Key to what made the DacMagic and DacMagic Plus so highly regarded when they hit the market was not so much that they used particularly cutting edge hardware, although they were far from shabby in this regard, but more that they implemented what they had exceptionally well. Beyond chasing the numbers, strong audio performance has always been about the circuit, the supporting components and the attention to detail putting it all together. The good news is that true 200M still delivers on this basic premise. Within the utilities folder, open ‘Audio MIDI setup’. In here select the DacMagic 100, and you will be given the option to modify the output sample rate. There have been concerns voiced that USB is intrinsically a more jittery interface than regular S/PDIF, so we tried our best to hear any differences between the various options. Frankly, we couldn't – certainly not consistently. Nor could we measure any, the DacMagic turning in measured results which in every way qualify it being as state of the art. As far as Bluetooth goes, the 200M is an altogether more qualified success – quite a bit of the alacrity, unity and positivity of its performance drops away a little. Everything’s relative though, of course, and the Cambridge Audio remains an engaging and enjoyable listen. And as a way of bringing some wireless connectivity to a system that has none, it could be a lot worse. Cambridge Audio DACMagic 200M review: design & usability

As far as usability is concerned, it really couldn’t be any more straightforward. There’s no control app, no remote control… so just make your digital connection, hook the 200M to your amplifier or plug in your headphones, and that’s all there is to it. You’ll need to set a volume level, of course, and investigate your trio of filter options – but fundamentally the Cambridge Audio is a very straightforward device. The Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M is a standalone multi input DAC, preamp and headphone amplifier. In 2021, this is a fairly commonly encountered specification and there are a number of products to choose from at or around this price point that offer it. Without the efforts of the 200M’s ancestors though, this might not have been the case. The DacMagic name has a great deal of provenance in this field. It first appeared when the world of digital audio looked very different to how it does now. You will need to make sure that the digital output from the DVD player (or another source component) is set to output two-channel PCM, rather than other signals such as bitstream, Dolby Digital, DTS or multi-channel, etc. How do I install the latest USB audio driver for the DacMagic 100?Apart from anything else, we just loved the clean but always extended and tuneful bass this setting gave, with an utterly convincing sense of timing that made the most of the rhythmic qualities of any musical style.

Since then, the DacMagic has existed in one form or another in the Cambridge Audio range. Recent attention has been more focused on adding digital inputs to the amplifiers themselves though so the 200M is the first new DacMagic in a rather long time. Is this still a fine way of boosting your digital capabilities or have the changes that the DacMagic name started moved to the point where you don’t need a standalone DAC any more?Move on to Emeli Sandé’s Heaven and the Cambridge paints a tonally even picture with well-mannered treble and weighty, precise low frequencies.

Tonality is exceptionally neutral, with clean extension at both extremes and very well-balanced midrange. We hook the Cambridge up to a Macbook Pro via USB type-B, feed it Arab Strap’s Fable Of The Urban Fox (16-bit/44.1kHz) and are instantly impressed by the articulacy of Aidan Moffat’s trademark poetic storytelling through the 200M. It not only communicates his unmistakable Scottish accent but also the masterful cadence of his delivery. The Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M - for both good and less good reasons - feels very much like a continuation of one of the most longstanding names in affordable DACs. I’m writing this conclusion while it is playing Agnes Obel’s Aventine into the Edge A and Kudos C1. It’s by far the cheapest part of the system and it doesn’t feel remotely out of place. It sounds fluid, realistic and engaging delivering on a long-standing Cambridge Audio premise of the technology being the means to an end rather than the story in itself. It now handles every format you’d realistically want to throw at it with the same effortless and thoroughly enjoyable musicality. On the inside, business is taken care of by a pair of ESS Sabre ES9028Q2M digital-to-analogue converter chips. These make the 200M compatible with PCM digital audio files up to 32but/784kHz standard, as well as DSD512. With MQA compatibility on board too, there isn’t a digital audio file worthy of the name that the Cambridge Audio can’t handle. As a result, we are treated to a version of the deluxe upsampling technology first seen in the 840C and 740C CD players from the Azur range.In some ways it’s most impressive as a desktop device, if for no other reason than it’s a colossal improvement on the sound of an unassisted MacBook Pro. Connected via USB-B and playing content (of various genres and file types) from the TIDAL desktop app, the gains in detail, heft, integration, focus, soundstage definition and plenty more besides, are obvious and significant via the Class A/B-powered headphone output. Cambridge Audio’s latest top-of-the-line DacMagic continues the legacy of the long-standing DacMagic model, the original of which earned Cambridge its first What Hi-Fi? Award in 1996. The 200M is 25 years and several evolutionary steps along the DacMagic line in terms of features and performance, but it hasn’t lost sight of its vision to sit among the very best at its level. The DacMagic 200M is a talented all-rounder: a safe buy indeed.