Cambridge Audio 851N

After selling my Dangerous Music Convert 2, I still lusted after it. I just didn't use it enough to justify it's price of admission. In the SBAF DAC Talk II thread here, a member mentioned the Cambridge Audio 851D had the same AD1955 chips as the DMC-2, but another member said it was nothing to write home about. After losing out on two 851D's on the bay, I jumped up to a refurbed 851N unit from Cambridge Audio's ebay store.



I played with a RPI 3 last year with Volumio and moode or whatever it's called, and while initially it was a pain in the ass to get up and running, I did, and it worked ok feeding my Convert-2 through Dangerous' recommended Mogami coax to AES cable. It was a royal pain in the ass to search for music and use streaming services though. I'm too busy and lack the patience irl to have multiple boxes and fiddle f**k with archaic OS's when I get home after working 16hr labor intensive days. So I decided to to try CA's network streamer... and I so far I am impressed. I actually bought it before the recent talk of it in the DAC talk II thread came about, and have been listening to it for a few weeks now.

It recognized the 8TB HD I have plugged into my router, and all the music files immediately, and take the manuals advice and use an ethernet cable, the WiFI dongle can't keep up with hi-rezz files. Direct from the player and remote you can access Tidal and Spotify, but Qobuz requires the Stream Magic app (although, you can access the queue you've built in the app directly on the unit), and works exceptionally well.

I pulled out my secret weapon track to test the 851N... Santana's "Migra" which not particularly well recorded, but on lesser gear it can come across as a wall of sound. The 851N did very well separating the drums, Santana's amazing guitar, and the brass.

It's a pretty solid all in one network/DAC solution, but it's not the baby Convert-2. It doesn't have that guttural slam, and is more polite, but also less fatiguing with some genres of music. I can actually hear the difference between the Linear phase filter and Steep filter (more, dare I say analog with its slightly rolled off top end). It's not as polite as many of the AKM 4490 DAC's I've heard and their "Velveeta Sound", which I'm not a fan of, but enjoyed the Crane Song Solaris more than an Yggdrasil I heard on headphones through an Aficionado. The 851N's sound stage may not be quite as wide as the DMC-2, but does sound a bit deeper from memory.

Anyway, I quite enjoy this pinnacle of Best Buy/ChiFi technology, and all it's bells and whistles. No fuss, no muss DAC/Network Streamer/Pre Amp.

 

I have not had a chance to listen to a Lavry or Bricasti AD1955 DAC.

The 851N did do better than my Sony's DVP-9000 ES inboard speshul Sony chip with the low end of Daft Punk's "Doing it right". I tried the Sony straight into the CDi1000, and then used the Sony to feed the 851N. Straight from the Sony the mid range is better for my preferences though.

 

I have told you that is good!
It needs some burn in time to really shine.
I use the minimum phase filter.
Enjoy!

 

I wonder if one experienced with DACs that use the AD1955 could pick out a specific “house sound” of sorts from it. The AK449X stuff I’ve tried all has this similar treble timbre and bass texture that pops out to me every time. ESS chips generally have this flavor in the mids that’s pretty consistent, not to mention the shitty ones having the infamous treble glare. Would be interesting to see if this applied to other D/S chips.

 

AD1955 house sound is well the absence of character!
They remain at the background not playing foreground and don't scream for attention.
That's why they are out of fashion.
Now da chips need to exhibit character and be the stars of the show.