Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M

Digital audio is brilliant, but it needs to be analogue audio before you can hear it. And the way it ends up sounding depends entirely on how you convert the digital audio files stored on your computer, on CD or from your favourite streaming service. DacMagic 200M performs the digital-to-analogue conversion perfectly every time, letting all kinds of audio systems sound better than ever before. 

DacMagic 200M is Cambridge Audio’s first product to support MQA.

MQA is an award-winning British technology that delivers studio-quality sound in a file small enough to stream. TIDAL, for instance, uses MQA technology to deliver master-quality sound in their Hi-Fi membership. Cambridge Audio’s DacMagic 200M can fully decode and playback MQA files, so they sound exactly like the original studio recording.

On the product, look out for the blue MQA indicator. This indicates you are playing an MQA Studio file, which has either been approved in the studio by the artist or producer, or has been verified by the copyright owner. The green indicator is confirmation you are playing and decoding an MQA music file.

At the heart of the DacMagic 200M is a pair of extremely high-quality ESS Sabre digital- to-analogue converters. They handle digital audio files up to 24bit/768kHz or DSD512, so they can deal with digital music of any kind stored on CDs, smartphones, computers - or anywhere else, for that matter.

Once a digital file is onboard DacMagic 200M, its twin DACs convert it to analogue information with all of its dynamics and detail intact. And, because the analogue signal it sends to your audio set-up is so astonishingly free of distortion, so precise and so lifelike, your system will sound more convincing and complete than it ever has before.

Despite the incredible number of features, the extensive functionality and the extraordinary technology on board the DacMagic 200M, Cambridge Audio has managed to fit it all into a beautifully built, flawlessly finished steel and aluminium box measuring just 52 x 215 x 191mm.

This means it will fit neatly and discreetly into any existing audio set-up without taking up loads of room or drawing too much attention to itself. All that’s required is a balanced or unbalanced connection to your system (and some mains power, of course) for DacMagic 200M to deliver you a sonic upgrade that’s way bigger than the box it comes from.

It’s possible to get digital audio files into DacMagic 200M in any number of ways. Digital optical, digital coaxial and USB inputs mean CD players, games consoles, laptops or any other digital equipment can be easily hooked up - and Bluetooth aptX reception means it’s just as straightforward to wirelessly deliver files from your smartphone or tablet too.

DacMagic 200M has both balanced and unbalanced analogue outputs, so can be easily connected to audio systems of all types, as well as switchable filters to give you different sonic options. Alongside its ability to deliver stunning sound to your speakers, it has a high-quality headphone amplifier with 6.3mm output on board too, so you can enjoy DacMagic 200M’s thrilling sound quality in private – at whatever volume you like.