Hello. I am building a 2.1 audio system and would like to use seperates consisting of a Preamp, Phono Stage, and DAC (these could be in the same box or seperate) and a power amp. I have a power amp and am using a reciever for a preamp currently. I went to a not so local hi-fi shop today and here is what i heard....
The cambridge DACMagic is the only "budget" DAC worth considering
A preamp costing less than $1000 is not worth considering
A "budget" (<$100) phono preamp would sound pretty good for the money.
Stay away from all chinese products that are not extremely high priced
Toslink and Coaxial are better connections than USB for connecting PC to DAC
The owner of this shop says to stay away from grant fidelity with a 10 foot pole.
Most people on this board have read the reviews on the GF DAC-09 and they seem pretty favorable.
He says this box is rubbish. Where is the truth?
The DAC-09 seems perfect for me. It has the correct interconnects and it will switch my sources. It will take the place of a Preamp and control the volume. I hear its got a pretty good DAC, and its CHEAP..
Of course i will still need a phono stage.
Is the GF worth buying? Or will i regret wasting 20% of the money I will have to spend on a preamp in the long run?
BTW, I have B&W bookshelves and a powered sub. Alesis power amp. PC, phono and cable box are only sources..... and maybe a guest's music player.
THANKS!!
It sounds like the store wants to get a lot of your money.
I recommend that, if actual sound quality is what matters, you should focus your attention on speakers, getting the best ones you can afford (and placing them properly in your room, as well as eliminating any serious acoustic problems in your room). Since you are also interested in phono, you will need a good turntable, which is also going to cost you. I think if it is actual sound quality that matters to you, instead of impressing others, you will spend relatively little on the preamp and power amp (unless, of course, you end up with speakers that are difficult to drive, and then more will have to go into the power amp).
The reason for my comments is very simple. It is easy to get good sound from electronics, with a wide, flat frequency response, low distortion, etc. But with speakers (and analog sources, like turntables), even the best that money can buy will leave something to be desired in terms of these things.
And it is easy for people to tell the difference between many different speakers and analog sources in properly conducted double blind tests, though it is not easy to tell the difference in such tests with electronics (generally, if the gear is decent, it will be impossible). But many audiophiles have no interest in reality, and so they spend their budget on things that do not make any audible difference at all, and pretend that there is a flaw in scientific testing instead of their choices. Even if they were right (which they are not), they should still realize that a difference so great it shows up in such testing must be greater than any difference that does not show up in such testing, so if they had any pretense of being reasonable, they would still give you the same advice I am giving, as the speakers can make a dramatic difference. And so can different analog sources.
