Cambridge 851 DAC

scol78

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Is any one using the CA DAC ?
Just wondering what you think to it ?
Is it a better DAC than the onboard one in the CA CXN ?
 
to the best of my knowledge
the better dac implementation up to the analog outputs
in these days of mid 2018
at that price range
seems to be the one used in the marantz nd8006
(ess9016 with very very good analog outputs devices)
 
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Can you recommend a top notch DAC to improve on the onboard CXN DAC ?

Looking at Chord 2 Qute and NAD D1050
 
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psaudio directstream dac or directstream dac_junior
 
good ? sure !
top notch ? no, psaudio is
 
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How would this be wired into my system with the CXN and 851 integrated amp,Be curious to hear the difference using this over the CXN DAC.
Would I run a digital out from the CXN to Digital in on the RME
 
Would I run a digital out from the CXN to Digital in on the RME

I'd do exactly that, the same, myself !

there is a more powerful model with an a/d converter in addition to the d/a converter

I believe that the a/d converter
can be used to make a digital high quality copy of vinyl records, too ;)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/RME-ADI2PR...060172&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=RME+ADI-2+Pro+FS

and here are the usual customer reviews

https://www.thomann.de/gb/rme_adi_2_pro_fs.htm#bewertung

and then after the digital copy of the vinyl record
a declick stage with the acon declick module

Restoration Suite | Noise Reduction Plug-ins


 
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Im almost at the stage of ordering one of these RME DACs,is there any one here that has changed over to one and is there a good improvement ?
I did borrow a Ca 851N with the better DAC built in, over my CXN(wolfson)
I couldn't hear any difference.
 
I have an RME UFX which is a great ADC/DAC which I use as a studio recoding interface/mixer for audio production work. I won't say it has excellent sound, I would almost go so far as to say it just isn't there - which to me is the ideal and this is down to generally very good mic pre-amps and output stages. However, I do not use as a HiFi DAC, though I guess I could. The ADI-2 Pro FS does however look very much more suited to hifi use with the exception of lack of any remote control for digital source selection (though that seems to be sensibly automatic anyway).

For professional studio audio interfaces then RME have been my goto choice for many years now. As well as very transparent sound their software drivers have historically been very good and the functionality very good. Yes you can get better, but you can pay vastly more as well.

I think if I was looking for a pure studio monitoring DAC in this kind of price range, then this would probably be the first one I looked at.

Whether you will hear a difference is another matter.

[Edit - I have just noticed there is the more audiophile orientated RME ADI-2 DAC which excludes digital outputs and the ADC and is a lot cheaper and includes a remote, but otherwise seems as good - I think this would be more suitable for HiFi use rather than studio use].
 
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