Cambridge Audio DAC Magic Plus

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by señorhifi, Oct 17, 2021.

  1. señorhifi

    señorhifi Friend

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    Yeah this is an old one, based on the Wolfson chips. The box says it's from 2011...

    Main reason why I am opening the thread is because here in EU, this is still being sold all over the place. Every single Hi-Fi Store, will carry the Dac Magic Plus or the Dac Magic D100. Well, actually, I think the Dac Magic Plus has recently been dropped by Cambridge Audio in favor of a new Dac based on Sabre chips (no surprise there). This doesn't prevent these to be sold on the second hand market though. Our local Craigslist is flooded with these things. Also, I cannot find much unbiased info on the DacMagics around online. Only a few warning signs from SBAF members here and there + headfi esque reviews everywhere else, so I thought I might as well post this.

    To give you an idea on the price of the Dac Magic Plus in EU, it used to cost around 400-500€ up until recently. Second hand prices are at around 200-300€ right now.

    Anyways, I picked one up. It is not good. Let me tell you why below (I am a noob at DACs, but I'll try my best).

    The first thing that stands out, is that the bass and mids are oddly soft sounding. Think Modi3 type of soft (i.e. weak attacks, a bit mushy), but now also the body of instruments is soft, smoothed and smeared over. Modi3 does have body to everything, but cuts the bite off of things. This sounds soft and undefined all around. The bass in particular suffers from this. It's terribly undefined, almost as if it's lacking subbass extension. It's there though, just really undetailed. Modi3 compared to this is some sort of subbass and kickdrum monster.

    The soft nature is not totally bad IMO. I can see how some people will find it "relaxing", except that the treble is at more normal to slightly bright levels. This is the only thing that's not being smoothed over by this dac (why not!). The treble isn't necessarly annoying like on the cheaper Sabre SMSLs and Toppings or like on the Teac UD301, but if you compare this to the rest of the presentation, it really stands out and affects the tonal balance and timbre of the DAC. It's soft everything and then all of a sudden you get hit by brightish cymbals. Not good. This fatigued me really quickly. The treble isn't as metallic as on the cheaper Sabres. In fact if you listen to it isolated from everything else, it sounds good to me, maybe just a bit bright at times. I definitely like the treble on this more than on the Modi3 (too smooth) or on the iFi Zen Dac (too bright and digital). The issue is that it doesn't work in combination with everything else.

    Detail retrieval is worse than on the Modi3, maybe somewhere on par with the iFi Zen Dac. Maybe this was considered good detail retrieval in 2011, but by now, a 99$ Modi outshines it.

    Soundstage and imaging are a bit compressed. There is this odd lack of air and space to the presentation. Combined with the soft bass and mids, this really sounds mushy. That's the best way I have to summarize this dac, mushy, compressed and bright.

    Anyways, it's not that great, but it's also from 2011. I don't wanna bash this too much, because I have no clue what the panorama was like in 2011. Maybe this was considered good. I really don't know, but right now, no, get a Modi3 instead and save money.

    BTW, it does have a surprising amount of features though: 3 selectable filters, upsampling, phase invert option, bal out, SPDIF and optical out, you can shift the left/right volume balance and it has two different options for grounding in case there is hum. Also it can do this (take that Gungnir MM!):

    http://imgur.com/a/uNFlm08
     
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2021
  2. señorhifi

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    Luckly I got this second hand for cheap, so I will just sell it again for the same price. Does anybody here know how this compares to the Dac Magic D100? I am curious. The D100 is still being sold new for 150€, which is basically what the iFi Zen Dac costs or the Modi 3+ after import.
     
  3. Qildail

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    I had a D100 up to about five years ago when it finally gear-rotated out from the last desk. If you don't like the DMP, you're probably not going to like the D100. Same kind of gig: Not bad for the time it was released, but definitely lapped by modern discrete amps DACs (I'm an idiot today...) at or below its price.

    The CXN has the same Wolfson chips as the DMP, but with CA's more modern DSP. Some of that smoothing you describe is less so in the CXN, but in the end it's still that "Cambridge Warm" that people either love or loathe.
     
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2021

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