CD / speaker cable upgrade

[stigpepper]

Hi,

The speaker cable and CD player have been upgraded, see below: -

XLO HT Pro - bought from Frank here
Hermstedt HiFiDelio Pro

Next up is a DAC and my budget is €500

The options I am considering are Dac Magic, Acram RDac, MF VDac, Moon 100D and I am leaning towards the RDac as it is only €320 and I can pick it up in Cloney's.

Can anyone offer advice / alternatives on the above DACs within my budget.

Cheers

[stigpepper]

Forgot to mention I will be travelling through Dubai and Australia in a few months. If you have experience of shopping for audio equipment in either place I would like to hear from you. Basically would I be better holding off and buying while I am away to save a few euro.

[woody]

hi stigpepper,glad you got sorted on cdp front...the only dac i have tried from that bunch is the cambridge audio about six months ago..at that point in time my system consisted of krell class a power amp,krell kps 20i cdp, martin logan speakers, and transparent cables...my friend came over and between us we had a theta gen 5a dac,a perpetual technology pi1/p3/monolith power supply,an audio synthesis dax and the cambridge audio..we used the krell both on its own and as a transport for the various dacs..after a days listening and a few speaker changes we disagreed on just about everything but we both agreed that the dacmagic was easily able to compete with all the dacs mentioned and the krell,which says a hell of a lot for a 250 stg dac..it worked very well in my friends system as well(unison 845 monos,croft pre,roksan transport and townshend speakers)however,thinking this was the best bargain in the history of hi fi i dropped it into some pals to try....one has full classe system,the other a world audio amp,teac vrds cdp,monitor audio speakers and it was terrible,like a totally different dac, while the audio synthesis was amazing....so try before you buy and you could be amazed...(or shocked!!) frank.