Magnepan .7 Alternatives

Hey, I’m back… Had to fly up to NJ for my mother in law’s funeral and couldn’t get a flight back to Florida due to the Hurricane…Got back on Sunday to minimal damage and once situated took Jonny R’s advice from Audio Connection and ran the Bluesound Node 2i directly to the Odyssey amp and no difference.

I need to elaborate, my system sounds great and I confirmed with Klaus over at Odyssey Audio that the the amp is 22k not 10k as Johnny R had mentioned.

The issue seems to be the output quality of the Bluesound Node 2i from the source I’m streaming, which is Amazon Prime Music, sounds great a majority of the time but other times ugh!  My (2) REL T5x subs couldn’t be dialed in more perfectly and complement the .7 Maggi’s beautifully. 

I called and spoke with Johnny R over at Audio Connection, his suggestion was to use an amp with more input impedance, more like 100k to really make the Maggi’s shine, unfortunately this is the amp I’ve got and to tell you the truth, I really like the amp, so no plans in the immediate future to switch it out. His reasoning was he felt the tube preamp, my tubes4hifi SP-13’s ability was limited by the Odyssey’s lower 22k input impedance. I can’t say enough how much I really like how my Odyssey Khartago Extreme sounds and is a keeper. 

We did agree adding a better DAC than what’s in the Bluesound Node to the chain would significantly improve what I’m feeding the preamp then amp, thus making a better listening experience when streaming.

So here’s my question, Can anyone recommend an inexpensive DAC that’s a step up above the Bluesound Node’s in the $300-$500 dollar range that I’d hear a significant difference with?  That’s all I can swing right now, so I’d like hear your thoughts / suggestions . 

DAC’s like the Ifi units in my price range pretty much are a lateral move, so please keep that in mind.

My mistake … My Bluesound Node is the N130 not the 2i 

So here’s my question, Can anyone recommend an inexpensive DAC that’s a step up above the Bluesound Node’s in the $300-$500 dollar range that I’d hear a significant difference with? That’s all I can swing right now, so I’d like hear your thoughts / suggestions

significant difference over node n130 at $300-500 price point for an outboard dac? don’t think its gonna happen

closer to a grand, particularly if bought used... yes, definitely...

At that price point for a DAC, you’re squarely in Topping and SMSL territory. Looked down by many here, but I like them, they’re in my modest wheelhouse. Just got a SMSL DO100, an entry level DAC, but I must say it sounds mighty fine, fully transparent with shimmery highs and solid driving lows, as well as smooth midrange. Measures perfectly, if that means anything to you, probably around 30 dB higher in SINAD than what you have now. Listening through my MMGs with Airborne Magna Risers is an awesome experience, oodles of detail from top to bottom. A couple of recordings are bright or sharp, but that’s just bad mastering. Should be thankful to have a system resolving enough to tell the difference.

But with such a high resolution and high fidelity source, have to be careful that your preamp isn’t a bottleneck. I compared between going through my tube pre, a Rogue Metis, and straight into my amp through balanced connections, and it’s clearly better without the pre, which was a bit of a bummer for me. Not even using my good old buddy right now which has served me well for so many years, and my precious turntable isn’t hooked up either. Plan on alleviating that soon, the Topping Pre90 is on my Christmas list. But right now I’m in digital audio nirvana, something I thought wasn’t possible a short time ago. I would go for either SMSL DO100 or DO200 for best bang for buck. The DO200 adds MQA and some tone control presets.