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Cambridge Audio DacMagic 100 - Digital to Analogue Converter with Toslink, S/PDIF, and USB Inputs Featuring 24-bit Wolfson DAC - Silver

£9.9£99Clearance
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Within the utilities folder, open ‘Audio MIDI setup’. In here select the DacMagic 100, and you will be given the option to modify the output sample rate.

There have been concerns voiced that USB is intrinsically a more jittery interface than regular S/PDIF, so we tried our best to hear any differences between the various options. Frankly, we couldn't – certainly not consistently. Nor could we measure any, the DacMagic turning in measured results which in every way qualify it being as state of the art. Meanwhile, steep is superlatively detailed in simple music – single voice/instrument, or just a few – but slightly loses out to linear in very dense textures. Move on to Emeli Sandé’s Heaven and the Cambridge paints a tonally even picture with well-mannered treble and weighty, precise low frequencies.That smoothness clings to the violins leading Ólafur Arnalds’ Spiral (Sunrise Session) (24-bit/96kHz) in a way that makes it enjoyable without clouding the textural finesse or dynamic undulation of the strings that communicate the piece’s beautiful fragility. The Cambridge rides the dynamic ebbs and flows nicely, showing its grace in the quieter moments and its authority in the louder ones. As most commonly implemented, it has rather limited attenuation at exactly half the sampling frequency and, as a result, allows a little bit of aliasing distortion to occur if there is any audio above 20kHz. There is also pre-ringing on transients, though this has never been shown to be a real problem. The Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M is a standalone multi input DAC, preamp and headphone amplifier. In 2021, this is a fairly commonly encountered specification and there are a number of products to choose from at or around this price point that offer it. Without the efforts of the 200M’s ancestors though, this might not have been the case. The DacMagic name has a great deal of provenance in this field. It first appeared when the world of digital audio looked very different to how it does now.

Tonality is exceptionally neutral, with clean extension at both extremes and very well-balanced midrange. Switch to the USB connection and Amy Winehouse's Valerie ('68 version) from the Lioness: Hidden Treasures album, there's not the weight or refinement we get from our reference Arcam rDAC.

Use with Windows PCs

Frecuencias de muestreo admitidas de entrada digital: 32kHz, 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 192kHz

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