Which DAC? I am really confused

Soldato
Joined
29 Jul 2004
Posts
6,571
Location
Esher
Hi everybody,

I have an Arcam 75+ amp paired with a set of Diamond 9.1 speakers

All my music is on my laptop (Dell XPS) and I am currently ripping it all into FLAC format onto my external hard drive.

I have been reading that a DAC will benefit me immensely, but I don't know which one to get. It's really really confusing.

How would I connect it to my laptop? Beresford or DAC Magic?

arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggghhhhhhhh

Help needed please!

Thanks


Deep
 
Associate
Joined
22 Apr 2006
Posts
578
Location
Port Talbot
first thing is - does your lap top have a digital out - and in what is it
i.e. Toslink (optical) , Coax (electrical)

The Dac -magic can take both.
 
Associate
Joined
21 May 2009
Posts
245
Beresford is the better of the two. The DAC magic is very over priced. Also take a look at the Zero, Aune and Valab NOS (all about 100) and the V-DAC (150)
 
Soldato
Joined
6 May 2009
Posts
19,885
It appears I would need a USB connection if I want a DAC, I don't have any optical or coax ports

Me neither. How do you connect a DAC to something like a standard amp with phono ports? Surely you can do phono on DAC to phono on amp?
 

Ste

Ste

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
2,812
PC -> DAC = optical, coaxial (i.e. a single phono lead) or USB

DAC -> Amp = Phono, i.e. standard interconnects.

This is pretty much true of any DAC, apart from the USB connection which isn't available on all of them.
 
Soldato
Joined
15 Aug 2006
Posts
3,422
Location
127.0.0.1
It appears I would need a USB connection if I want a DAC, I don't have any optical or coax ports

Yes

The Beresford Caiman (which has a very good USB transport) would sound great with your A75 it's very detailed but also quite neutral, drop the DM it's overated and overpriced.
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Mar 2003
Posts
5,247
Location
Herefordshire
If you're on a budget I'd recommend the ZeroDAC. I got one off the bay for about £95 with OP627 op-amps (which are quite highly rated). USB version is about £105 so they're pretty cheap and do sound good.
 
Back
Top Bottom