This was the first external DAC I bought for my hifi system.

My hifi system is AC Ryan HD2 mini > Optical digital out to DACMagic 100 > RCA Analog out to NAD C356BEE > PSB Image B6 bookshelf speaker + PSB subwoofer 5i .

The realtek chip in AC Ryan for playback 2 channels music is rubbish sounds as I expected, a good external DAC is a must if you are using network multimedia player for music.

I heard the name of Wolfson chip long ago, some says they are the best in planet which I was quite curious, so I bought this DACMagic 100 c/w Wolfson 8742. After I conected this DAC to AC Ryan playing FLAC music (Rip from CD) output as 16 bits/44, the result was very clean,open, detailed, dynamic & netural to warm sounds but definitely not bright & harsh. Even I played MP3 V0 file via this DAC, MP3 still sounds good to my ears, don't laugh I am telling you the truth !

I compared Wolfson 8742 chip to CS 4398 chip in my marantz CD6003, both sounds good to me but I like Wolfson 8742 slightly more (I don't means Wolfson is better) for netural to warm sounds, Cirrus Logic has some bright sounds.

When I connected my notebook to USB input of DACMagic 100, the same FLAC music played at 24 bit/96 as indicated on DAC (You can install free CA driver software to play 24/192 via USB) but I hear no different in 24/96 vs 16/44.

I bought it in Singapore for SGD370.00, a good budget DAC, I hope my review is helful to you.