Dac's? anyone tried the new Cambridge Dacmagic-B

My wife couldn't bear to make me wait. I've received my unit in black and am breaking it in now.

Details:

Speakers: B&W DM 610s
Amplifier: Musical Fidelity B1
Sound files: .flac
Software: JRiver Media Player / ASIO4All

Upon opening the box, I had three thoughts:

1) The unit seems reasonably well built. The case and controls feel solid
2) It comes with a wall wart--I wonder if this results in less interference by having the power supply away from the unit or if that was a cost-cutting measure
3) I don't believe that I've ever seen such a cheap USB cable in my life.

So, I connected the unit with a better USB cable, and played the Dead Can Dance Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove. I was floored by the imaging and sound stage. The latter exceeded the dimensions of my listening room. Next, I played the Chemical Brothers Setting Sun. With both of these excerpts, I was very impressed with tight controlled bass.

Before listening to more demanding music, I created a play list of very eclectic music and let the DAC run for about 36 hours. I played a number of excerpts (William Grant Still's Afro-American Symphony, Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, CPE Bach's Symphonia, & etc.) and was disappointed in the somewhat harsh nature of the highs. The bass continued to be extraordinarily well behaved, and the mids were quite warm.

I let the unit play for another 30 hours or so, and while the highs still seem a touch harsh, they seem to be mellowing somewhat. I am hoping that trend will continue.

I'll keep you posted,

Audiobroke,
Did you use the 840c as a seperate dac. If so can you highlight some of the differences between the magic and 840c as DAC's?
Beerad

A package from Audio Adviser arrived yesterday. Birthday in T minus 6 days....

I recently ordered one and was told it's on backorder.

It's a very nice piece for the price for sure. The Cambridge 840c player sounds a touch better, but you can't beat the value. Build quality is fine in my opinion and even better than you'd expect for $399. Music Hall has one comming out too though that should be pretty sweet at $595. It will have a tube output stage, and a built in headphone amp. You can't beat the value there! It's definately time though that somebody made a good DAC for under a grand!

I've decided on the dacMagic. My wife has ordered one for my birthday, so now it's waiting time...

I'm using it with Squeezebox and it's a huge improvement over squeezebox DAC and sounds nearly as good as my Rega Apollo. Very neutral which may make it sound bit detached which is a good contrast to my Apollo which tends to be bit too warm at times. Wonder how this stacks against more expensive DACs ~ $1000?

I haven't listened to it yet, but I am trying to decide between the new DacMagic and the Scott Nixon USB.UFO.JF. I really don't know what to do...

Great DAC use it to upgrade sonics of marantz cd 67se. No downside just improvement in soundstage and the ability to bring out subtle details that I have previously missed in familiar recordings. Well worth the minor investment especially as I was willing to write off a large number of cds as unlistenable (older recordings from early cd productions}. I also plan to try to revive the sonics of a marantz changer as I really like the ability to load up to five cds and sit back and enjoy without getting up to reload. I would highly recommend. I have 4 independent systems. Different areas of my house from tubes to solid state with and without autoformers.

works excellent for me using it with ps3

Wow. Mine is great, solid, big soundstage. use it with a AR vt-60. and Acoustic energy AE-2's. Micromega transport. Very nice. At the price range how could you bash it?

Just returned the one I had after a week,bought it to try to spring some life into my old Pioneer Elite player,no improvment at all. Made in china and very cheap,the power cord is the type you get with a $50 cell phone.Im sure it would work great on a PC,as for it being a "GREAT BARGIN"....buy one,look at the way its made,have a listen, and you be the judge.IMHO the only people calling this thing a bargin are the ones selling it.I have a Benchmark DAC1 on loan,its twice the price and ten times the DAC,and it will still be around in five years.

I agree. It's a very good DAC at a bargain price.

I have had mind for a couple of weeks now and I think it sounds flat wonderful. I think this is going to be on a lot of "bargain of the year" lists.

Good Morning,
This is a great sounding piece. The DacMagic is due to arrive at the end of October. We have many on order and are looking forward to the arrival. This will be a tough one to keep in stock. Fantastic performance and flexibility at a great price-point.
Dan

They are brand new and we haven't received our pre-order shipment yet from our distributor. It sounds very interesting for sure. What HiFi? really liked it, but I don't put a whole lot of stock into reviews. But here it is anyways:

http://whathifi.com/Review/Cambridge-Audio-DacMagic/