Can anyone recommend a DAC please?

I have a load of hi quality MP3 rips and Flacs (lossless compression) on my computer. I have just bought a Squeezebox (www.slimdevices.com) so i can play them on my lounge hifi via my wireless network. I have already made a trade-off with sound quality for availabilty and convienience and I'd rather not loose any more sound quality. Unfortunately the Squeezebox has a rather dire DAC, so I'd like to use it's digital ouput instead.so I have to to buy a DAC. I do not want to spend much more than £100 quid on this (unless I have to) so have been looking at Ebay for second hand ones. Even tho I have spent the last two hours tracking down reviews I still do not know which one would suit my needs best. I don't even know whether HDCD is a good thing or not.. or even what it is!

Is there anyone here who knows a thing or two about DACs and can help me? Help greatly appreciated.

The ones i am currently looking t on Ebay are:
Arcam Delta Black Box 5 DAC - may be the favourite at the moment
Arcam Delta Black Box 3 DAC - may be cheaper than the above
Cambridge Audio S700 DAC (HDCD) - probably be too expensive
Cambridge DAC Magic 2 - quality may not be too good
AUDIO ALCHEMY DAC-IN-THE-BOX - looks really crap (70s style design!) but quality may be OK.

The full page is here:
http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/sea...3&lotr=1&from=R2&sacategory=1497&BasicSearch=

MC

 

Most of the DACs you mention, whilst cheap, are also pretty old (the Arcam gear) or not too hot (the S700, which I owned one of for about 2 days, it was rubbish).

Can I suggest the Meridian 203. Used one for nearly a year and it easily outperformed my old Arcam 7SE. My guess is that it's the equivalent of a CD player in the region of about £500.

 

Used an Audio Alchemy DAC Man for a couple of years was superb. Easily the equal of a £500 CD player. Would recommend their products for sure. The Meridian is an interesting idea too. The Arcams are really old. I have seen one or two Pink Triangle Ordinals selling for about £100 recently, that could be interesting as well.

 

You can get a second hand M-Audio SuperDAC for that money too.

 

MERIDIAN 263 dac 150 pounds

http://www.emporium.dircon.co.uk/CD and DACS.htm




Meridian
203 DAC Price: £190

RRP: £600


Description
Meridian 203 Dac, good condition, excellent smooth refined sound. Ideal upgrade for mid-range CD player.

Contact: Tim
Seller: Private seller
Telephone: 07760 288197
Telephone:

Email: [email protected]

Location:

Cambridge, UK


Advert No: 22470
Date placed: 02/10/2003


Meridian
203 DAC 5 and 203 DAC 7 Price: £125 each

RRP: £N.A


Description
Both Meridian digital analogue convertors for sale. Designed alongside the 200 transport. DAC 5 , IMHO is smoother with vocals and the most analogue w.r.t high frequencies. The DAC 7 improves on dynamic attack. Both will improve upon the sound of budget CD players that carry SPDIF or toslink output. (e.g Marantz CD63SE - removes digital glare and fatiguing quality)

Contact: Andrew
Seller: Private seller
Telephone: 0191 4832759
Telephone:

Email: [email protected]

Location:




Advert No: 13231
Date placed: 09/04/2003

 

now as it happens, I have a Meridian 200/203 combo that I would be prepared to split - make me an offer - both have box, manual etc.

I also have a Meridian 602/606 that I'm in the middle of negotiations about with my local s/h dealer but with no commitment either side.

 

I used to have a rather good super dac, with off board psu, until Iaasc fried the dac chip :chair: , but it seems we now have a replacement, he only did this so I could by a complete desoldering station with smt bits, cunning chap Wm

 

Right,
thanks for all these... funnily enough bottleneck I came across your page whilst searching for info about DACS!

I'm not going to spend much more than 100 quid on this DAC as the audio quality of the music (mostly MP3s) I'll be playing through it does not warrant spending a lot on a high quality DAC.
Something I have been told is that the "Arcams tend to have a warmer sound (1 bit conversion x 16 bit res) than more modern DACs (16 bit conversion & 18 to 24 bit res) which may sound a bit more aggressive as they search for detail and perfection". (I dunno if this is a generally held view tho).

The music I listen to (mostly modern electronic heavily effected stuff) would probably benefit from the aggression of more modern DACs, especially as the MP3s are already duller than the original recordings.

I'll see if i can find any reviews of the stuff around and contact anyone who has stuff that looks appropriate.

Thanks a lot for replying everyone
This is a truly great board.

 

... and i meant to say... what is wrong with the www.omigaaudio.co.uk web site at the moment?

 

I'm beginning to think A Meridian DAC 7 might be the thing for £125...
but does it look like this:
http://www.art-gallery.myby.co.uk/audio/meridian-203.jpg ?

If so, I'm going to have to find a way to cover it up!

Maybe the Audio Alchemy DAC-In-The-Box would be a better bet. At least it's small.

 

my 203 looks much smaller and would be only £124.99