Pull up your Dacs
I bought an Oppo BDP95 a few months back due to its ability to play any format backwards, and 2nd hand cheap.
John R came over and we noticed that the system needed further adjustment, based on the CDs we were listening to, but after playing some DVDs, we noticed the problems gone, almost.
Well Glasslugger/Headbanger came over and left me an early Cambridge DacMagic, (not a Plus version) and I connected it to the Oppo. A/B tests (with about 10 secs between changes) showed the DacMagic was slightly better in 24bit and a mile better in 16bit. Since the Dac magic is quite old and superceded, I am now looking for an even better Dac. $500 - $1500. Recommendations ? Schiit?
I'm sitting here in that lovely place where your system has just improved to where it's never been before - it only lasts a while before it becomes the norm.
Comments
Save up & get a dCS :-b
Would you be interested in a lightly used Redgum RGDAC5 for around $900 posted?
As far as I'm aware (but you could check with Redgum to be sure) the only difference between my mid noughties version and the current version is that the new one also has a USB input. Mine is just coax.
Haven't used it for ages as my system (stereo plus ears) as it stands can't resolve any must-kill-for difference between the CD player with DAC and CD player without DAC...and the pursuit of system simplicity meant it has been relegated to the cupboard.
The DAC does work but damaged ears and old speakers aren't getting the best out of it.
@ Mal, well stupidly, I read a dCs Vivaldi review and of course it said all the right things, so I am now going to save up $30k to get one. Thanks Mal, I should have it about 10yrs after I die.
@seano - I'll have to research the RG and a couple of others which get strong reviews
(NAD D 1050, Schiit various+ Upgrades, ....). all around the money you mention, plus USB, not that I do a lot of laptop listening.
I would say most of the modern dacs out there will be good . The dacs I've had over the years , Theta , Audio Note ,MSB , AudioCentric standard. modified & Yamamoto clone .
The best I've heard dCS 4 stack .
Speaker room interaction will still out way difference's between well designed dacs .
Cheers
Someone once told me that the Cambridge Blu-ray players sound very good B-)
I am happy with the Oppo as transport, multiformat etc, just the SQ is not up to scratch my balls.
Hey Mal about the dCs stack (> $100k) I would expect a $30k dac to be able to fix "errors"(?) in the data delivered from the player. Having to buy a $20k transport to guarantee pristine data packets, is beyond my understanding.
People swear they hear improvement with expensive transports. I have never A/B'd it know if this is true or not, but back to my opening sentence....
doesn't that sh*t ya, when your 17yr old son, with youthful ears, can't hear a difference between the Oppo and the DacMagic !!! Argh ! Either I am wishful thinking or the things I listen for need to be explained... Either way clearly the difference is not as huge as I first thought.
He can hear it Nige, he's just messin' with ya!
X_X :-b