wpines Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 Cost/Value/Sonic wonder. This $399 DAC is the single largest sonic upgrade of any component I've purchased. A fabulous value. I'm still somewhat in shock. http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/summary.php?PID=320 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audio Flynn Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 Gotta love them DACs! I like mine almost as much as I like my Belles or VRD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macallan Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 Can you explain what improvements you have noticed? I am looking at Dacs as well to pair with my Sony DVD/SACD Changer and I am looking at the Channel Island and the PS Audio DL III. I am just wondering if I will notice any improvement over the Sony DVD/SACD player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 I've never seen this product before. Very cool. I have the 640C but want the 840C because of the ability to act as a dac as well as cdp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wpines Posted November 4, 2008 Author Share Posted November 4, 2008 "I am betting that this ends up with a half dozen or more "budget component of the year" awards." Quoted from an audio asylum thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted November 4, 2008 Share Posted November 4, 2008 It is tempting. I'd like a mini mac with a 1tb of storage and run the tunes from that to the Cambridge dac. Nice price as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Lindsey Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 So it appears this can only be used with a digital connection on the input side (toslink optical or s/pdif), which I guess would make sense. I have a Denon 2900 Universal player (DVD, DVD-A, SACD, CD) as my only source for digital music that I run thru my HT system (Denon 4800), but I can also run a set of analog RCA cables from the unit into the BBX for 2-ch CD listening. This is where I would want to put the DAC, but it appears it will not work this way. Maybe I'll have to pick up a cheap CD player to be used as a transport and then purchase one of these to try and get back to my CD collection. As it stands, I haven't played a CD in over a year on my system. [] Any ideas on a reasonably priced, but good quality transport? Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshnich Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 Mike I am assuming by your post that you are currently using the toslink output for your HT. Wouldnt a toslink splitter provide you with a digital out to the dac? something like this http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat_id=102&sku=27027&cm_mmc=AdWords-_-Audio+Video+Cables-_-toslink+splitter_2464589901-_-toslink+splitter_Exact_|-|100000000000000145746&cm_guid=1-_-100000000000000145746-_-2464589901&gclid=CPC30bLu3pYCFQpuGgodm2pW2Q I am no expert on this digital stuff so I am more than likely full of it on this! I have not heard the Cambridge DAC but I have a benchmark in my system now and have to say my CD listening has increased by a large amount. I think any money spent on an expensive cd is a waste. Get a quality dac and the cheapest CDP you can find it it will best the most expensive units that I have heard. Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wpines Posted November 5, 2008 Author Share Posted November 5, 2008 Oppo DV-980 H $170 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 I didn't see ASIO in the marketing specs....does anyone know if their USB sound driver bypasses the windows kernel? The windows kernel will just destroy your sound quality because it forces everything to resample to 48kHz using a crappy algorithm... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 I didn't see ASIO in the marketing specs....does anyone know if their USB sound driver bypasses the windows kernel? The windows kernel will just destroy your sound quality because it forces everything to resample to 48kHz using a crappy algorithm... You are correct. I'd be suprised if Cambridge audio would do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macallan Posted November 6, 2008 Share Posted November 6, 2008 Has anyone compared the DacMagic to the Scott Nixon DAC or the PS Audio DL III? Also would this improve my sound from a Sony SACD/DVD player? I notice that most people are using DACS for computer audio and not DVD players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted November 6, 2008 Share Posted November 6, 2008 It has the same DAC as the Cambridge Azur 640C. I've been using this for a while it isa good CDP for the money. It is like any other Cambridge Audio product. It doesn't run on an operating system like windows or linux. I'm not DAC expert but what happens when you run a signal from a windows PC? I don't worry about Mac as much Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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