bit of force to stop me ordering one.
 
marscay said:
Their Reference One DAC is a monster, if the exchange rate keeps improving a bit it might take a bit of force to stop me ordering one.
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The Ref One is certainly a "monster" but unfortunately it was more than what I was prepared to pay, $1600 + (incl del), the 19MK3 cost me $583.44 (with Mode B) delivered, which will give me a good improvement over the ZeroDAC, which for its price is good value for money. But maybe sometime in the future if the exchange rates are favourable it might become feasable...
 
Is a separate DAC really any better than the DAC in my amp (Yamaha DSP-861)? Optical out from my x-fi extreme music.

Stereo music is something I'm looking to improve, but assumed my Yammy wasnt up to it. Sounds incredible for films, but lacking separation for music.
 
Chris1712 said:
Is a separate DAC really any better than the DAC in my amp (Yamaha DSP-861)? Optical out from my x-fi extreme music.
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God, yes! Av amps contain fairly poor dacs generally, though av processors tend to be much better. Think about what you're paying for with an av amp like the yamaha. £600 or so buys you 7 channels of fairly powerful amplification, dolby, dts and hdmi licensing as well the chips for processing, a large chassis with a massive array of connections, video scalers, and 8 DACs for 8 channels of sound. So these are going to be pretty cheap DACs compared to standalone stereo DACs with only two channels of sound. At the end of the day you get what you pay for.
 
So whats the dealio with them?

If I wanted to run one of an optical cable, then rca into my amp for stereo music. Do any of them have a pass through of some sort to carry DTS/DD? I spose I could send that separately via HDMI if I had to though.

Is it worth getting one <£100?
 
jbloggs said:
The Ref One is certainly a "monster" but unfortunately it was more than what I was prepared to pay, $1600 + (incl del), the 19MK3 cost me $583.44 (with Mode B) delivered, which will give me a good improvement over the ZeroDAC, which for its price is good value for money. But maybe sometime in the future if the exchange rates are favourable it might become feasable...
Click to expand...

Be interested to hear your findings on the 19MK3 it should be a nice upgrade, and yeh the Ref 1 is a chunk of money but it seems pretty good value in comparison to some of the high end commercial DACS. Would love to hear one soon but not sure how that's going to happen.
 
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