Draging the thread back to the begin, just for a moment, i just wanted to point out the cost effectiveness of the the DAC magic 2, and in fact all of the dac magic series.
Probably not know is that the dacmagic series contained a pair of Philips TDA 1305 "18-bit" hybrid chips, as used by the naim cd3.5, the biggest let down of the series is that of its other components, mostly to keep costs down.
But a keen minded person, with a low budget and a hand soldering iron, can easily upgrade the components, giving them an unrivaled dac for the money.
you can find the dac's info at this link, and the pdf document, from the link at the bottom of the page: http://www.gbaudio.co.uk/data/dac2.htm
Sorry to be a pain!
This is true Leeroy, but I find the "bog standard" 2i MkII sounds pretty damned lovely even before the mods, a well specced and nice connected little DAC in the first place, I mean XLR outputs on a £100 DAC !!!!, built like a tank too. Lovely device, I got mine for upgrading a Free box to my Primare amp via the XLR balanced outputs and Ive tried it as a CD source off an old DVD player, very very nice to my ears.
Neither Richer Sounds nor CA's websites list any DACs at all.
If it isn't, what would be a good alternative?
I got a Cyrus DAC X last week:
http://www.cyrusaudio.com/product.asp?ProductID=5
The only reason I am mentioning it is because I was looking for a high quality DAC with multiple, switchable inputs. The DAC X has four coaxial and two optical inputs, and so I have four devices connected already (CD, DAB, DVD, DTT). When I was researching DACs this seems to be very unusual. Most only have a couple of inputs, which is not very future proof, and in reality the majority expect you to only use one input. The DAC X will accept anything up to 192KHz sample rate on any input, which makes it slightly more future proof. It upsamples lower speeds to 192KHz/24 bit before the filtering and analogue conversion. Also it sounds spectacular, but that probably goes without saying. The downsides are the price, lack of remote control and unless you have other Cyrus gear it's an odd size, but nevertheless for anyone who is looking for a high quality DAC which can be used as a digital switching centre, check it out.
And don't forget, anyone who's after a pre-amplifier as well, you have the DAC-XP, which includes a built in pre-amp with the DAC-X, killing two birds with one stone. Just an option. And both can be upgraded with a PSX-R, so two Cyrus boxes side by side will take up a full width shelfdata:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Yep if you have multiple digital sources, most DACs only supply 1 or 2 inputs (there are a few exceptions like the TAG DAC 20 which accepts 7) but the market has a few products now (like the Cyrus kit) which has multiple digital inputs & pre-amplifier ability. Here is a piece of kit that is worth investigating :
http://www.stello.com.au/pi_DP200.htm
http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/stello_dp200.htm
http://www.shadowaudio.co.uk/products/category_product_details.asp?prodID=526
As are digital pre-amp like the TAG DPA32R, AV32R, AV192R & Linn AV5103.
I'm modding a Dacmagic at the moment, pretty much done actually. I followed the article posted above more or less.
I agree that it sounds good in stock form, but it sounds absolutely awsome when modded data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7highly recommended, althought the board is a bit of a pig to work on, so takes a bit of time.
Bought mine on ebay for £25 and have spent about £120 on components....bargain of the centuarydata:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
Hi anyone know of a DAC with a multi channel in and out (if one exists)?
I would like one for my SACD player also if it was in silver that would also be great so to match the rets of my AV set up.
I am very new to DAC's and very short on cash so a simple one that costs less than £150 would be useful for me.
If it helps I have a Sony SCD-XE597 SACD player and a Sony STR-DE698 AV reciever.
No such beast exists. Your kit will work with a conventional 2 channel DAC for CD but not SACD.
Thought I'd do a quick heads up for the people who always thought the Benchmark Dac1 was a bit out of their price range, Digital Village are shipping the rackmounts for an astonishing £670!That's only slightly more than I sold mine for second hand.Snap 'em up.
http://www.dv247.com/invt/21187/