A combination of Dacmagic and ultraviolet has brought my laptop to life. My cds sound very detailed with vocals to the front of the sound stage with good stereo.Thanks for good advise.Money well spent.
from what I remember you can't use external DACs with Naim CD players as Naim are of the opinion that their internal Dacs to the job well enough. The 5 pin Din is almost unique to Naim and carries Analogue signals only usually to a Naim amplifier. Hope that helps.
I connected the DacMagic to my Mac and my headphone amp to the DacMagic. Great sound. Be sure to give it plenty of burn in time. It really improves after 100 hours.
I'm not a HiFi snob or someone who has the need for the latest and best kit, but a regular guy who appreciates good quality sound. For £230 the DacMagic is a musical marvel and will make a huge difference to a budget system. The DacMagic has turned my 20 year old SONY amp with it's Tannoy Mercury F4 Customs into a gem of a performer. The sound stage is wide with instruments sounding like they are floating in front of you. To start with it sounded a little bright at the top end, but I’ve got a small room which is prone to this and it’s nothing you can't control by using the appropriate filter and selecting suitable speaker cable. It works wonders with a set of Cable Company Crimson Plus, with very clear rounded sound, and it’s British. After getting the DacMagic even my cat sits and listens to my music, so maybe it should be renamed the CatMagic! My source is lossless and 320Kb MP3 files from my custom made, near silent desktop.
I've been running a Squeezebox 3 through a Beresford to Nait2 to Neat Motive2 for a while now and have been contented with the sound. It is definitely an improvement over the bare SB3. The Beresford is punchy, clear and has good timing but something was missing... A depth and richness that I have now found with the DacMagic! What a fantastic machine! The Beresford is fantastic value for money but its construction appears very cheap in comparison to the DacMagic. If headphones is a necessity then get the Beresford, otherwise the DacMagic is a superior machine in my opinion and worth the extra outlay. Listening to more music than ever. Great buy.
Hi Does anybody know the best way to connect a dac magic to a naim nait 5i? All the reviews say the dacmagic is much better when using the balanced outputs, but on the back of my amp is a 5pin din? Thanks in advance for any help - cheers - Nick
I've been using the Musical Fidelity V-DAC on my AV system. Creek OBH-22 pre and A42 power amp, Epos ELS-3 speakers, Oppo BDP-83 Bluray player, TivX M-6500A, Satellite Dish VIP622 receiver, Sony KDL-52W4100 HDTV. I think the V-DAC is a great sounding component, everything sounds detailed, rich, lots of 3D depth to the soundstage, very engaging and musical. I'm not sure if the DacMagic would improve my system sound for what it is, especially for the higher price. The layout and schema of where the jacks are located are better on the DacMagic than the V-DAC. Having the inputs and outputs on opposite sides of the box is a bit "messy".
Like the previous reviewer, I added a CA Dacmagic to my Squeezebox classic version 3 and it totally transformed the sound into something much, much better - the bass became fuller and punchier, without being boomy, the treble crisper, the mid-range clearer and the soundstage a bit bigger. Overall clarity of presentation was improved and the presentation is just somehow more musical, if that makes sense - I had found the SB3 OK to listen to but somehow lifeless and dull before the DM - no longer! I can now say my SB + DM pretty much sounds as good as my �500 CD player from Arcam, at least when fed lossless files. But even MP3s and internet radio sound much improved now the SB goes via the DM. Highly recommended !
I discovered this device in a Magazine during my holidays. It takes some time before I realized the potential. Connecting a PC with HiFi isn't that obvious (noise!!!), and despite several trials with better sound cards, I was still disapointed with the result. Better sound cards offer more and better recording possibilities, but they remain limited in playback.
Back to the DACMAGIC, plug in the USB cable (no driver!!!) and it shows up as a C-media headset or something and it plays GREAT!
It's always difficult to say why, but it offers more space, good precision and definitely NO NOISE!!! (The PC-Hifi interconnection is digital).
Hello everybody, I've just bought this DAC, and I was very impressed how it has improved my system's sound quality, infact now my sytem got more details especially in mid-treble range, the voices is more articulated, crisp and real, the jazz instruments are more detailed and more real, before I listened music with a Denon DVD-A11, it has an high-spec burr-brown converte, now I use my Cambridge audio DAC togheter with a Advance Acoustic CD Player and the difference it's more and more than I expected. SO I RECCOMEND this DAC to everybody whom want to improve their sound without spend a lot of money.
I'm using the DacMagic with my iMac (USB connection) and into my Marantz PM6002 amp. The sound is improved, and I can hear a lot more detail in the mids and highs. It is definitely worth getting, especially for playing lossless music from a computer.
I also use this setup when listening to my Grado RS125'heaphones and what a difference it makes!!!
With DacMagic I was very satisfied, but connecting FirestoneAudio BRAVO digital processor between computer and DacMagic a real magic happend. This two units seems to have perfect sinergy. Souned better then my new Marantz SA-15S2. I aso found driver for Windows XP (Teradak:Teralink which have the same USB input receiver) and have 24bit playback by default). If you want to upgrade already very good DAC, FirestoneAudio BRAVO is highly recommended.
Comments
A combination of Dacmagic and ultraviolet has brought my laptop to life. My cds sound very detailed with vocals to the front of the sound stage with good stereo.Thanks for good advise.Money well spent.
