Beresford Caiman vs Audio-gd FUN vs Maverick D1

rambo

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Finally i have decided to upgrade my music setup slowly and one by one. So for the first item the dac. I narrowed it down to these 3 dac's based on price and reviews but not sure which one of them to buy.
1.Beresford Caiman
2.Maverick D1
3.Audio-gd FUN

Will be using a active speakers for now(altec lansing,might upgrade to passive speakers) and headphones ATH-A700. Source will be my pc so planning using spdif in of any of these dac.
Not very sure whic one to go for but i kinda like reviews of audio-gd fun but not sure.. Do help me decide..
Thanks in advance..
 
No idea about Caiman.

Have D1. It's USB In is not so good. If your PC has a Coax out, it may be better. You can opamp roll / Tube roll. It's a very good headphone amp. But, I don't rate it too highly as a DAC.

Am impressed by FUN reviews as well. But there are too many Audio-GD shills over in head-fi. haraakiri has a Audio-GD Sparrow. He may be able to explain better on what to expect.
 
I use the Beresford Caiman so I can tell you about it. Haven't listened to the D1 or the FUN so can't comment about those :) easantosh & vaibhav.gadade own the D1 so they might be able to help there. I'm not sure if anybody on the forum owns a FUN.

The Caiman and the D1 are in about the same price class landed in India. You probably know that the D1 is available from Pristine Note (with the superior GE NOS tube) for about 13.5K eBay India: Maverick Audio Tube Magic D1 DAC Head Amp +GE NOS Tube (item 260669363756 end time 26-Oct-2010 05:09:49 IST)
The Caiman cost me about 14K (for just the Caiman -- I'd ordered cables from them also) landed in India about a month back. Not sure about the FUN.

The Caiman is a very nice sounding unit. I use it to play CDs on my mass-market Philips DVD player and to play FLACs on my WDTV. I mostly use it for HP listening. The Caiman gives you a nicely detailed yet mostly warm sound signature. The bass is nice and defined, but lacks heft -- you kinda get used to it after a while. The soundstage improved quite a bit (as against listening to the DVD player with no Caiman). I bought the Caiman for the ability to give my DVD player a boost in sound quality, to play FLACs and to use it as a HP amp. Also to use it with a future HTPC project. Everything else was a bonus to me. I've burned the Caiman in for about 215 hours now and I like how it sounds. I'm quite happy with the purchase. The only thing I'd have liked in addition to all this is an analogue input or line-in.

The D1 has the advantage that it has a line-in input as well as an analogue input. The Caiman does not have these features. The D1 also has a tube stage, so if you like the tube-flavour, that is a definite bonus. I also personally like the looks of the D1 better (I'm a sucker for polished aluminium) :) .

The Caiman has two coaxial inputs (in addition to the optical and USB inputs). The D1 has just one Coaxial input (in addition to the analogue, optical and USB inputs). I mention this as two coaxial inputs will help you run a PC as well as a DVD player at the same time. (The USB input of both these DACs are supposed to be not as good as the coaxial input.) This was an important factor for me.

The HP amp of the D1 is also supposed to be quite powerful, more powerful than the Caiman. Some people do not like the stepped volume control of the D1. The Caiman has a class-A HP amp. I'm not completely sure of this, but I think the D1 has class-AB HP amp.

The FUN also has analogue inputs (RCA pair) which the Caiman does not have. I don't know a whole lot more about the FUN, sorry :)

Hope this helped. To me, half the fun in buying gear is the search and research. Have fun :)

EDIT: Looks like easantosh has already answered :)
 
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thanks for info guys...
Thanks hydra for the detailed info..
I vote out D1 as many recomemend it only if your modding it ... So now its between caiman and fun..
A question does a pre-amp mean that i can use it along with passive speakers ,instead of adding a active speaker or dedicated amp?
 
Pre-amp still needs an amp.

What is your budget? If you can stretch it a bit, you can look at V-DAC, CA DacMagic etc., There are other choices as well, but it won't fit your needs as both are USB only DACs.

