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.
I really like my Denefrips Pontus 15 DAC and I highly recommend the Denefrips Hermes re-clocker to straighten out the signal feed from your streaming provider. Both of these units are extremely well made and you can feel this by the weight of each unit. A little pricey but compared to others....a super value overall. If your on a budget, the Wiim Ultra is a excellent value for the money.
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@ericrhodes1 not sure what your system is but in my system the Pontus 15 is anything but clinical. In fact, quite the opposite. I find it more analog like with fantastic details than my previous PS Audio Dac. I found a fantastic deal on the Pontus 15 so pulled the trigger. Very satisfied and from what I've read it's hard to beat anywhere near its price and a few thousand above. |
@samzx12 in context, it's more clinical than the Ares II I've owned previously. |
Maybe I missed it in the above discussions, but may I ask are both the streamer and CD player run into your MF DAC? If so, what outputs from each into what DAC inputs? And then, what cables are you using? Please correct me if I am wrong, but the MF6si only has an USB digital input? I have an Emotiva ERC-4 CD player; it has balanced outs, so that is what you should be using into the integrated amp. If that is the case, then you can try something without spending more money on a DAC. Your ERC-4 is also a DAC. The Emotiva ERC-4 features two dedicated digital inputs, allowing it to function as a standalone DAC for external sources. It includes one Coaxial (S/PDIF) and one Optical (Toslink) input, both supporting stereo PCM audio up to 24-bit/192kHz. The unit does not feature a USB input. So you could try to route you digital output from your streamer into the Emotiva digital inputs (preferably S/PDIF Coax) and then into your balance analog input on the 6si, thus bypassing it's DAC. Then, if that doesn't improve the sound you should pursue buying an outboard DAC of your choosing. Good luck! |