Hi Nick
from what I remember you can't use external DACs with Naim CD players as Naim are of the opinion that their internal Dacs to the job well enough. The 5 pin Din is almost unique to Naim and carries Analogue signals only usually to a Naim amplifier. Hope that helps.
Richard
I connected the DacMagic to my Mac and my headphone amp to the DacMagic. Great sound. Be sure to give it plenty of burn in time. It really improves after 100 hours.
I'm not a HiFi snob or someone who has the need for the latest and best kit, but a regular guy who appreciates good quality sound. For £230 the DacMagic is a musical marvel and will make a huge difference to a budget system. The DacMagic has turned my 20 year old SONY amp with it's Tannoy Mercury F4 Customs into a gem of a performer. The sound stage is wide with instruments sounding like they are floating in front of you. To start with it sounded a little bright at the top end, but I’ve got a small room which is prone to this and it’s nothing you can't control by using the appropriate filter and selecting suitable speaker cable. It works wonders with a set of Cable Company Crimson Plus, with very clear rounded sound, and it’s British. After getting the DacMagic even my cat sits and listens to my music, so maybe it should be renamed the CatMagic! My source is lossless and 320Kb MP3 files from my custom made, near silent desktop.
I've been running a Squeezebox 3 through a Beresford to Nait2 to Neat Motive2 for a while now and have been contented with the sound. It is definitely an improvement over the bare SB3. The Beresford is punchy, clear and has good timing but something was missing... A depth and richness that I have now found with the DacMagic! What a fantastic machine! The Beresford is fantastic value for money but its construction appears very cheap in comparison to the DacMagic. If headphones is a necessity then get the Beresford, otherwise the DacMagic is a superior machine in my opinion and worth the extra outlay. Listening to more music than ever. Great buy.
Hi Does anybody know the best way to connect a dac magic to a naim nait 5i? All the reviews say the dacmagic is much better when using the balanced outputs, but on the back of my amp is a 5pin din? Thanks in advance for any help - cheers - Nick
I've been using the Musical Fidelity V-DAC on my AV system. Creek OBH-22 pre and A42 power amp, Epos ELS-3 speakers, Oppo BDP-83 Bluray player, TivX M-6500A, Satellite Dish VIP622 receiver, Sony KDL-52W4100 HDTV. I think the V-DAC is a great sounding component, everything sounds detailed, rich, lots of 3D depth to the soundstage, very engaging and musical. I'm not sure if the DacMagic would improve my system sound for what it is, especially for the higher price. The layout and schema of where the jacks are located are better on the DacMagic than the V-DAC. Having the inputs and outputs on opposite sides of the box is a bit "messy".
Like the previous reviewer, I added a CA Dacmagic to my Squeezebox classic version 3 and it totally transformed the sound into something much, much better - the bass became fuller and punchier, without being boomy, the treble crisper, the mid-range clearer and the soundstage a bit bigger. Overall clarity of presentation was improved and the presentation is just somehow more musical, if that makes sense - I had found the SB3 OK to listen to but somehow lifeless and dull before the DM - no longer! I can now say my SB + DM pretty much sounds as good as my �500 CD player from Arcam, at least when fed lossless files. But even MP3s and internet radio sound much improved now the SB goes via the DM. Highly recommended !
I sustain the opinion of the two other.
I discovered this device in a Magazine during my holidays. It takes some time before I realized the potential. Connecting a PC with HiFi isn't that obvious (noise!!!), and despite several trials with better sound cards, I was still disapointed with the result. Better sound cards offer more and better recording possibilities, but they remain limited in playback.
Back to the DACMAGIC, plug in the USB cable (no driver!!!) and it shows up as a C-media headset or something and it plays GREAT!
It's always difficult to say why, but it offers more space, good precision and definitely NO NOISE!!! (The PC-Hifi interconnection is digital).
Hello everybody, I've just bought this DAC, and I was very impressed how it has improved my system's sound quality, infact now my sytem got more details especially in mid-treble range, the voices is more articulated, crisp and real, the jazz instruments are more detailed and more real, before I listened music with a Denon DVD-A11, it has an high-spec burr-brown converte, now I use my Cambridge audio DAC togheter with a Advance Acoustic CD Player and the difference it's more and more than I expected. SO I RECCOMEND this DAC to everybody whom want to improve their sound without spend a lot of money.
I'm using the DacMagic with my iMac (USB connection) and into my Marantz PM6002 amp. The sound is improved, and I can hear a lot more detail in the mids and highs. It is definitely worth getting, especially for playing lossless music from a computer.
I also use this setup when listening to my Grado RS125'heaphones and what a difference it makes!!!
can i use a dacmagic for my av amp and surround speakers, will it inprove the sound? please help
With DacMagic I was very satisfied, but connecting FirestoneAudio BRAVO digital processor between computer and DacMagic a real magic happend. This two units seems to have perfect sinergy. Souned better then my new Marantz SA-15S2. I aso found driver for Windows XP (Teradak:Teralink which have the same USB input receiver) and have 24bit playback by default). If you want to upgrade already very good DAC, FirestoneAudio BRAVO is highly recommended.
The dac magic is a gem, auditioned next to an arcam fmj cd17, compariable at best but felt the Dac magic just has that magic.