External DAC with Cambridge CXN V2

Anybody here using an external DAC with their CXN V2? Initially I was using the Schiit Bifrost 2 with my CXN and liked the CXN internal DAC better so I sold the Bifrost. My integrated amp has a built-in DAC and I never tried it out until a few days ago and it sound much better than the CXN internal DAC. I am moving more and more to digital and am wondering how much more I can improve the performance with an even better DAC.

I am looking at things like a Schiit Gumby, Border Patrol SE i, RME ADI-2 and Denafrips Ares 2. I am leaning towards the Gumby as the Schiitr is just 30 minutes from me and would be easy to return if I don't like it. The Border Patrol is bottom of the list due to only one input. I have no need for an USB input. Also open to other suggestions if anybody has one. Budget is about $1300. One other interesting DAC is the Doge 7.

 

Are you sure that your integrated doesn't just just play louder at a given volume setting?....the CX series has an excellent DAC.Unfortunately even when our systems sound excellent we audio loonies go looking for the next purchase....sadly i am looking at equipment racks because it's likely to do the least damage to to the sound of my system,but i must buy something

 

The idea of having selectable filters is always tempting, I would get something with USB as you never know when your needs might change. When using the Cambridge DAC you are using analogue interconnects, that might be playing a part in making your amp DAC sound better.

 

The integrated is a bit louder and I have compensated for it. Maybe I should use my sound level app and try to be exact. But what I am hearing is a better defined bass through the integrated internal DAC.

And yes, most of us are never satisfied and always looking for the next improvement.

 

True, using the internal CXN is going to the amp via RCA's and when using the amp DAC, it is being fed by toslink. My transport also sounds better going through the integrated as opposed to the CXN DAC. The reason I really don't need the USB is because I have removed my Mac from the audio system. I am using a Roon Nucleus for the core and the CXN as the endpoint.

 

Subscribed. I’m interested in all those DAC’s as well as the Benchmark.

 

Also looking at Benchmark which is a bit more than the rest.

 

I think I’m going to try out the Gungir Multibit as I’m also thinking of a Freya+...and the new Unison USB is interesting.

 

Do you also have a CXN V2?

 

Sorry, no. Raspberry Pi 4 running Ropieee

 

I’ve used the original CXN and more recently the CXN V2 with a variety of DACs. To my ears, nothing under $1,000 is up to the quality of the excellent integration of the dual Wolfson WM8740 DACs in the CXN V2. I think Cambridge has done a superior job with the design of the analogue output stage. To my ears, the internal DAC sounded better than the Schiit Gungnir, RME, Topping D50, the old North Star Incanto (which is saying something, I think - that was a truly great DAC for the money), and half a dozen other DACs in the $500-$1500 range. Cambridge knows its business and it knows how to design good analogue output

I’ve currently using a CXN V2 to feed a Benchmark DAC3 HGC. It’s an absolutely stellar combination, as is the combination with a MyTek Brooklyn DAC+. I consider the CXN V2 with either of these DACs to be a true high-end solution capable of delivering exemplary sound quality to whatever amplification someone has.

The Naim DAC V1 also works brilliantly with the CXN V2, as does the Denafrips Ares, the older Chord 2Qute and the newer Qutest, and the still-terrific Marantz HD DAC1 (which, even with the Denafrips Ares on the market, is still punching above its weight IMO).

 

@Agitater Thank you for your detailed response, I value your opinion especially regarding the Gungnir. I am not unhappy with the current setup, just always looking for the next incremental improvement. The Benchmark seems like it may be the one to go with and I also will look into the Marantz HD DAC 1. Unfortunately there are no options available for in home trials so I have to depend on input from people who have used the various pieces of gear.

 

For $1500 you could have the CXN V2 modified by Modwright which I suspect will be more of an upgrade than a similarly priced new external DAC. If we get a bonus this year I'll have mine upgraded.

 

Music Direct carries Benchmark. It looks like they're out of stock fo the DAC3 B (DAC Only), but have the DAC3 HGC in stock (preamp and headphone amp added)

 

I have actually taken a look at this also.

 

DAC only is what I prefer as I have tried a number of headphone amps over the last few years and didn't like any of them. Once again, I prefer the headphone output from my amp. Benchmark does have the DAC 3 in stock. I do prefer MD as I have a 0% CC with them and can spread the payments out over 6 months or so.

 

have you called them? if benchmark has them in stock, i wonder if they'll drop ship via MD? Jon Schulman at MD is great.

 

Not yet as I haven't made a decision yet. MD says available to ship in 3 to 7 days so I assume they have them on order.

 

My hearing tells me that the Marantz HD DAC1 offers a full-range experience, with the addition of a kind of middle mid-range and upper mid-range warmth that keeps the HD DAC1 in place for a long time in a lot of budget-price, mid-price and some quite high-price systems. The HD DAC1 is just good enough to nudge and nibble at the entry to the high-end, IMO, as long as the rest of the system is absolutely operating at its best. That is to say, speaker placement must be truly optimal for the given listening room and its appointments, amplification must be genuinely respectable - e.g., no cheap A/V receivers slapped together with every conceivable feature cheaply included just to tick a lot of boxes; no cheap integrated amps, SS or valve, designed to impress with looks and the sort of ‘smiley’ voicing that tires listeners after a while - and speakers have to be something other than budget specials that the most widely read reviewers tout as, “...remarkable, yes, truly remarkable for this low price...” because that’s actually an insidious indictment rather than a compliment or an endorsement. Basically, the HD DAC1 is notably better than its price suggests (for anyone who, at least in part, judges audio components according to their retail prices), which means that people who keep surrounding the HD DAC1 with better and better quality components and better and better quality music masterings are often surprised by how long and well that DAC keeps holding its own.

