karenchn

I received my DAC two days ago. It sounds more three dimensional compared to my original setup. My MMG sound even more musical now. I am very happy with the result. Thanks a lot for your recommendation/advice. Karen

Hi Realhifi, I will try the Dragonfly to see what changes it make to the sound. It will be good to get a taste of something different :-) Regarding the Squeezebox touch I will look into it, the JRMC is working very well for me especially with the jremote app on my iPad. I am too lazy to learn to use another device. It is a good suggestion though. Thank you.

I probably worried too much about the USB loading. I will go with the Direct USB connection with the Golden Gate interconnect.

In some ways, I feel that the Halide Design DAC HD is an elegant solution for people like me who do not have experience/knowledge with cable and interconnect :-)

I do not really need a long USB extension cable, I just need something that provides some flexibility between the USB jack the Dragonfly to relieve the bending moment.

My music server is a desktop computer, so I feel uncomfortable with the moment exerting on the Dragonfly especially with good quality heavy interconnect.

It will probably take me a lot of learning before I can tell the strength and weakness of either solutions, and I cannot go wrong with either one of them. A question I have in my mind is the requirement on interconnect to use the Dragonfly up to its potential. I am looking at the AQ Golden Gate 3.5mm to RCA interconnect and still considering what USB extension cable to get. It will be nice if the whole package of the Dragonfly can be kept within $350.

Hi Judd, Thanks a lot for your advice. I will buy a Dragonfly and experience it. Like what you have said, the portability of it and being able to use it with good quality headphones is a big bonus for me. At times I find it difficult to enjoy my Maggies when my daughter is sleeping. The Dragonfly will be perfect for that. Karen

Hi Paul, I am sold on the Dragonfly DAC. Thanks a lot for sharing your experience :-) There are so many DACs on the market, and their performance cannot be judge by their spec and cost. it is helpful to have someone who have experience with them giving me a recommendation, especially one that does not cost a fortune :-) Listening to beautiful sound is a priceless experience. It is also a fun journey learning how to build a system that fits my need. Karen

Is the soundmax toslink output a weak link of my system? Because my computer can still do digital volume controls, I do not know how faithfully the soundmax chip recreate the digital waveform as optical signal for the Denon receiver to decode. I have disabled the volume control in JRMC, but my soundcard may still be in the way and degrading the signal. If that is the case, a decent USB DAC should solve this problem. I can just use my receiver as an amplifier until I get a real amp. If the affordable Dragonfly DAC indeed does a better job than my Denon 3311, it should be a good option for me. An alternate solution is getting the M2Tech HiFace. It should allow me to bypass the soundmax sound card and let the Denon decoding a cleaner signal. The Dragonfly does not cost much more than the M2Tech HiFace though, it maybe a better route to take until I move on to a new DAC. I will likely gain some SQ with the Dragonfly. I do not understand the power/maggies relationship very well. The shop owner who sold me the maggies knows HIFI. He has recommended me getting a Cambridge Audio Amp 100w/ch power level for not too loud type of listening, but I already have my 3311 at that point which has more power on paper. Right now, I do not hear distortion at the sound level that I listen to, so I am always curious about how much a more powerful amp can get me. Maybe my ears are not so well trained yet. I completely agree with the comment that the Pure Direct mode gives the best sound. I can hear much more detail in the Pure Direct mode than the Audyssey Stereo mode with room correction. It does more harm than good on 2 channel music.

Hi All, Thanks a lot for your advice. I did not know about Dragonfly until you introduced it to me. It is certainly something I look into seriously. Regarding amplifier I have been considering upgrading to a more powerful one from Outlaw or Emotiva. The NAD C390DD is very nice, but it is quite a bit outside of my budget at this moment. I will probably do my grade step-by-step and try to learn more before I spend a lot of money on some serious components. I remember listening to a pair of Magnepan 1.6 when I purchased my MMG. The clarity of the sound was amazing. It was like a real person singing in front of me on a stage, but the speakers were driven by Bryston amp and Audio Research CD Player as I remember. If my MMG is driven by the right amp with the right DAC, they will sound better too :-) Thanks again for all your advice. I will start with getting a Dragonfly USB DAC because it will allow me bypassing my sound card and give me the option of using either the Denon and Dragonfly DAC. I will probably learn something from that in the process. Karen

Hello, I am a newbie in computer audio, and I am not familiar with the digital audio signal between components. Right now, I am still using the onboard Soundmax HD sound card to feed digital audio signal through toslink (JRMC v17 WASPI event) to my Denon 3311 receiver for music playback. It works okay, but I believe that the Soundmax HD modifies the sound instead of letting the signal to passthrough in its original form. Here are my questions: Will I see sound quality improvement if I use a M2Tech HiFace to handle SPDIF instead of using the onboard soundcard? I am also thinking about buying an entry level external DAC like XDA-1, Dacmagic+, or Xonar Essence One to do the D/A conversion. Would it be a noticeable upgrade over my existing setup? I mainly listen to two channel music, and I mainly use the Denon receiver as a DAC and amplifier. My current setup: PC: Asus Rampage II Gene w/ ADI AD2000B HD (a.k.a. Soundmax HD) OS: Win7 64 bit Media Server: JRMC v17 w/ WASPI Event -> SPDIF Toslink (Supports up to 192kHz 24bit) D/A Conversion and Amp: Denon 3311ci Speakers: Magnepan MMG Please give me some advice. Thanks, Karen