Cambridge Audio DacMagic XS USB 'headphone' DAC for £49 today.

[Bryn]

Compatible with both Mac and Windoze machines, this handy (and tiny) DAC aimed at offering much improved sound from laptops, etc. via USB, Richer Sounds have it at under half their standard price as a 'Black Friday' deal. I popped over to Eton today and purchased one. For once I did not bother with the 6 year extended guarantee (full refund if not claimed under during the 6 years) since the price was based on 10% of the standard price of £99.99. With the USB 2 driver downloaded and installed it handles up to 192/24 files. I am currently playing back a 96/24 recording of Paragraph 5 of Cardew's The Great Learning (the recorder was placed very close to Sarah Leonard, who was singing Ode 1, so she is very much emphasised in this particular recording). I must say, I am very please with this purchase of the CDcMagic XS so far.



As it happens, though I have tried it feeding Bose headphones (with noise cancellation switched off), I am currently feeding it to my Onkyo amp's aux analogue input.

[MrGongGong]

. I am currently playing back a 96/24 recording of Paragraph 5 of Cardew's The Great Learning (the recorder was place very close to Sarah Leonard, who was singing Ode 1, so she is very much emphasised in this particular recording).

How can you bear to listen to something so "unnatural" ?
Cracking piece though

[Dave2002]

If there were a Richer Sounds next door I'd probably pop in and get one, but the nearest is maybe 10 miles away, and perhaps I can't be bothered. Amazon don't have it on a super offer - though it may be reduced today at just under £80.

It seems to me that the nice thing about this must be that it presumably doesn't need an external power supply. I haven't been using headphones so much in the last few months anyway, and I don't know that it would be useful fed into the other kit I have around.

Looks like a good buy for anyone who wants a cheapish DAC for use with a laptop - if they have a Richer Sounds nearby.

[AmpH]

Compatible with both Mac and Windoze machines, this handy (and tiny) DAC aimed at offering much improved sound from laptops, etc. via USB, Richer Sounds have it at under half their standard price as a 'Black Friday' deal. I popped over to Eton today and purchased one. For once I did not bother with the 6 year extended guarantee (full refund if not claimed under during the 6 years) since the price was based on 10% of the standard price of £99.99. With the USB 2 driver downloaded and installed it handles up to 192/24 files. I am currently playing back a 96/24 recording of Paragraph 5 of Cardew's The Great Learning (the recorder was placed very close to Sarah Leonard, who was singing Ode 1, so she is very much emphasised in this particular recording). I must say, I am very please with this purchase of the CDcMagic XS so far.

I have been using one of these for about 6 months and have been delighted with the results using a variety of headphones on my preferred Windows 7 laptops. I retain a MacBook Pro purely for particular employment purposes and have found that it works perfectly well with this ( inferior ) machine as well.

[Bryn]

I have been using one of these for about 6 months and have been delighted with the results using a variety of headphones on my preferred Windows 7 laptops. I retain a MacBook Pro purely for particular employment purposes and have found that it works perfectly well with this ( inferior ) machine as well.

By the way, Windows 10 in its latest update has no problems working with the device, and takes the downloadable USB 2 driver without hitch. I can't comment on compatibility with earlier versions of Windows 10 as I upgraded/updated well before I got the DacMagic XS.

[AmpH]

By the way, Windows 10 in its latest update has no problems working with the device, and takes the downloadable USB 2 driver without hitch. I can't comment on compatibility with earlier versions of Windows 10 as I upgraded/updated well before I got the DacMagic XS.

Thats good to know as I intend to update one of my machines from 7 to 10 in the near future.

[richardfinegold]

You may want to compare it to the Audioquest Dragonfly, which does the same functions, attaches like a flash drive to a USB port, and is similarly priced

[Bryn]

You may want to compare it to the Audioquest Dragonfly, which does the same functions, attaches like a flash drive to a USB port, and is similarly priced

I don't consider £129 that similar to £45.

[Daniel]

Looks like a good buy for anyone who wants a cheapish DAC for use with a laptop - if they have a Richer Sounds nearby.

It is! (says someone who wanted a cheapish DAC for use with a laptop, who had a Richer Sounds nearby ... ).

A very timely posting, Bryn, thank you, the results are impressive - a striking contrast between size and effect.

[Dave2002]

It is! (says someone who wanted a cheapish DAC for use with a laptop, who had a Richer Sounds nearby ... ).

A very timely posting, Bryn, thank you, the results are impressive - a striking contrast between size and effect.

Just checked the Richer Sounds website - it's possible that there might be more at the low price - I might check this out tomorrow or early next week. Probably not worth driving a long way to check, but a phone call for a stock check might be in order.

[Bryn]

I phoned on Thursday afternoon to reserve one for collection Friday morning. They say there is a restriction of one per customer. However, I am tempted to check with another nearly equidistant branch in the morning to see of they still have any. I could then leave one installed at home and take the other about with me. Might have to pay cash and give a friend's address to avoid potential refusal.

[Dave2002]

I phoned on Thursday afternoon to reserve one for collection Friday morning. They say there is a restriction of one per customer. However, I am tempted to check with another nearly equidistant branch in the morning to see of they still have any. I could then leave one installed at home and take the other about with me. Might have to pay cash and give a friend's address to avoid potential refusal.

Tut, tut!

I quite like the idea that these things are small, and take power from the computer, hence really rather neat.

Which player are you using to play the hi-res files? My understanding is that quite a lot of players will automatically downsample and play back at a lower bit rate unless specific action is taken. That, at least, is what I think happens with Apple Mac kit, unless special software or special configurations are set up. It's not necessarily a big deal - depending on whether the sound quality is still OK - but presumably the DACs are intended to work with the hi-res stream from the original data source, and not a downsampled stream.

Despite the review (see below) I don't quite see how the DAC is driven in hi-res from a Mac - I just have to assume that it's possible.

Would you really trust a review which refers to Beethoven's 4th piano concerto in G minor though? - http://www.whathifi.com/cambridge-au...agic-xs/review

PS: Though I still wonder if it's really worth the bother - as at home I can listen via other DACs and on the move I'll probably be on a train or perhaps a plane, and the background noise might just eliminate any attempts to get a quality sound. However, the quality might still show through, even in a noisy environment - maybe!

[Bryn]

I use various applications for playback, mainly VLC Media Player. That has offered native playback from version 1.0.3 onwards. I think WinAmp also plays up to 192/24 from version 5.61 onwards without downsampling.

[richardfinegold]

I don't consider £129 that similar to £45.

Black Friday sales here have it well under $100