The Benchmark DAC3 HGC is in another, higher class of DAC altogether. To my ears, it is simply better in every respect. The design of its analogue output stage is among the best - though perhaps not the absolute best - that can be found at any price. If the DAC3 HGC was being designed, produced, marketed and distributed to retailers by a company such as Weiss or Chord or Nagra or Luxman or Mark Levinson, and so on - with all their marketing costs and distributor support and inventory production requirements and retailer support, as opposed to the partially direct sales model that Benchmark uses - the DAC3 HGC might conceivably be priced somewhere in the US$6,000-$8,000. That's a retail vs. partially factory-direct reality that I’ve cobbled together for what it’s worth.

The DAC3 HGC begins, for the most part, where the HD DAC1 leaves off. Bass clarity, bass timbral accuracy, and respect for any bass mix on any recording is fully present. Midrange accuracy - acoustic instrument timbral accuracy is superb, vocal realism is superb especially in situations when someone is listening to a high quality recording and mastering of a specific singer whom they’ve previously heard in a primarily acoustic environment - and treble extension is balanced and realistic out past the audible range in a way that never overarches or dominates the listening experience unless a recording properly calls for it. The headphone amp built into the HGC version is also excellent, offering most of the same qualities as the analogue output of the DAC.

The other thing that sets the DAC3 apart is its configurability. Those wonderful jumper pairs on the main circuit board(s) in the thing can be adjusted to suit any main system and just about any pair of headphones. The external/faceplate controls are equally versatile. Those are the reasons that the DAC3 HGC user manual is so extensive.

I like Schiit as a company and I like several Schiit products. The design of the analogue output stage of Schiit DACs is not something that I can live with though, except for the Yggdrasil. I think the Yggdrasil is the best multi-bit DAC in the world, and that at $2499 or $2599 or whatever it is right now it’s actually a bargain. It doesn’t do the uber-high ‘resolutions’ that competing DACs offer, but I could care less about that because in all of the listening sessions I’ve conducted in which listeners never knew at any given time whether they were hearing 16/44 or 24/96 or DSD or whatever, the only notable differences they could hear were related to spatial air, i.e., the acoustic environment of the recording session or whatever was left of it or artificially added in a given mix. That said, the Yggdrasil does a superb job in that regard too. Like the Benchmark DAC3 HGC, the Schiit Yggrdrasil does an exemplary job in even seriously high-end systems.

 

If you want to have some fun, get get the Jolida (now Black Ice?) Glass DAC with tube output for only about $500. I upgraded with a cheap Pangea cord, and upgraded the stock $30/pair Tung Sols with $130/pair Gold Lion matched set. I have 2 digital sources that I run both the analog output directly to my integrated, and the digital outputs go through the DAC first. It lets me play with different sounds/tubes pretty cheaply. My non audiophile wife says the Jolida sounds "more stereo"!

 

Thanks for that, will take a look at it.

 

@Agitater I am thinking that the best thing to do is save up a bit more and go with the Yiggy. I like that Schiit is just a 30 minute drive from my house and also like the 5 year warranty. Buying a DAC from China or Asia in general like the Denafrips is a concern if I were ever to have a problem with it. The rest of my system is up to the level of the Yiggy so it only makes sense.

 

Frankly, and without the slightest exaggeration or anything else untoward, I think the Yggdrasil is astonishingly good. It does so much so well, to my ears and to the ears of many other serious fans of that DAC, that superlatives in a thread post like this just can’t do justice to it. That the shop is so accessible to you is a serious bonus. The Yggdrasil is, IMO, domestic design and engineering brilliance from a gang of audio hawks that have been making highly successful products for a long time. The Denafrips Terminator is also superb, as is the Bryston BDA-3 and a long list of other top-rated DACs between US$2,500-$10,000, but none of them are necessarily better than the Yggdrasil or better than each other. That they each have a somewhat different design for their analogue output stages each of which differentiates them in the marketplace and makes one or more of them preferable than the others to a particular audiophile. That doesn’t alter the fact that they’re all great DACs.

Doing an Yggdrasil audition is always a highly rewarding experience in my view!

 

The Schiit website says out of stock until the end of April which works very well for me. The delay is most likely due to the availability of AKM parts. They probably have one at the Schiitr in their demo room but that doesn't really cut it. Need to hear it in my setup.

 

Bit late to the party but I bypassed the internal DACS in the cxnv2 via coaxial out, firstly into a SMSL su-8 that I had spare and that was an improvement over the onboard DACS. I mentioned this to a friend who also had a cxnv2 and he decided to run it through a Chord Qutest and was astonished at the results. I have a 2nd system which was using a Marantz hd dac1, I decided to swap the smsl for the Marantz and lets just say the Marantz has stayed there and the smsl has gone to the 2nd system. My main set up is Cambridge cxnv2 into Marantz dac 1 then Naim Nait xs2. I use all digital sources via pc, nas drive or streaming services and occasionally cd.