Technology News, Reviews and Buying Guides review, monitor review, tablet review, laptop review, mobile review, smartphone review, buying guide,
Cambridge Audio has announced the DacMagic 200M, a digital to analog converter (DAC) that doubles as a headphone amplifier. The Preamplifier product has a minimalist design: on the front, there are three buttons (on/off, source, and filter selection), a headphone output on a 6.3 mm jack, a central knob, and a series of indicators the selected source, the filter in use and the sampling frequency of the input signal.
The Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M is the successor to the DacMagic Plus and is equipped with a double ESS Saber ES9028Q2M DAC in dual mono configuration, i.e. with separate treatment for the left and right channels. There is support for files in MQA format, used by some streaming services, such as Tidal, to increase the quality while listening.
Connectivity is extensive: wirelessly you can take advantage of the Bluetooth receiver in version 5.0 with support for the A2DP profile and the SBC and AptX codecs. Then there are two optical and coaxial digital inputs (two of each type) and the USB-B port for connection with a PC. The supported sample rates are as follows:
- Optical input: 44.1kHz to 96kHz, 16 – 24-bit in PCM.
- Coaxial Input: 44.1kHz to 192kHz, 16 – 24-bit in PCM.
- USB: 44.1kHz to 768kHz, 16 – 32-bit in PCM, DSD native DSD64 to DSD512.
Regarding the Class A/B headphone pre amp, Cambridge Audio declares a total harmonic distortion of less than 0.0005% (1 kHz, 0 dBFS, A-weighted), a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 115 dB (always A-weighted ), an output power greater than 300 mW at 32 ohms or more than 65 mW at 150 ohms and a frequency response between 10 Hz and 50 kHz. The use of headphones with impedance between 32 and 600 ohms is recommended.
The equipment is completed by the two analog outputs in a balanced version on XLR and unbalanced on RCA. The dimensions are 52 (H) x 215 (W) x 191 (D) millimeters.
Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M price and availability
The DacMagic 200M Preamplifier USB DAC is now available to pre-order at Bhphotovideo.com online webshop. The list price is set at $499.
Recently, Schiit Audio has also introduced its latest low-cost DAC AMP model called Schiit Modi 3+. New Schiit DAC is completely made in California, USA like other high-end headphone amp models, and priced at $119.
