DIGITAL SOURCE COMPONENTS

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Three Miniature
Portable USB
DACs
Have DAC, Will Travel
Steven Stone
For audiophiles who travel a portable DAC has become one of those “must-have”
travel accessories, right up there with a toothbrush and an unexpired credit
card. The first generation of portable USB DACs was big and had limited highresolution
capabilities in comparison to the current crop. But as technology marches
forward, more capabilities and smaller footprints abound. I’ll look at three small
USB DACs in this review—Cambridge Audio’s DacMagic XS, the Hegel Super, and the
Resonessence Labs Herus.
Cambridge Audio DacMagic XS
About the size of a small box of wooden matches,
the Cambridge DacMagic XS is one of the
smallest and lightest portable DACs I’ve seen.
It measures approximately 2 1/8" by 1 1/8" by
3/8" and weighs under 4 ounces. On one end
you’ll find a micro-USB input and on the other
end a 3.5mm stereo output. The top of the Dac-
Magic XS has its own analog volume control,
which “fully bypasses the soundcard and volume
control of your computer.” The two large
buttons, plus and minus, are easy to locate and
use even in dark or cramped spaces. Instead of
plastic, the DacMagic XS is housed in a beveled
brushed-aluminum case that should be capable
of surviving a high level of abuse. The DacMagic
XS has a small LED next to the headphone
jack that glows purple or blue when the unit
is operating properly and red when you try to
boost the volume past its maximum level.
Inside the Cambridge Audio DacMagic XS
you’ll find an ESS 9023 24-bit DAC chip that
supports PCM bit-rates up to 192/24 from a
USB 2.0 input. Straight out of the box the Dac-
Magic XS is set up as a USB 1.0 device, which
will only support a maximum bit rate of 96/24.
Switching over to USB 2.0 requires holding
down both the + and – buttons for at least five
seconds until the small light in the DacMagic
XS flashes three times. Once in class 2.0 the
DacMagic XS will remain a 2.0 device unless
you switch it back.
The most difficult part of using the DacMagic
XS with a Mac computer is finding the right kind
of connector to attach it to the Mac. The Dac-
Magic comes with a six-inch cable, but if you
need a longer one, which I suspect many prospective
owners will, the DacMagic XS shares
the same type of micro-USB connection as the
Astell&Kern AK100, AK120, and AK240. A&K
(and others) sell micro-USB cables on its site.
After attaching the DacMagic XS to one of my
Macs (I tried it with a MacPro desktop, MacPro
portable, and a Mac Mini), the AMSCP (Audio
Midi Setup Control Panel) on each Mac recognized
the DacMagic XS immediately. Once the
DacMagic XS was set for USB 2.0 operation the
AMSCP showed that it was capable of handling
up to 192/24 files.
The only ergonomic quirk I experienced while
using the DacMagic XS was that it was sensitive
to static electrical shocks. All it took was a couple
of strides across my office and back, then
touching the DacMagic to generate enough of
a static shock to disconnect the DacMagic from
the USB buss—it would vanish from the list of
DAC options in AMSCP. To correct the problem
I needed to disconnect and reconnect the Dac-
Magic XS from its USB connection, at which
point it reappeared on the AMSCP DAC list and
began playing as if nothing had happened.
DacMagic XS’s Sonic Sorcery
I’ve seen the question posed on multiple locations
on the Web, “Are thumb-drive-sized DACs
a real sonic upgrade or merely convenience
devices for accessing higher-definition music
files” In the case of the DacMagic XS the answer
is clearly, “Both.”
Since most prospective purchasers will want
to use the DacMagic XS with headphones, I
used a wide variety of different headphones
and in-ear monitors with the DacMagic XS.
With the most sensitive in-ears, such as the
Westone ES-5 custom in-ear monitors (115dB
sensitivity), the DacMagic XS did generate
19 Buyer's Guide to Digital Source Components 2014 www.theabsolutesound.com
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