Audio Research DAC7

I have a Dac7. I bought it 3 weeks ago after comparing it to my Cambridge 840C CD player. The Cambridge replaced a Marantz 11S1. I borrowed a Dac7 from a dealer over a couple of weekends, returning it on Mondays. I was pretty certain it would not best my Cambridge, which shoots above its price quite a bit. But the increased resolution, musicality, "flow", ease of hearing the musical "nuances", was much greater for the Dac7. I still think the Cambridge is a great player, but the Dac7 is better. I was using both (aside from CD's) with my Squeezebox Duet also, on both Rhapsody and my PC hard drive based recordings. The Cambridge has 2 digital inputs, so I could compare them. Both were played into a Ref3, Ref110. After a couple of weekends however, I simply could not listen to the Cambridge without the Dac7 attached to it. It is one of those things where the Cambridge was excellent, and loved, until I lived a bit with the Dac7. Then I had to have it. It does require significant break-in, and warm up.

Hello Dbarger,

You say you replaced the 11s1 with Cambridge 840C? Is the 840C more musical than 11s1, which was a darling of Audio Asylum? I heard 11s1 too, excellent, only $3500 at the time (2005). The 11s1 had a fullness that was grounbreaking in my opinion. The 840C must be something special. Thanks for the info!

Bill

How do you connect the DAC 7 to you computer or IPOD (do you need the Wadia adapter for that?)

Thanks

Any more reports on the DAC 7?

January 2009 Hi-Fi News (British mag) has a very positive review of the DAC 7.