giantsteps

I actually said that "the DAC in the Azur 740C is superior to the one found in the DacMagic unit as confirmed by my email exchanges with Cambridge Audio." I did not say vastly superior... It is, nonetheless, superior and this can easily be proven by comparing the specs of the Azur 740C and the DacMagic and also from the mouth of the horse itself, Cambridge Audio.

All three? Do you mean the way I currently have it hookd up, PC to Azur 740C, and the old way I had it hooked up, PC to Azur 640R, and third using the DacMagic? If so then the answer is the first two methods. I never bought or tried the DacMagic, there was no point as the DAC in the Azur 740C is superior to the one found in the DacMagic unit as confirmed by my email exchanges with Cambridge Audio. Paul

I recently took the digital audio out from my PC and went into the Azur 740C's digital input using that as an DAC and then outputting the signal from the 740C to my Azur 640R receiver and the results were indeed impressive to say the least. I can definately hear an substantial difference using this method of interfacing the audio from my PC to the Azur DAC's versus taking the digital audio out from my PC and going directing into the Azur 640R receiver. The 384kHz upsampling provided by the Azur 740C versus the DacMagic's 192kHz upsampling is vastly superior and I confirmed all of this with Cambridge Audio directly. Thanks to all of those who responded to my querry. Paul

I've just done some further research on this and it appears that the DacMagic and the Azur 740C CD player both use the exact same DAC's: Dual Wolfson WM8740 24-bit. The Digital filters do appear to be different however: The DacMagic has: Texas Instruments TMS 320VC5501 DSP upsampling to 24bit 192kHz The Azur 740C has: ADSP-BF532 32-bit DSP Performing ATF upsampling to 24-bit 384kHz So it would appear that the digital filter in the 740C is much better as it is capable of upsampling to 384kHz as compared to the DacMagic which upsamples to only 192kHz. So it does seem that I would be better off taking the digital optical signal from my PC and then inputting that to my Azur 740C CD player where the signal would then be upsampled to 384kHz and then taking the signal from my 740C's RCA Analog outputs and sending that to my Azur 640R's RCA analog inputs. Does that sound correct? Paul

I agree and I am going to try taking the digital out from my PC and inputting it into my Azur 740C's digital input and use the 740C as an dedicated DAC for the digital signal coming from my PC. Thanks for your input. Paul

I own the Cambridge Audio Azur 640R A/V receiver and I am currently running an toslink optical cable out of my PC into the Cambridge Audio Azur 640R Receiver. I do not know if the 640R is redigitizing the input signal from my PC, but I don't think that it is. I do not believe that the Azur 640R receiver upsamples incoming digital signals which is why I was thinking about getting the DacMagic unit. Thanks for your input. Paul

Greetings, I'm new here and at the risk of asking a stupid question which I believe I may already know the answer to I will ask it anyway. I own an Cambridge Audio Azur 740C CD Player which as you probably alreay know features optical and s/pdif digital inputs which allows you to input other digital signals which in turn allows the 740C to upsample incoming digital audio signals. My question is as follows: I recently purchased a new Sony Vaio PC, the VPCL117FX/B, and I was considering purchasing the Cambridge Audio DacMagic unit in order to take the toslink optical digital audio signal that comes out of my PC and go into the DacMagic so that I could benefit from the upsampling that the DacMagic unit would provide me with. This would allow me to upsample any and all audio playback from my PC such as MP3 & 16-bit + 24-bit wave files through the DacMagic and then to my A/V receiver. I understand how the DacMagic works and what I can expect from it but would I not be able to acheive the same if not better results if I simply took the optical digital signal from my PC and went into the digital optical input on the back of my Azur 740C CD player and used that unit to perform the upsampling? Again, I think I already know the answer but I've been reading the posts here and you folks seem like you know your stuff so I'll let the experts weigh in. Thnk you. Paul