Praise for DacMagic

Any new thoughts on the DAC Magic?

I recently upgraded my speakers to Ohm Micro Walsh Talls which are connected to a Parasound AVC-1800 and HCA-2205 amp. I find that my old Sony DVD player isn't quite cutting it in relation to the rest of the system.

I'm on the fence regarding Blu-Ray/SACD, and am thinking that committing to new formats isn't such a good idea for me if I can improve on redbook with a DAC. I listen exclusively in 2-channel anyway, and won't make the best use fancier formats.

Any further opinions on the DAC Magic would be great!

Hello! i just acquired Dac Magic recently and mated this with an old cheap Marantz cc-3000 5 carousel for my 2nd system ( all s/s) and th result is good very satisfactory and few days ago just received a new Harmonic Technology Digital copper and even sounded better.Now i have to break it in the cable for the better.
You cant go wrong with Dac Magic....you hear the magic!

Well, I've been struggling to appreciate my Dacmagic, but I'm about ready to ditch it. It's OK, overall, and it does do certain things better then the dac in my cdp, but in my system, there's something in the midrange that irritates me. It's like an electronic sounding coloration, and I'm also hearing some sybilance. It may be subtle, but I think using Maggies makes it stand out. So far I've not been able to sit through a whole CD without changing back to my cdp's output. The unit is plenty broken in, and I've tried various cables, but no luck. It's all about system synergy, and in my rig, it's been a frustration, so far. I was really hoping adding the Dacmagic would be an upgrade, but's it's been a lateral move, at best.

Yeah, if your gonna add it to a cdp with a crap dac, you'll probably be pleased, but it all depends on what you have for comparason.

I have the dacmagic hooked up via USB from a Dell notebook (Vista), running audioquest copperhead to a NAD c372. This is my 2nd system, used in the computer room. In the room I also have 2 universal dvd players that connect directly to the NAD, not via the dacmagic. This is because all the music I listen to is on the hard drive, and I have no reason to play CD via the dacmagic. I do play sacd and dvd-audio straight to the NAD in 2-channel, and those sound very good. I have tried both units via the dacmagic to play CD as a test, and it was an improvement over both units in CD playback, but not as good as listening from the hard drive.

Sometimes I take the notebook and dacmagic and connect to my main system to see how it sounds, and it sounds very good. But again, playing music from the hard drive.

I also have a CA 840C in my main system, and it's built in DAC is better than that of the dacmagic, but no surprise there.

However, even though the 840C is better sounding, if I had never heard the 840C I would have been satisfied using the dacmagic on the main system.

The dacmagic is a good unit, and beats hands down any outboard sound card I have tried with the notebook. I am very happy with the unit. Anyone with a PC with lots of music on it will like the upgrade over a sound card. BTW, all the music on the hard drive is in WAV format, either CD ripped to WAV, and a lot of vinly recorded to the hard drive in WAV. The latter works very well, and sounds much better than my CD's ripped to WAV.

Got my CA DacMagic, first impression (no fully run-in yet), it delivers a wider, deeper and more dynamic soundstage, better clarity, i can hear different depth of music with ease, it provides a very good and clear 3D sound imaging especially at mid-range (vocal) frequencies. I tried them at both digital sources, i.e. CA 540C CD player and Squeezebox Classic.

I believe it would be more warmer and musical after full run-in. I am very satisfy with its performance though it's just the first time audition.