I'd love to know how this or the DacMagic stack up against the Yamaha CD-S700.
We've been blown away at how 'real' our music nows sounds through that CD player. Such a rich and warm sound, smooth on the treble, but clean. There is so muh more to hear on CD's than ever before.
If one of the two above sounds close, I'd be very interested. I don't like treble, and don't like that 'tap..tap..tap' cymbal that seems, on a lot of recordings with brighter gear (Marantz DR6000 recorder) to dominate and annoy.
"Better all-rounders in this price class." What might those be? It seems astoundingly inconsiderate, purposely unhelpful, for What to make this statement at the end of the review and then provide readers with no clue as to what the better DACs are.
Ditto the above. Not many reputable choices at this price point , plese enlighten us. As an owner, I would support a 5 star rating, simply because it works well and offers real options to those who do not want to invest heavily in a new CD player.
I had it hooked up to a Cambridge 640C V2. Not an outstanding CDP to begin with, so I thought the V-DAC may be able to improve on it.
Unfortunately, the output didn't blow me away. The 640C V2 sounds better to me overall. The Cambridge sounds far more urgent with classical music and has better layering, though the sound stage isn't as wide or enveloping as that in the V-DAC. Trying it on a NAD C542 also didn't work very well. The V-DAC revealed a little bit more tan the NAD, but did not sound as rich, nor did it have a stage as huge. Overall, what it did was change the output of both CDPs, but not necessarily improve them.
I ended up using the V-DAC with my computer instead, where it soundly beats my Audigy 4 sound card in terms of noise floor.
Rolled off highs and lows. It lacks air and punch to my ears. It does have a smooth analogue-like sound, but lacks the wide sound stage of better units.
I don't see it as an upgrade to a decent CD player, but will do as a PC output device.
You must be kidding? This DAC is one of the best on the market. Extremely smooth, lots of air, controlled bass extension, fast and accurate. 3D depth to soundstaging. Best of all is the price. $299 USD. Maybe the Cambridge Audio DACMagic is better? I don't know. I do know that the V-DAC is far superior than my Entech 203.2 that it is replacing.
Great little box - and thats all it is. A little black box. No sculpted casing, not carved from a single billet of military grade aluminum etc etc.
Just a good DAC in a simple box. But who wants it on display anyway? 'Ooh, what does that ugly little box do?' they ask.
'It stops my mac mini trashing the uncompressed music it streams and makes sure it doesn't sound like its being played in another room from behind a pile of mattresses' says I.
Stick it out the way and forget about it. Let this unassuming little box of tricks lock onto the signal and sweeten it. For £60 less than the DacMagic get a really good set of phono leads that match it to your system and just enjoy the music!
(BTW its not showing up in the list of components by brand)
I got this as way off getting streaming music from my mac to my hifi (Arcam Solo). I've tried the iPod connectionsand AirTunes but the sound was very flat and disappointing. With AppleTV2 taking care of the streaming but with only an optical out I needed a DAC for the line in feed into the Solo. I can honestly say my iTunes library has never sounded so good. Clearly ripped lossless CDs sound best of all, the Foals Spanish Sahara has depth and warmth that was only audible previously when playing the CD directly. Given that the only other work around involved replacing my stereo (with a NaimUniti at �2000) I think that the Musical Fidelity V-DAC is not only a very cost effective piece off kit, but also the sound quality (for this application) is great.
Comments
I'd love to know how this or the DacMagic stack up against the Yamaha CD-S700.
We've been blown away at how 'real' our music nows sounds through that CD player. Such a rich and warm sound, smooth on the treble, but clean. There is so muh more to hear on CD's than ever before.
If one of the two above sounds close, I'd be very interested. I don't like treble, and don't like that 'tap..tap..tap' cymbal that seems, on a lot of recordings with brighter gear (Marantz DR6000 recorder) to dominate and annoy.
"Better all-rounders in this price class." What might those be? It seems astoundingly inconsiderate, purposely unhelpful, for What to make this statement at the end of the review and then provide readers with no clue as to what the better DACs are.
Ditto the above. Not many reputable choices at this price point , plese enlighten us. As an owner, I would support a 5 star rating, simply because it works well and offers real options to those who do not want to invest heavily in a new CD player.
I had it hooked up to a Cambridge 640C V2. Not an outstanding CDP to begin with, so I thought the V-DAC may be able to improve on it.
Unfortunately, the output didn't blow me away. The 640C V2 sounds better to me overall. The Cambridge sounds far more urgent with classical music and has better layering, though the sound stage isn't as wide or enveloping as that in the V-DAC. Trying it on a NAD C542 also didn't work very well. The V-DAC revealed a little bit more tan the NAD, but did not sound as rich, nor did it have a stage as huge. Overall, what it did was change the output of both CDPs, but not necessarily improve them.
I ended up using the V-DAC with my computer instead, where it soundly beats my Audigy 4 sound card in terms of noise floor.
Rolled off highs and lows. It lacks air and punch to my ears. It does have a smooth analogue-like sound, but lacks the wide sound stage of better units.
I don't see it as an upgrade to a decent CD player, but will do as a PC output device.
You must be kidding? This DAC is one of the best on the market. Extremely smooth, lots of air, controlled bass extension, fast and accurate. 3D depth to soundstaging. Best of all is the price. $299 USD. Maybe the Cambridge Audio DACMagic is better? I don't know. I do know that the V-DAC is far superior than my Entech 203.2 that it is replacing.
Great little box - and thats all it is. A little black box. No sculpted casing, not carved from a single billet of military grade aluminum etc etc.
Just a good DAC in a simple box. But who wants it on display anyway? 'Ooh, what does that ugly little box do?' they ask.
'It stops my mac mini trashing the uncompressed music it streams and makes sure it doesn't sound like its being played in another room from behind a pile of mattresses' says I.
Stick it out the way and forget about it. Let this unassuming little box of tricks lock onto the signal and sweeten it. For £60 less than the DacMagic get a really good set of phono leads that match it to your system and just enjoy the music!
(BTW its not showing up in the list of components by brand)
I fined a Valab NOS for $200 a remarkably good sounding DAC.
I got this as way off getting streaming music from my mac to my hifi (Arcam Solo). I've tried the iPod connectionsand AirTunes but the sound was very flat and disappointing. With AppleTV2 taking care of the streaming but with only an optical out I needed a DAC for the line in feed into the Solo. I can honestly say my iTunes library has never sounded so good. Clearly ripped lossless CDs sound best of all, the Foals Spanish Sahara has depth and warmth that was only audible previously when playing the CD directly. Given that the only other work around involved replacing my stereo (with a NaimUniti at �2000) I think that the Musical Fidelity V-DAC is not only a very cost effective piece off kit, but also the sound quality (for this application) is great.