The latest DacMagic D/A converter from
Cambridge Audio has been brought right up to date with the latest Wolfson
WM8740 24bit DACs, high quality 32-bit Texas Instruments Digital Signal
Processor. At £199 this compact DAC represents excellent value for money and
good quality sound, What Hi-Fi Magazine commented; “It sounds great too,
combining the timing, clarity and punch of Beresford's £120 TC-7510 with a
healthy dose of the £160 Musical Fidelity V-Dac's midrange fluidity and
richness. The result is a powerful, full-bodied yet subtle and driving
presentation: one that caters for all types of music equally well. If you can
stretch to £200, this Cambridge Audio DAC is one of the best we've tested.”
Having
upgraded the DacMagic 2 back in the late 1990’s where the upgraded DAC was
favourably reviewed by Hi-Fi News & RR, we were keen to hear what extra
performance we could wring out of the latest design. The new DacMagic is an
altogether different design to the 3 versions that spanned the 1990’s. Gone is
the 430mm width chassis in favour of a much smaller one. A single, 4-layer PCB
is packed with all the power supplies, digital & analogue circuits. The
core analogue circuits of the Dacmagic are derived from the popular 640C CD
player, the 2x Wolfson WM8740, dual differential filter and capacitor coupled
output. The design uses no fewer than 6 regulated supplies for the digital
& analogue circuits with two separate linear power supplies. The 2009
version takes its power supply from a 12VAC-AC plug-in wall-wart adapter. This
dispenses with the need for potentially large and costly AC transformers to
step down the power supply.
At £200
the new DacMagic is amazing value, and is frankly beyond any criticism at the
price. But with pricing of parts, circuit board, etc, down to the last penny
the DacMagic is near absent of audio grade passive components such as
capacitors, regulators, op-amps. This is where the upgrades kick in; take the
basic design and by careful selection replace key parts and this £200 product
starts to show abilities you would expect in a DAC upwards of £800.00. Out go
the ‘Xunda’ power supply capacitors in favour of the Panasonic FC series, we
remove the ‘NCD’ brand electrolytic’s for decoupling and upgrade to Sanyo OSCON
& Rubycon ZA types, the NE5532 op-amps for analogue filter are upgraded to
the superb LME49720, the noisy 7805 regulator for the DAC power supplies is
replaced with a specially selected low noise type to ensure clean power.
We have
two levels of upgrades available; both levels markedly improve the sound
quality of inputs via the coaxial, optical; and USB when connected to the
digital output of your CD player or streaming lossless music from your PC or
MAC.
*Level-2
Upgrade only.
DacMagic Level-1 Upgrade
■ 4x Panasonic FC analogue power supply capacitors.
■ 2x Sanyo OSCON SP analogue regulation bypass capacitors.
■ 1x Specially selected, NOS low noise regulators for analogue supply (DAC).
■ 1x Panasonic FC DAC regulation bypass capacitors.
■ 2x Sanyo OSCON SP for digital regulation bypass (clock).
■ 5x Sanyo OSCON SP for DSP & input receiver decoupling.
■ 3x Sanyo OSCON SP for digital input decoupling.
■ 4x LME49720 for low-pass filter.
DacMagic Level-2 Upgrade
■ 4x
Panasonic FC analogue power supply capacitors.
■ 2x Sanyo OSCON SP analogue regulation bypass capacitors.
■ 1x Specially selected low noise regulator for analogue supply (DAC).
■ 1x Panasonic FC DAC regulation bypass capacitors.
■ 1x Sanyo OSCON SP for digital regulation bypass (clock).
■ 2x Panasonic FC digital power supply capacitors.
■ 5x Panasonic FC digital regulation bypass capacitors.
■ 5x Sanyo OSCON SP for DSP & input receiver decoupling.
■ 3x Sanyo OSCON SP digital input decoupling.
■ 1x Rubycon ZA decoupling for logic circuits.
■ 4x LME49720 for low-pass filter.
