logical steps up from DacMagic?

It is a great sounding sounding piece of gear that upsamples and handles 24 bit material. It does everything very well and even offers fully differential balanced outs. There are people who prefer it to the Benchmark too- even one semi professional shootout if I recall.

I dont own it, but I had a friend go out of town for 2 weeks who let me use it and I was blown away by how good it sounded. Very resolving but also had a touch of warmth and sweetness. My first impression was "wow this thing sounds like really expensive digital". Their 640p phono unit is equally astounding IMO. These two products are game changers.

If you had a few thousand to spend than okay,- maybe you can justify but at the end of the day digital sources vary in sound by very small amounts when compared to analog pieces and especially speakers. If you dont like the sound of your system or feel something is lacking change your speakers. Your amp has enough juice for you to have many options.

$.02

I agree with Robr45. Sure, you can go blow a chunk of change on a much more expensive DAC, but where does that leave the rest of your system.

Before you jump off a cliff, ask yourself (and then tell us) what you think is missing, or what's there that you don't like in your system. Is it too harsh? Low end too boomy? Small sound stage?

People will aimlessly throw out DAC options, but at best those represent what they like, and at worst, what they sell and are trying to get you to buy. In the past I've sold off very expensive DACs, and replaced them with humbler units and gotten more enjoyable sound. Then I'll change another piece of equipment, and all of a sudden find things don't blend anymore. Go slow and make notes of your listening, then post your findings.

A friend of mine went from DacMagic to MF V-Dac. He is very happy. Even though V-DAC is an inexpensive DAC, HiFi Critic rated it much higher than both DacMagic and Benchmark DAC1.

Elberoth2 - You can always find reviewer that likes one DAC more than other. Look what abouthifi.com said about it in very long detailed review of V-DAC

"As for the V-DAC’s status versus Benchmark’s DAC 1, the latter clearly held its advantage in every critical domain, as in definition, pace and dynamic response, giving this comparison an academic character, perfectly justifiable by an 8x price leap."

According to Stereophile Bel Canto DAC3 is even better than Benchmark for much more money. There is, of course, issue of personal taste (some like upsampling, some like NOS) but there is some correlation between price and quality. Audio Note kit DAC comes in few versions where sound quality and price depends on components used.

As for V-DAC being better than DAC Magic or just everything being all the same - according to mentioned review V-DAC and DAC Magic sound completely different (soundstaging)

Read review: http://www.abouthifi.com/review.php?s=t2c

With all due respect, but noone at abouthifi has the experience, expertise and reputation Martin Colloms of HiFi Critic has.