DACs

[tony]

Not in the Fran or John Kenny space(would like to be but too much overhead and brain power for me) but am thinking about getting a reasonable dac to allow playback from pc through a marantz PM66SE KI amp.
Saw a beresford caiman for approx €240 with a caiman power supply. I thought it seemed an ok price and that judging by the few reviews I could find that it was a fairly good device. Can I get better for that money or less and is its spec competent enough? Speakers are sa1530's and setting is a study. Other types I have checked out are the project dac and the little dot but was wondering are they too basic.
Dont want to spend a lot but want to end up with something half decent.

If it worked out wouldnt mind progressing towards the attenuators and jkenny hifi thingy. Like Ivor suggested I have read a lot of the posts but a lot of lingo to get the head around. My guess is a lot of people need to see the stuff connected up and working to understand/realise the benefits.

[Ivor]

I'm pretty sure the Cloney HiFi show at the RDS will be featuring the Arcam R dac so maybe wait and hear/see that in action before making any decision?

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/audio- ... 693/review

there's also the Cambridge Dacmagic from Richersounds which gets good reviews
https://www.richersounds.ie/asp/product ... e&keys=dac

[fergus]

Not in the Fran or John Kenny space(would like to be but too much overhead and brain power for me) but am thinking about getting a reasonable dac to allow playback from pc through a marantz PM66SE KI amp.
Saw a beresford caiman for approx €240 with a caiman power supply. I thought it seemed an ok price and that judging by the few reviews I could find that it was a fairly good device. Can I get better for that money or less and is its spec competent enough? Speakers are sa1530's and setting is a study. Other types I have checked out are the project dac and the little dot but was wondering are they too basic.
Dont want to spend a lot but want to end up with something half decent.

If it worked out wouldnt mind progressing towards the attenuators and jkenny hifi thingy. Like Ivor suggested I have read a lot of the posts but a lot of lingo to get the head around. My guess is a lot of people need to see the stuff connected up and working to understand/realise the benefits.

I have heard this one in Cloney's and I thought that it was impressive for the size and cost of the thing. Good luck with the venture Tony!

[tony]

Thanks for that guys. I am aware of the dacmagic hadnt seen it that cheap.
I am not clear if youtube/wolfgangs vault,itunes etc will play automatically thru the dac? My guess is it should but have read a bit about people using fubar. I want the dac for the above mainly and dont necessarily want audio nirvana but want good quality playback thru hifi.

Want to ensure that whatever I buy or if I buy it is versatile and is of reasonably good enough quality. Do realise there are dacs costing very large sums out there but I aint going there.

[Fran]

If its a USB DAC then youtube, wolfgagns vault, foobar, media player, itunes etc etc will all play through it fine - even your windows system sounds will play through it.


I'd agree, have a listen to the arcam rdac and maybe the dacmagic if you can. Also, you might be able to pick one up secondhand from the likes of pinkfishmedia etc.

DancingPriest gave me a lend of a Beresford, if you want to have a listen no problem.


Fran

[tony]

Hi Fran, Thanks for info. Whats the story if there is no usb. I ask as I saw a secondhand cyrus dacx which doesnt have usb, Attraction of this is the other cyrus gear I have. It has digital and spdif but reckon it will end up going for too much. Saw an audio note one with only one output spdif but out of my price range(think it valves in there somewhere).
Thanks re beresford, Time challenged at the moment with sprog events virtually every day. If you were at the end of the cul de sac I would be around like a light in the car of course couldnt be bothered with this walking mullarky. What do you think of the beresford?
I know at this money level its going to be hard to get something hot. Kinda heading for dacmagic but like the fact beresford has a headphone output. Will try to get a listen to rdac and dacmagic before jumping. I tend to watch ebay and if any of the types discussed go at a good price I will just purchase.

[Fran]

Just thinking out loud - that show in NI might be of interest to you - you might get to hear a DAC or 2 there? I don't know if Kronos do the rDAC or some other ones, but they might be able to bring one along for you to try out...


Fran

[DancingPriest]

The Beresford is good for what it is but it's been hyped to death.
Don't get me wrong, it's a very handy little unit; USB input, built in head amp and very easily upgraded. If you want to change the sound you can switch out the op amps for the headphone out and the amp out independently.
When you take into account the extra 'infrastructure' it's not a bad buy to get you started.
I don't have a lot to compare it with but I can say without doubt that it's certainly not the giant killer it's made out to be on other forums, in fact a hell of a lot of those posts came from Stanley Beresford using disposable accounts.
I do plan on getting something better once I've sorted out a set of speakers that suit my new living room. I will be keeping it though, It's a very handy little unit to have on your bedside table; hook it up to a cheap netbook with file sharing set up and you have a serious second system.
If you're coming from your sound card you will not be disappointed.
On the off-chance you're using a desktop PC you might already have a built in spdif output. I'm building a HTPC as we speak and the motherboard has a hdmi audio header. If yours has one as well you could buy one of these;
for about E10 and not have to worry about USB at all!

[tony]

Time poor I'm afraid so NI is not on the agenda. Love to go alright seems like a fairly big show. Hope it all works out ok for you Fran considering your stuck in the boot!.
Interesting view from Mr Priest. I would agree about the planting of positive reviews. It is very easy to do and must be rampant. Thats whats nice about a small forum like this. ( harder to inflitrate) At least all views are genuine and probably only loyality is to the products purchased which is fine(Castle howards come to mind) thanks for info probably sums up very well what the product is realistically capable of. I suppose I am hoping to source something beyond that for small money which is probably difficult or impossible to achieve unless I join the feel and fall party where everything is possible. I'll keep searching ebay