I bought another P100 for my 640P phono preamp...I love those damned things. Seems to make the 640P warmer and more accurate...or something...and having 2 P100s next to each other in the back of my rack looks like the headlights in some space vehicle that landed there. A nice, somewhat mysterious vibe. Combined with the red filter I stuck on my Littlite, there is now a more serious red/blue theme happening...holiday appropriate!
Praise for DacMagic
Just wanted to give some very positive feedback for the Cambridge Audio DacMagic DAC. It doesn't seem to get much attention around these forums, but I am enjoying it immensely. In my opion, terrific value for the money.
During the past few weeks, I have used it with great success both within a PC music server and 2-channel environments.
Who knows, I may end up switching it out for a better DAC in the future, but for now I am quite pleased.
As a side note, I was not impressed with it at first when used to enhance an NAD C541 CDP. On a whim, I switched out the NAD for a modest Sony DVD player that is around 5-7 years old. Then, everything came into place and the music was rich and detailed. The Sony DVD/DacMagic combination blew the doors off the NAD/DacMagic combination. Go figure...
During the past few weeks, I have used it with great success both within a PC music server and 2-channel environments.
Who knows, I may end up switching it out for a better DAC in the future, but for now I am quite pleased.
As a side note, I was not impressed with it at first when used to enhance an NAD C541 CDP. On a whim, I switched out the NAD for a modest Sony DVD player that is around 5-7 years old. Then, everything came into place and the music was rich and detailed. The Sony DVD/DacMagic combination blew the doors off the NAD/DacMagic combination. Go figure...
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They are available in Canada - and I'm tempted, but I'll wait for the 768kHz up-sampling version. It will probably take them around 3 years to bring out the next gen with some really significant improvement Or perhaps they will update the streaming technology on their DVD players so I can have a single unit to also replace my Dacmagic, Apple TV and CD player Their BR players have some of this but lack the Internet streaming at present that the apple TV provides. |
Look what they've done to the DAC Magic Plus Changed the damn Power supply to 12v DC!!! What a PITA! I won't be getting one of those any time soon Still I do have enough room in my new power supply case to add a rectifier bridge later on I suppose. You can buy 12V DC supplies pretty cheap, but getting perfect DC with no rippling will be the challenge Have to wait for Pangea to come up with changes to their P100 |
Well - I'm in the process of building my Mk II power supply and I was looking for a really good "screened" cable for the 12V AC to the Dacmagic (and the 640p). Trouble is the good copper leads are too heavy a gauge for the little DC connectors! Then I though about the braided power cables and how their geometry deals with RF very effectively. THOUGHT: Hey! - Kimber makes braided cable! So I purchased 3 ft of their smallest gauge (of cheapest line) speaker cable and fitted the connectors - Voila! NOTE:- This works because it's ONLY 12V DO NOT TRY THIS WITH A 120V CORD! Now I know the "Power Cord Debate" rages across AG, but all I can say is... H__O_L_Y______C_O_W !!!..... OK, so it was a more like BL**** H***! HUGE 3D sound stage, incredible details, pinpoint accuracy (NO! - I mean PINPOINT) and amazing natural sound. But get this - as soon as I turned it on! NO WARM UP! Just how good can the Dacmagic get? ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT! Best $400 I've ever spent! FYI - the MK II Power Supply will have 2 toroid transformers (Dacmagic + 640P) and vastly upgraded wiring and connectors in a single case. This is one upgrade I am really looking forward to :-))) |
I got a regulated power supply for my Apogee Mini-DAC and made up a connecting cable from leftover Rat Shack speaker wire. Sound turned out not as good as my battery supply. A bit harsh and edgy. I made up a second 12V cable using cryo-treated Mogami quad-core. This new cable made the sound with the regulated PS just as good as the sound with the battery. Weird huh? |
Not Really - better cable - better sound! Rat Shack speaker cable is not great quality your battery is a very stable DC supply (no waveform distortions), providing it has the capacity to deliver the required current peaks it will sound better. DC supplies are quite different form AC supplies - they have to have a stable DC voltage AND be able to supply instant demands for current. Try the Mogami with the battery it will be even better The Mogami - provided the ability to supply the instant current requirements that the Rat Shack could not. Try a bigger battery for even better results My Kimber leads are amazing - very dynamic! |
NEW DACMagic Plus is now almost out. Shown at CES, according to my local CA folks. Adds headphone out and vol. control. Vol control can ALSO go to outs which are still balanced and unbalanced. Can you say minimum system? New DACMagic also has an input for a BlueTooth dongle for use in a BlueTooth system! Add the Async USB input, 2 channels of optical/coax, the selectible filters and how could you miss? I'm seriously going to check this out. |
Sop1 - the Pyramid PS3Kx appears to be a 12v DC and the original Dacmagic is 12v AC - so they are NOT compatible. However, the new Dacmagic Plus is 12v DC - according to the user manual on the CA website, so it is compatible How well it works depends on the build quality of the transformer and rectifier in the power supply (there is a huge variance across power supplies) and how much noise it introduces. The cable you use to hook it up is extremely important. I started using some 14 awg speaker cable, then changed to Kimber speaker wire - very high quality copper - amazing difference in sound! You may experience some humming from the actual power supply unit, since $30 would only buy you a pretty basic transformer which tend to hum at the mains frequncy. But, I did run run mine for a couple of months with a basic transformer (not the one you mentioned) and the hum did not get through to the analogue sound circuits. I purchased these DC connectors from Ebay, which worked extremely well on mine. They grip the cable like a vice! http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150602258980 They took about a week to arrive. |
Sop1 - here's another possible GOTCHA! Beware of 12V AC power supplies that use an "electronic transformer" When I was looking for a transformer I came across these "electronic transformers" used in 12v halogen lighting and discovered they may not give you a perfect sine wave and could cause problems in the DAC. Much like a DAC assembling the audio signal, they build the sine wave, but the applications they are intended for do not require a perfect sine wave, so they don't bother to try! The other problem is they might not handle the instantaneous peaks required in analogue audio, i.e. like a good old iron cored transformer would! So the DAC would sound like CR*&! If you are not a DIYer the Pangea is the best option I have seen at present. Let me know if you see something else |