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

Product Information

The DacMagicPlus now internally upsamples any connected source to 24bit/384kHz and has improved jitter reduction. It can accept 24bit/192kHz audio via its USB input, too – a quality that's rare over USB for DACs. There's a choice of Linear Phase, Minimum Phase and Steep filter modes, which you should experiment with, too (we liked Minimum the best). Devised by software specialist Anagram Technologies of Switzerland and licensed – exclusively, to date – to Cambridge, this uses high-power digital signal processing technology to perform the digital filtering function. The Cambridge Audio DacMagic is practical and good-looking too and we would rate it all-round as one of the best audio bargains we've come across in a while.

In some ways it’s most impressive as a desktop device, if for no other reason than it’s a colossal improvement on the sound of an unassisted MacBook Pro. Connected via USB-B and playing content (of various genres and file types) from the TIDAL desktop app, the gains in detail, heft, integration, focus, soundstage definition and plenty more besides, are obvious and significant via the Class A/B-powered headphone output. Generalmente, los convertidores de digital a analógico de los dispositivos digitales habituales carecen del nivel esperado y no permiten obtener toda la calidad de audio de las fuentes de sonido. DacMagic 100 toma directamente la señal de audio digital del dispositivo para omitir la tarjeta de sonido o el DAC del mismo. Procesa digitalmente la señal de audio mediante nuestra tecnología de diseño personalizado para mejorar enormemente la calidad del sonido y reducir los niveles de distorsión. Esto produce mejores niveles de detalle, una claridad espectacular y un escalado muy profundo de toda su música. COMPATIBILIDAD Conversor de digital a analógico con entradas digitales S/PDIF y TosLink, y una entrada de audio USB (todas compatibles con 24 bits) Is it a jump in performance on the original? Yes. It sounds better and does more, and if you value the extra features then the DacMagic Plus could be ideal.

Performance

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

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 Prices valid in stores (all including VAT) until close of business on 26th November 2023. (Some of these web prices are cheaper than in-store, so please mention that you've seen these offers online.)

Initial setup

The DacMagic 200M’s performance continues the momentum of the company’s recent hi-fi components, including the CX and Edge ranges. It’s recognisably ‘Cambridge’, characterised by a full, smooth tonality that’s complemented by an open, expressive and authoritative manner. Key to what made the DacMagic and DacMagic Plus so highly regarded when they hit the market was not so much that they used particularly cutting edge hardware, although they were far from shabby in this regard, but more that they implemented what they had exceptionally well. Beyond chasing the numbers, strong audio performance has always been about the circuit, the supporting components and the attention to detail putting it all together. The good news is that true 200M still delivers on this basic premise. If your DacMagic 100 is operating in USB Audio Class 2.0 mode, set the output sample rate to 192,000Hz. 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. Minimum phase filters do without the pre-ringing, but do have some phase shift in the audio band. The actual frequency response is, to all intents and purposes, identical to that of the linear phase filter. The 'steep' option, meanwhile, is another linear phase filter, but with faster roll-off above 20kHz so that, effectively, no aliasing occurs.

This folder will contain an installer for the driver, and a .pdf containing installation steps, and information regarding the use of the driver. Use with MacsThe whole right-hand side of the Cambridge’s facade is dedicated to displaying the sampling rate of the audio signal being fed into it. Several LEDs each labelled with a sampling rate –‘44.1kHz’, ‘48kHz’, ‘96kHz’ and ‘192kHz’, for example – light up to signify it. So if you’re playing a CD-quality file, the ‘44.1kHz’ LED will illuminate. Likewise, LEDs for MQA and DSD light up when those types of files or streams are detected. 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.