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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
wolf_garcia
6,608 posts
 
Try this...a DACMagic with the $99 Pangea P100 power supply. I've been a fan of the DACMagic for a while using the balanced outs and high quality cable all around (a key factor in my experience)...even after schlepping it to a friend's house to compare it to much pricier stuff. The P100 really kicks it up into another level (Sam Tellig raves about P100 in the new Stereophile)...in my case at total cost of around $400 for both (used DACMagics are plentiful) I'm blown away with the sound.
tonyangel OP
309 posts
 
Wolf, I thought about trying that, but I just don't know what the purpose would be. The addition of the power supply would have to make a pretty big difference to make the DacMagic sound better than the XDA-1 in my system.

From a practical point of view, I just can't see spending $400 to wind up with something that sounds as good as what I have, but does less, for more money.

I know that I have very limited experience with this stuff, but I think the XDA-1 is a heck of a bargain.
wolf_garcia
6,608 posts
 
The DACMagic was improved by the new power supply but since I've never heard an XDA-1 I really can't say if it would do anything for you, other than make you more like me and nobody needs that! I do think Emotiva is a pretty hip company...and the XDA-1 seems like pretty cool design for 249 bucks!
tonyangel OP
309 posts
 
Unfortunately, it is the 249 bucks that has me second guessing the XDA-1. When I did the A/B comparisons with the V-Dac and DacMagic, I only compared the units themselves, without doing any cable swapping. I was very surprised that I not only liked the sound of the XDA-1 better, but a lot better.

I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that such an inexpensive piece of equipment compared so favorably in my system.

At this point, I don't think that I'm ready to take the plunge into a $1K+ DAC (considering my primary source), but I am toying with the idea of giving the rDAC and DAC*it a try as well.
waxwaves's avatar
waxwaves
206 posts
 
This an older thread but had to put in my 2cents...the only "budget" dac that I have found that can outperform the Emotiva XDA-1 is the PS Audio DL III. All other budget dacs that I have tried, including DacMagic, MF, Peachtree, and several others failed to sound as good to me as XDA-1 in my McCormack/Hales/Wadia/Oppo setup. The DL III was just a tad smoother and more coherant in it's presentation of the music.
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