One is HRT Music Streamer II, severely restricted as it needs a separate headphone amp. Review here: The HRT Music Streamer II: Asynchronous 24/96 for $149.95! | Headfonia

You can also look at Audinst HUD-MX1 for DAC-cum-Headphone Amp @ $179. Review here : Audinst HUD-MX1 | Headfonia
 
Thanks for clearing that..
I specifically need spdif in and headphone out..
Dint check the DACmagic but i believe from reviews FUN sounds better..
Was considering V-DAC esp for the price point of view but then i got pulled to Audio-gd FUN and breseford caiman..
But i think i go with FUN.. i dint do much research towards D1 or Caiman so just deicded to ask since it was cheaper..
But i think i will go with FUN.. (i believe it wont be bad choice anyhow) just costlier..
Was Audio-gd Sparrow an old version as i dont see it in their site..?
 
Thanks for clearing that..
I specifically need spdif in and headphone out..
Dint check the DACmagic but i believe from reviews FUN sounds better..
Was considering V-DAC esp for the price point of view but then i got pulled to Audio-gd FUN and breseford caiman..
But i think i go with FUN.. i dint do much research towards D1 or Caiman so just deicded to ask since it was cheaper..
But i think i will go with FUN.. (i believe it wont be bad choice anyhow) just costlier..
Was Audio-gd Sparrow an old version as i dont see it in their site..?

fun is 300$ and shipping is 60$ approximate is that correct ?
 
Hope that shipping charge includes customs duty etc.... but I am gonna still wait for Emotiva XDA1 to launch in nov :rolleyes: . Or Arcam rdac... Any idea if this audio-gn is better than those two...
 
I don't think haraakiri was charged any customs (as far as I know), if that's what you are asking ;). The shipping is by EMS and you can never be sure of customs. For my small pack of Sun HDAM, I got a letter from Customs department. But, was not charged any duty.

Audio-GD is tuned to sound "natural", at least that's what I gather from reading in Head-fi. May be haraakiri and Brendon (who owned Compass previously) can chime in.
 
I didn't pay any customs, but you never know. Fun is larger in size than sparrow(which is small considering it's externally powered desktop amp), so whether you would be asked to pay customs, not sure. audio-gd would undervalue it, so you might not need to pay heavy custom duty.

Version A has better components, it doesn't sound better than version B. It's upto you whether you would pay 100$+ for better components. Just make sure that you ask Kingwa to replace AD1852 with WM8741(15$ extra).
Another important point to note would be that FUN and SPARROW have similar SQ. You are paying more for features like gain switch, pre-amp out, analog input, rollable opamps. If you don't want that you could actually opt for sparrow which will costs less. And you could also go for BNC version if you aren't going to use USB which anyhow might be noisy on many systems.
I got BNC version sparrow for 135$ + 35$ shipping. If you opt for WM8741 you could get it for around 150$ + 35$ shipping for around 185$. No better VFM. :)

And yes, sparrow is very neutral to my ears.
 
Yes, that's what it means. Do enquire with kingwa himself, differences in A and B version with WM8741. He is very patient and would answer all of your questions. Keep your sentences simple as he isn't great at English.
He did suggest that if you use better cables and power filter, you might be able to tell the difference between A and B versions.
 
I have sent enquiry email and got reply as follows

FUN Version A(Default applied WM8741) is USD345
To India,the shipping cost is USD61 by EMS
Total price is USD419.3 include Paypal handling charge
Our Paypal accounts is
[email protected]
After you make the payment, send us a email include your Address and the Telephone number please.
And we will declare the FUN value is USD120(not include the shipping cost).



FUN Version A is USD345
1 OPA EARTH Dual is USD20
1 OPA SUN Dual is USD20
To India,the shipping cost is USD61 by EMS
Total price is USD460.6 include Paypal handling charge
Our Paypal accounts is
[email protected]
After you make the payment, send us a email include your Telephone number please.
 
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