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I've been toying with the idea of getting an external DAC. The issue is, my CD player had one of the best rated DACs of the internal variety when I bought it 2 years ago. It's a CalAudio CL-5. I'm wondering what type of improvement or change in the sound would result with the additon an external DAC. I'd be looking in the $1-2K price range. The ones I'm considering are the MSB Gold Link DAC and the Van Alstine Omega IV DAC. Any others worthy of consideration?
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John,
Welcome! If you are going to be considering a DAC upgrade I would suggest that you look at the California Audio external DACs. What is cool about the Cal external DACs is that they replace all the solid state electronics in the analog output stage with tubes. Keep in mind that it is not the DAC that determines how good the sound will be but the analog stage after the DAC.
Another thing to consider is going for another CD player altogether. If you are going with an external DAC, you will need a very good digital cable which can cost you some bucks.
Before you jump ship with your current CD player, I would suggest that you demo some other CD players in your system. You may find that your Cal CD player is pretty darn good and you will have to spend a lot more money to achieve a real improvement over what you have now.
My previous experience with Cal CD players, was that they are pretty darn good for the money. -
Michael,
I hadn't thought of CalAudio for an external DAC. I'll put them on my short list. Though what I really have my heart set on from CAL is there new 2500 series DVD player. It should be awesome with both CDs and DVDs.Comment
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John, there is one problem with this picture. How did you plan to connect the DAC? If your using your MC-1, here is my picture of this. I assume you will takes digital output from your player, input it digitally to the DAC, which converts to analog. Then connect that to the Lex. The key here is the Lexicon is a digital processor, and as such converts everything to digital before allowing it's processors the privlege of touching the bits.
So, what you wind up with is:
Digital->Analog->Digital->Analog
This takes all the benefit of the DAC away. In fact, you could wind up with a significant bit loss I would guess.
So the way to use the DAC is to DAC the digital output of the MC-1. I am not sure what you get out of this with 5.1 material. But I think you get all channels. Meaning, you couldn't use the MC-1 during theater playback while connected this way. You could only run 2 channel to correctly give the DACs the correct signal. Blah, I hate giving bad news. You got a good soul man. I hate to tell you this, your just not the one, lol.
Hope this helps John, and if you want confirmation, I think Philip Brandes is the guy we need to talk to on the Lexicon. He is very knowledgable. Maybe this is a 2 channel system only, or are you just talking about your best " 2" channels? If it's the first option, I am sorry for getting off track here
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Lex,
If I were a normal MC-1 only kinda guy that would indeed be bad news. However, my 2-channel and multichannel components though integrated at the amplifier/main speaker level are actually separate systems. My multichannel system structure is DVD>MC-1>5-channel/2channel Integrated(preamp bypassed)amplifiers>5.1 speakers. My 2 channel system path is CD>2channel amplifier(integrated)>2.0 speakers.
The external DAC would be apart of the 2-channel system path. If I decide to go that route. Which I may have to. Though this integrated solution to gaining the best out of both the multi and 2 channel system worlds works very well it does have one limitation. If I were to combine the source components (DVD/CD) I'd have a problem at the amplifier level. Though my Plinius 8150 does have theater throughput circuitry, which makes all this possible, it's got one little problem that just kills what I really want to do. The switch that takes the preamp offline does not completely block the analog signal from entering the Unit (Integrated amp). As such, if I were to combine my source components into one, such as a high end DVD player like the 2500 from Cal Audio or the new universal player from Pioneer, I'd have a problem at the signal path cross-path junction (the integrated amp). The new DVD/CD high end player would have both an analog interconnect going to the Integrated amp an digital interconnect going to the MC-1. I discovered a bit of an issue with this when trying to play a DTS CD on my current setup, via the Cal Audio player I have now. Talk about confusing a piece of analog gear; whew, it was like a cat when you tweak it's tail..about the same level of hiss!
Thus the reason for considering an external DAC and keeping the two system paths completely separate..though integrated
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