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

Product Information

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. 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. 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. With the DacMagic 100 connected to your Mac, open the ‘System Preferences’, and navigate to ‘Sound’.

If your DacMagic 100 is operating in USB Audio Class 2.0 mode, set the output sample rate to 192,000Hz. On the inside, business is taken care of by a pair of ESS Sabre ES9028Q2M digital-to-analogue converter chips. These make the 200M compatible with PCM digital audio files up to 32but/784kHz standard, as well as DSD512. With MQA compatibility on board too, there isn’t a digital audio file worthy of the name that the Cambridge Audio can’t handle. This output is variable via a front panel rotary control. This can be switched out of the circuit by pressing the volume and filter buttons together for five seconds. If you select line out mode and insert a pair of headphones, the volume will automatically re-engage so as to prevent unwelcome surprises. This volume works entirely in the digital domain and it both pleasingly linear and has sufficient fine adjustment to make it simple to set the listening level you actually want. The limitation, bizarrely, is exactly the same one that Steve brought up with the DacMagic Plus in 2012 though. Volume adjustment is only via the front panel. There is no remote control adjustment which means that if you have ambitions to use the 200M as a preamp, you’re really going have to keep it at arm’s length.

Conclusion

Then, of course, there is the format handling. This is 2021 where you can actually secure the odd thing in 24/192kHz you might want to listen to, so naturally, we’ve moved onto chasing some much bigger numbers. The 200M supports 24/768 and DSD512 via the USB input which should be enough for all but the most truly determined vapourware chasers. Something that isn’t Introduce the 200M into a more expansive system, and a lot depends on the quality of integrated DAC you’re replacing and the ability of the overall system, of course. An accomplished (and almost certainly pricey) CD player, for example, may show relatively gentle gains in performance. But when you route a TV or set-top box, a games console or a Blu-ray player through the Cambridge Audio, all of the positivity of performance we noted in its desktop performance comes through loud and clear. The improvements in rhythmic expression and fine detail retrieval, in particular, can be genuinely startling. Linear phase is the type of filter most commonly used in up/oversampling players, since the very first Philips' machines in the early 1980s. It gives no phase shift at all within the audio band and rolls off very sharply around half the sampling frequency. Cambridge Audio’s latest top-of-the-line DacMagic continues the legacy of the long-standing DacMagic model, the original of which earned Cambridge its first What Hi-Fi? Award in 1996. The 200M is 25 years and several evolutionary steps along the DacMagic line in terms of features and performance, but it hasn’t lost sight of its vision to sit among the very best at its level. The DacMagic 200M is a talented all-rounder: a safe buy indeed.

In the advanced tab you will be given the option to change the Windows output sample rate. If you are using your DacMagic 100 in USB Audio Class 1.0 mode, set this to ‘24-bit, 96000Hz’.That seems an obvious requirement, but it's surprising how often it's not quite met – one finds that the entrance of a male voice puts a female one slightly in the shade, or vice versa. Move on to Emeli Sandé’s Heaven and the Cambridge paints a tonally even picture with well-mannered treble and weighty, precise low frequencies.

The Cambridge’s three digital filters – Fast, Slow and Short Delay – offer fairly subtle differences, albeit some level of sonic customisation. We find ourselves settling for Short Delay – it seems the more punctual of the three in relation to timing – but it’s worth experimenting with them.We hook the Cambridge up to a Macbook Pro via USB type-B, feed it Arab Strap’s Fable Of The Urban Fox (16-bit/44.1kHz) and are instantly impressed by the articulacy of Aidan Moffat’s trademark poetic storytelling through the 200M. It not only communicates his unmistakable Scottish accent but also the masterful cadence of his delivery. The hardware that allows for this jump in decoding is a mix of new tech with established design practise. Like much of the rest of the Cambridge Audio range, the 200M is built around ESS decoding. In this case, the chipset used is the ES9028Q2M - a fairly impressive piece of silicone in its own right. In a design tradition from Cambridge Audio, the 200M uses two of them in a dual mono configuration. This allows for both a reduction in crosstalk and for the redundant channel in each DAC to run the differential of the decoded channel to sum for errors. Three user selectable filters are available to (very, very slightly) tweak the output. Better value than ever but with the same class-leading performance, the Cambridge Audio DacMagic 100 is a true audio bargain.

Since then, the DacMagic has existed in one form or another in the Cambridge Audio range. Recent attention has been more focused on adding digital inputs to the amplifiers themselves though so the 200M is the first new DacMagic in a rather long time. Is this still a fine way of boosting your digital capabilities or have the changes that the DacMagic name started moved to the point where you don’t need a standalone DAC any more? One tends to associate rhythm particularly with music for dancing or marching but, of course, it's no less important in a string quartet or ballad, just in a different way. To the extent that each can be succinctly summarised, the linear phase is clean and tidy with a particularly well-controlled bass, but can sometimes seem a little clinical by comparison with minimum phase, which seems slightly warmer but perhaps a shade less precise.Tonality is exceptionally neutral, with clean extension at both extremes and very well-balanced midrange. 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. To ensure that the DacMagic 100 is receiving Hi-Res audio, you may need to adjust some of the sound settings on your PC or Mac. To adjust the settings on PC