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I currently use a Cambridge Audio Azur 640C for CDs, and a CA Azur 540D for DVD/DVD-A. I am happy with both and have no specific complaints, but I've been reading some glowing reviews of mid-priced DACs and I'm wondering if it's time to incorporate one.I'm considering getting a used DAC from Audiogon or Ebay in the $500 price range, then selling the 640C to cover some of the costs and using the 540D as the transport for all discs. I'm assuming the 540D transport would be very similar, if not identical, to the 640C.
Would the combination of the 540D and something like a Bel Canto DAC-2 or a Muse 2 be a decent upgrade from the 640C? Or should I just be happy with the 640C?
Follow Ups:
...not easy and sometimes different is better. Perhaps get the DAC you want to experiment with but keep your current gear until you've had sufficient time to really listen to the various combinations and settled on your preference. Then sell the whatever is extra (with an open mind that it might be your new DAC).
Recently I had a similar situation. I had heard the Cambridge 640C V. 2 and was so impressed I supplemented my Benchmark DAC-1 for CD playback. When the Cambridge 840C became available I replaced the Benchmark and 640C and have been very satisfied with the results. My system is balanced, so the 840C offered me the oportunity to have a truly balanced source for nearly all of my listening. Read my review of the 840C here at AA for all the details.
Good luck!
IMO don't sell anything before you've tried the alternatives at length. i.e., buy the dac first and try it on all the machines, etc.
keep in mind you will need a decent digital cable (figure at least $75).
the muse is a very good sounding dac but whether you will like it better than the cambridge at all times is doubtful. depends on the music, time of day, your mood, etc...DAC's truly are a matter of taste (if you can hear the difference at all).
good luck
Thanks. It confuses me a little seeing all the rave reviews for DACs on Audioreview and here - often making it seem like a DAC can take a system to another level. For example, this about the Muse:"Anyway, I've been listening to my Muse 2 for the past three days now and I have to say the effect is phenomenal."
"I haven't heard digital sound so amazing since I auditioned a pair of Magnepan 20.1's fed through with Levinson 36!"
"The Muse brought out every nuiance and every note so clearly and distincly I was startled."
"Yeah, when I heard the Muse 2 for the first time my jaw dropped! Never had any component except maybe speakers made such a profound improvement in the sound of music."
The Muse is a very solid, natural, and musical dac. if you are somehow unhappy with the cambridge sound (you don't sound too unhappy) then you can give it a try and then resell it fairly easily if it doesn't live up.
but believing hype is just setting yourself up for disappointmnet! :))
I'm not unhappy with the 640C.. then again I have nothing to compare it to!I suppose trying one would not be too bad - these things do not seem to lose their resell value.
Anyway, I've been listening to my Muse 2 for the past three days now and I have to say the effect is phenomenal.""I haven't heard digital sound so amazing since I auditioned a pair of Magnepan 20.1's fed through with Levinson 36!"
"The Muse brought out every nuiance and every note so clearly and distincly I was startled."
"Yeah, when I heard the Muse 2 for the first time my jaw dropped! Never had any component except maybe speakers made such a profound improvement in the sound of music."
Don't know the reviewer and haven't heard the Muse 2, but consider that every few months there are similar statements made about the latest equipment and have been made since CD was introduced to the public when playback was like "having the performer in the room!".
If such statements were true we'd now have replay far, far better than a live performance, so either this is the case or there are far too many jaws hitting the floor on a regular basis than is credible.
The problem is fast reaching crisis proportion in the health care industry. News at eleven.What would happen if the enthusiasm one brings to new gear could be applied to one's existing gear? Just a thought...
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