[drphoto]

With the right material my modded DacMagic can throw a huge soundstage. It's very impressive overall. I've never heard a stock unit, but I would suspect the weaknesses would be the wallwart PS and the output stage. Maybe something like an Elpac PS and one of the inexpensive tube buffer units would still render it cheap and cheerful. Mine has a pretty hefty linear, regulated PS.

[turkey]

I've come to feel that a separate DAC is not always a good idea. I had a standalone DAC for roughly 15 years, had it upgraded a couple of times, and tried others as well.

I sold the DAC and I'm using a CD player now. I'm quite happy with it, and it's Cheap and Cheerful.

[RCduck7]

I've come to feel that a separate DAC is not always a good idea. I had a standalone DAC for roughly 15 years, had it upgraded a couple of times, and tried others as well.

I sold the DAC and I'm using a CD player now. I'm quite happy with it, and it's Cheap and Cheerful.

Since the popularity of DAC's has grown in recent years i found it akward that so little few CD players include the feature to use also it's onboard DAC.
I found that the DAC in my cd player performs very well but sadly i need a standalone DAC for my other sources wich is again an other component, money and more clutter in the house.

[Wind Chaser]

...a standalone DAC for my other sources wich is again an other component, money and more clutter in the house.

As much as I respect Cambridge Audio, I've relegated my CDP do doing only the work of a transport.  My external Beresford DAC isn't merely better, it's a quantum leap forward.

[Letitroll98]

As much as I respect Cambridge Audio, I've relegated my CDP do doing only the work of a transport.  My external Beresford DAC isn't merely better, it's a quantum leap forward.

+1 on that.  Or I should say the CA was relegated as a transport, the ol' Cambridge CD6 has started malfunctioning again and is not worth the cost of another repair, I substituted in a Oppo that was lying around.  But yes, the Beresford unit, or as I prefer the JEC unit that Beresford rubber stamps his name on, is the low cost king of DAC's.  A lot of mods out there for it as well.

[RCduck7]

As much as I respect Cambridge Audio, I've relegated my CDP do doing only the work of a transport.  My external Beresford DAC isn't merely better, it's a quantum leap forward.

Well, my cd player isn't a Cambridge Audio, it is a Chinese MHZS tubed player. But i do need an external dac for my other sources. I might look to replace my cd player for an other cd player in the future if it would let me use the onboard DAC seperately and if it would sound at least as good as my current cd player of coursse.

[Wind Chaser]

One thing about the Beresford is it really needs time to break in.  Cold out of the box it sucked.  It began to unravel after 20 hours, but don't judge it to critically until it has accumulated many more hours.