To Dac or not to Dac

Put that $500 towards better speakers or save your cash.

If you're just looking for improvement on your CD player, I'd say it's not worth it. I don't think you can get any significant improvement putting a $500 DAC on your approximately $350 NAD CD player.

For me, to use a DAC on my Cambridge Audio 650C (bought for $500), to get any significant improvements would've cost me at least $1800 new (Simaudio Moon 300D), plus the money for a good S/PDIF interconnect. I tried the Moon 100D ($600) as well as the Cambridge Audio DacMagic, and neither delivered anything close to significant differences. For the two less expensive DACs, if it was a blind test, I would've offered maybe $75 for the improvements I heard.

Unless your CD player is terrible, or you know of a DAC for $500 that outperforms the $1800 Moon 300D, save your money for something that actually makes a difference.

If, however, you just want access to other formats from other sources (e.g., audio from a computer), then perhaps the Cambridge Audio DacMagic would justify itself for you (whichever model you choose). You should be able to find one of those under $500.

I got more out of my CD player from a LessLoss DFPC Signature (power cord @ $1149) than I did from the $1800 Moon 300D.

At the time of these auditions, the rest of my 2-channel setup looked like this:
Focal 816V (floorstanding loudspeakers)
Kimber 4TC (loudspeaker cable)
Yamaha RX-A3010 (amp)
Kimber PBJ (interconnect)
Cambridge Audio 650C (CD player)
2 LessLoss DFPC Originals (power cords: 1 on source; 1 on amp)

Well I settled on the Micromega MyDac because it had 3 different inputs and I got it new for $369. Got it today and will try it out tomorrow. It will also help me with my old laptop that I want to try as a music server. Always good to have new toys to play with. I don't know if I made clear, but this is a 2nd system in my exercise room.

Looking forward to reading about what things you hear.

Aaron