Frank VA graciously let me audition his equipment in his home the other day and allowed me to bring over my Cambridge Azure 840c and compare it to both his Solid State and Hybrid DAC's. Much to my amazement, both of his DAC's sounded much better than my 840c. The 840c had the edge in the high frequency range on cymbals but the DAC's were warmer with deeper more pronounced bass. They were smoother with less grain. (The Solid State unit actually had much more pronounced bass than the Hybrid, the Hybrid was maybe a little smoother.) The 840c was edgy and kind of sterile sounding so typical of some English gear.
It was a real eye opener to say the least. This comparison makes a good point that maybe all you need is a cheap transport and a good DAC. The 840c has been compared to CDP's in the $5000 range, I'd like to know what those reviewers where smokin when they said that! With that being said, Frank did measure the square wave of the 840c and compaired it to his solid state DAC and said the 840c was one of the best to come across his desk.
I have to say this about the 840c, I was able to compare it head to head in my system against the Marantz SA8001 SACD as well as my Music Hall 25.2 modded by Reference Audio Mods. The 840c had better resolution, transparency, tighter bass and gave more life like treble. It is however slightly on the bright side. I was not able to do the comparison using the XLR outputs.
Any one want to buy an 840c because I'm going to buy one of Franks DAC's!
