It was an audiophile’s nightmare.
A shiny little round platter called the compact disc had taken over the world and made the LP a relic. It quickly became the choice of music fans. Audiophiles cringed and tried to show the public that going the way of the CD was horrible. With its inferior sound quality and high price, the CD was no match for the high fidelity of the LP.
No matter.
Many listeners, except for audiophiles, were amazed with the supposed audio clarity the discs offered. No more scratched records. No more pops. No more getting up to turn over a record.
The CD did eventually become the standard for listening to music. And even audiophiles not only bought them, but they would concede that some CDs actually sounded very good.
Time and technology have now made the CD a relic. Since the compact disc virtually made the LP extinct, audio karma would have its day on that shiny little platter. MP3 sound and iPods have halted the CD as a preferred method of music playback. Even the LP record has come back in style.
Where does this leave the poor CD?
The CD Is Still Alive
Though MP3 files are popular, many listeners still have sizeable CD collections. Using a tool like iTunes and a computer, they’ve converted their CDs into low fidelity MP3 files. By doing this, most of the audio information is tossed out and listeners are left with only a fraction of the sound quality. It may be fine for listening through ear buds, but through big speakers, no.
There is still life in the CD.
Most CDs produced from the 1980s through the early-1990s simply didn’t sound all that great. They often sounded bright and mechanical, which was a far cry from the warmth of an LP. But recent advances have made CDs sound very good, if not excellent.
Yet, many listeners still play them on CD or DVD players that are cheaply built. Part of the problem is the DAC (digital-to-analog converter) on these players. This is the device that converts digital signals into analog so that they can be played on an audio system. Get a bad DAC, get bad sound.
Meet the V-DAC
Musical Fidelity is a high-end British audio equipment manufacturer. Their amplifiers and compact disc players are highly touted in the audio press. Some of their products command a high sum, but are considered worth the price. They’ve released the “V-Series” line that offers high-end performance for a moderate price.
The company recognized that one of the major stumbling blocks of most CD players was the DAC. Those digital waves of sound might be okay on the CD, but once they’re passed through a poor DAC, the sound can become intolerable.
The V-DAC takes high-end principles of a great sounding DAC and puts them into an attractive metallic black box. An audiophile can buy a DAC costing well over $1000.00, but the V-DAC offers high performance for under $300.00. According to Stereophile magazine, inside this box is a Burr-Brown DSD1792 chip, and a SRC4392 upsampler. For USB users of the V-DAC, a Texas Instruments TI2706 chip is used. These are considered to be excellent chips.
The concept of the V-DAC is simple. Instead of using the CD, DVD or Blu-ray player’s DAC, a listener uses the V-DACs digital-to-analog converters. A listener plugs a coaxial or TOSLINK digital cable into the V-DAC from the CD player. For computer audiophiles, a USB jack is also included. A listener simply flips a switch to toggle between using a CD player or computer. On the other end are two RCA jacks. Plug those cables into the analog jacks into the back of a receiver or pre-amplifier.
Excellent Sound For Very Little Dough
The V-DAC lifts ordinary and decent CD players into high-end territory. That might make some audiophiles laugh who have multi-thousand dollar rigs, but it’s true. CDs played through the V-DAC take on a more relaxed character. Good and excellent recordings sound very natural, and the soundstage has more depth. The sheen, harshness and jitter associated with many CD players disappears.
The player used in this review is an older Sony ES CD/SA-CD player. CDs played through the Sony DACs sounded fine, but hardly overwhelming. The V-DAC, however, makes the Sony ES worthy of its family lineage.
Audio tracks from Eric Clapton’s Unplugged CD, an audiophile favorite, sound even better through the V-DAC. Bass and sound staging, always a strongpoint on this album, become even clearer and more relaxed. Tracks from various remastered CDs also sound sublime. The beauty of the V-DAC is its ability to stay out of the way of the music.
How do poorly mastered CDs sound? The V-DAC won’t improve something that is already poor to begin with. But it will help make it sound at least tolerable. It’s better to shell out a few dollars for a newly remastered CD.
Music files from a computer through the V-DAC sound better than the original CDs the music came from. Not quite a night-and-day difference, but the WAV/AIFF files sound quite good. As for those MP3 files, if they’re done at a reasonable bit rate of 320kbps, the sound isn’t too bad. With hard drives costing little these days, there’s no reason not to use the highest quality file formats like WAV, AIFF or FLAC.
Sweet Sounding V-DAC
Musical Fidelity has a real winner on its hands. The V-DAC is simple to use, costs little, and it fits right into almost any audio set up. Taking the company’s dedication to great sound, the V-DAC can help turn even a modest sound system into a great one. And those pesky CDs don’t have to sit in the dust anymore.
