2. digital
  3. 1326429460

To DAC or not to DAC

I have somewhat of a dilemma. I got an Amazon gift card for Christmas and had forgotten about it. I just ran across it and have to spend some money. I kind of got all up into doing the digital thing, starting off with a Sonos unit, but I think that I want to run down the road of some quality CD music.

I'm currently running an XDA-1 DAC. Right or wrong, I kind of view it as being a budget solution, but it's doing fine as the converter for my Sonos and Apple TV. My dilemma is whether I should get something along the lines of a decent CD player in the form of a Cambridge Audio 550C and either run that through my XDA-1 or get a better DAC. The second choice would be to get something like the 650C which has dual DACs and just run that straight through the analog outs.

I guess what I'm asking is, will I get better results with the 550C and an external dac or with getting the 650C using its internal DACs.

My next question is whether something like a DacMagic would be an upgrade from the XDA-1, if I go the route of the 550C and external dac. For that matter, would the internal dac of the 550C be better than either the XDA-1 or the DacMagic?

I'm just lost.

Thanks.
tonyangel

Showing 1 response by vicdamone

vicdamone
850 posts
 
I posted this experience over on AA. A friend who's been using a new and very popular USB DAC found what looks like a DIY DAC housed in a generic aluminum chassis dated 2005. My friend says the output stage seems way over built.

By comparison this old DAC with one coaxial input sounds noticeably better than the modern design.

Musical Fidelity's V-DAC II might be a perfect example. An asynchronous 24bit 192kHz USB DAC under $500 seems to be the current goal. While the V-DAC II now passes 192kHz through its USB input I still question their definition of asynchronous.

Unfortunately, the ability to make these claims does not automatically mean it's going to actually sound good. As with many of the components we already use the overall circuit design and the analog output stage have a great deal to do with the sound of a DAC. Tonyangel seems to have found out first hand that there's no free lunch.

The one thing I lose sight of is that 99% of my digital listening will be of ripped CD's which are 16-41kHz limited just how important is the future of hi-res downloading to me.

Not exactly in the sub $1K DAC market but some interesting reviews regarding overall sound quality.

nekoaudio.com
http://dhost.info/mhdtlab/
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