DACMatrix combo (DACMagic and M-Stage) *SPECIAL ENDED*

[Drubbing]

Your YT addiction is a tad worrying.

[Riverback]

Does this mean their phasing out the DACMagic for the DM+?
Kinda weird since the DM+ is worth $200 more =/

[Marcus]

Seems that way, yeah

[Drubbing]

That's dumb I think. It's going to have to be a bloody good amp, or some buyers will find another standalone DAC, so they can choose their own. They should keep the original too.

[G-rig]

That's dumb I think. It's going to have to be a bloody good amp, or some buyers will find another standalone DAC, so they can choose their own. They should keep the original too.

It would be a neat all in one solution, but I also wondered how good the amp would be. I imagine you could still use it purely as a DAC, but kind of defeats the purpose. Wouldn't hurt to have both models in the range.

[Belial]

Seems like a very dumb move. But hey, at least it removes the temptation of the DACMatrix for me :-)

Marcus, have you had a chance to listen to the DM+ yet?

Ben

[Marcus]

I'm confused by it as well - the DACMagic hasn't slowed in sales for us, and a cheaper more streamlined product is appealing for multiple reasons.
I'll give some feedback to the supplier to pass on to Cambridge regarding the DACMagic

I haven't had a chance to listen to the DM+ as this stage, however I'm expecting to only really be testing the headphone out stage as I don't expect the dac stage to be significantly different.

[Blobby]

What a pity. Very weird if you also consider that there will be many buyers who use it in their speaker setups and wouldn't care about the added "bonus" of a headphone out. They've in affect just made their DAC $200 more expensive in a market awash with el-cheapo DACs. Conversely most discerning headphone freaks aren't going to spend that kind of money on a DAC and not have a decent amp on the end of it.

[kelvinyap9]

I haven't had a chance to listen to the DM+ as this stage, however I'm expecting to only really be testing the headphone out stage as I don't expect the dac stage to be significantly different.

Apparently Cambridge did some improvements on the Upsampling feature on the DM+. Could you maybe have a listen to that and see if you can tell much of a difference between the DM and DM+, please?

[dingostolemyipod]

CD quality (16 bit) USB inputs are unfashionable at the moment, and absolutely everybody is now going 24/96 or 24/192 USB inputs, it gotta be HD guys, right?

What CA needs to be careful with is price. All of the new features and tweaked features needn't have much or any impact on shelf price, its just whether or not they can hit their target market. There's a lot more competition in the dac market today than when the dacmagic came out, ca might be running the risk of losing the spot in the VFM stakes.

[Drubbing]

Maybe I'm not audiophile enough, but I don't think HD audio is that popular. And with the audiophiles that it is, they're probably spending a lot more on DACs for it.

I still think it's dumb. They take a good product away, and create one that falls in between markets.

[kelvinyap9]

I reckon if they just fixed the small little problems currently present in the DM (not +), and called it the DACmagic V2 or something, without a headphone out and volume knob etc and kept it the same price... that would be a much better idea than ruling out the DM and introducing the pricier DM+.

What do you think?

[kelvinyap9]

Actually, I don't mind my 16bit 44kHz tracks at the moment. I tried 24bit (the free sample from HDTracks) and it didn't really do much for me, so I call BS on that. Either that or my equipment has been "bottlenecking" 16bit performance anyway, not to mention 24bit.

Upsampling is something different apparently. It's not just support for 24bit, but it's taking 16bit music and actually UPSAMPLING it into 24bit by adding some information to fill those empty spaces, so it's not like transcoding MP3 (Lossy) into FLAC (Lossless) and expecting quality improvements.

Something to do with the algorithm and properly adding the right information in those empty spaces... I dunno, can't really recall properly.

[Belial]

Out of interest, are the DM/DM+ driverless? When I do eventually do a DAC upgrade, it needs to be driverless because I use an ipad as the transport.

Ben

[dingostolemyipod]

Out of interest, are the DM/DM+ driverless? When I do eventually do a DAC upgrade, it needs to be driverless because I use an ipad as the transport.

Ben

i've used the dacmagic with an ipad and it works great.
the dm+ is driverless up to 24/96, but need to use drivers for 24/192. I would assume it works with the ipad, but don't take that as definite