1. Home
  2. digital
  3. 198372-223892

Standalone DAC upgrade from onboard integrated

It’s about time I posted, I’ve been following long enough. I want to bypass the onboard DAC (Burr Brown) in my new Musical Fidelity M6si integrated with a standalone DAC to drive my Magnepan 1.7x’s. Budget is $1-2k. First issue: can I realize an appreciable improvement over the onboard DAC in the M6 with a unit in that price range? Second issue: I love the detail, clarity and imaging I get from the Maggies, but I don’t want them to get too clinical with a new DAC. Hence, I’ve been looking mostly at R2R typology to keep the “musicality”, perhaps at the expense of some precision. My listening tastes are mostly jazz, classical, with some vocals thrown in. Sources are about 50% streaming, 30% vinyl and 20% CD. Other components include Blusound Node, Marantz TT-15/Clearaudio Virtuoso and a 5 year old Marantz CD player. All insights or suggestions welcome.

phydo
mm1tt77
255 posts
 

I have the LTA Aero DAC and it’s phenomenal.  The ability to change the character with different tubes is also awesome.  Highly recommend the DAC.

netsullivc
4 posts
 

Reading the postings especially Soix your comments. I have a analog and digital parallel setup. The digital is flac of the laptop into a usb 2.0 connection in a fiio K15 gad to save for into a whammy and cans. I love the style and design effort put into the K15 its an awesome retro machine. Also its clear and detailed courtesy of the late model akm chips. However switching from my analogue mc table into an otl tube headphone amp, the digital setup is just lifeless. It completely lacks musicality, it terms of dynamics, rythm and beat and fully fails to draw me into my cd ripped flac collection. Fiddled with everything, to no avail. I like the clarity, detail and easy soundstage of the digital but its just so dry. I wonder is tgere an affordable kit to solve the problem, or save few k for a upmarket r2r like cyan 2 - will it have life, detail, dynamic and really entice the listener in or simply give up keep investing in analogue?

pennpencil
143 posts
 

If you want R2R, Laiv Harmony is great and in your price ballpark.

peter_s
1,439 posts
 

Check out the Gustard R26 v2.    Check reviews.  

franktc55's avatar
franktc55
27 posts
 

I recently purchased the MF Nu-vista 800 and added the Holo Spring3 DAC.

the voltage.out put on the Spring’s outputs.is double of the Nu-Vista 800 inputs. The resulting sound output was obviously distorted. I didn’t expect to have any issues and MF doesn’t publish that spec in their owners manual.

I had to add attenuators to the XLRs on the Nu-Visia side. An expense, and issue I did not foresee. Apparently, a common issue with MF.

More to discover