Da-capo issue (John W?)

[muz640]

Any news? anyone? lol

[Studley]

muz640, just the picture would have been enough

Please John, speak to us (I'm not sure what that smilie is really meant to signify but it looks appropriate to me)

[muz640]

Its a shame really, as Johns proposed dac was pretty much perfect spec for what i need (and a lot of what other people need too) A lot of dacs are popping up all over the place, but none seem to have quite the same care in the design that John would have put into his i expect.

I could see Johns dac being a direct competitor to the benchmark dac, only cheaper, made in china etc....Id have happily paid £500-£750 for the dac, functionality and or course performance are what count to me, im not fussed about a fancy case.

At the moment im seriously considering the benchmark usb dac, as im in the UK the price is the only sticking point (£1050), that and the hope that John will still make his dac!

I bought a Cambridge audio dac as a stop gap, the sound is good*
but its missing a volume control/preamp section and headphone out. Im guessing they didnt do this because they've got an expensive (and incredibly complicated preamp) to sell, i'll hazard a guess that the sales for this are very low in comparison to other equipment they make.

Jon.


*but not as good as then benchmark dac or Opus 21(hey but what do you expect given the price differences!) or at least it wasnt when i compared the two dacs in a friends system, although the dacmagic was new, i think it has improved a great deal, it seemed to take an age to come on song.

[IanAS]

People on Forums are saying that the AuzenTech PC sound cards sound better than the Benchmark DAC.

I only mention this as you (Muz) mentioned USB.

A pal has the, now discontinued, AuzenTech X-Meridian. It really does sound pretty good on his very revealing system. I modified it, of course Deleted two DC blocking caps (after checking the DC level in all conditions was not a problem) Also we've been trying different OpAmps in it. Found last week that a very decent mains supply to the PC PSU was a sizeable improvement to the HiFi sound!

I just bought an X-Meridian 2nd hand, arrived today. I think there are some muting transistors that may be deletable. And maybe some copper track that could be changed to silver wire. The forums say it helps to stick a sheet of Stillpoints ERS cloth to the back on the soundcard, which I intend to try.

Of course, it's not practical to use as a preamp, or headphone driver. It's really just a source component. Though you can plug in both SPDIF and analogue signals.

The new Asus soundcards / multimedia cards are also supposed to be very good indeed, Asus bought the rights to the CMedia DSP that Auzentech used, hence the demise of the X-Meridian as it was based around a CMedia chip.

[muz640]

Ian, I wish i knew what the hell i was doing then id make my own. Something like a buffalo dac with volume control, im sure it would end up in smoke! (literally) if i had a go at putting one together.

The sound card i had in my computer isnt to bad sound quality wise, but it is noisy. I have one of these USB to toslink/SPDIF converters(see pic below) ive been using with the dacmagic, instead of using its own USB input, the sound difference between the two is quite different, im not sure why it sounds so different.

Just thought id post, to see if there was any news on John and his designs. The dacmagic is still a stop gap.


USB to toslink converter im using with the dacmagic

[sq225917]

Mus are you implying that the little converter converts USb better than the dacmagic?

[muz640]

Well its sounds different, smoother with less bass, maybe a little less congested, maybe its got less jitter than the USB input of the Dacmagic, the difference in very noticeable. At the moment im using it from a PC, when i get my Macbook back tomorrow i'll be able to try it and see if there is a difference then (laptops running off battery power have less jitter according to Cambridge audio)

[Jagtar]

Originally posted by muz640
when i get my Macbook back tomorrow i'll be able to try it and see if there is a difference then (laptops running off battery power have less jitter according to Cambridge audio) [/B]

Hi, interesting point about laptops running from battery having less jitter. I found that using a UPS (uninteruptable power supply) powering my Powermac G4's made a difference to the general performance and the fans seemed quieter.

I had thought that they might help the sound coming from the CD/DVD drive but I do not have a PCI soundcard so look forward to trying one, any recommendations for the Mac?

Regards
Jagtar

[muz640]

Just a little update, then although this really has nothing to to do with the original thread i suppose, other than being it sort of being about dacs and stuff.

Anyway for the cambridge dacmagic, The pc via teralink x is has a different sound to the cambridge USB on its own, even though on paper they are supposed to be the same component. I prefer the sound coming from the PC to USB Teralink x box, into the Dacmagic via optical or SPDIF, via the Macbook optical the sound is slightly different maybe a bit more open (but maybe im imagining it!)

I also have a Benchmark Dac 1 here as well, which sounds very different compared to the dacmagic, more fluid, open, relaxed, refined and leaner, the Benchmark im using as a the preamp strait into the active crossover bypassing my Valve preamp.

The funny thing is using Benchmark Dac1 as the preamp sounds more valve like than the Dacmagic and Minimax Valve preamp!

Jon

[sq225917]

Mus i get the feeling that you might be messing something up here, like outputting in 48khz or something from your pc. I've tired aload of different usb to spdif cnvertors and they all sounded worse that straight spdif/.

So i'm curious..