The Cambridge Audio DacMagic is practical and good-looking too and we would rate it all-round as one of the best audio bargains we've come across in a while. Standards of CD replay being what they are, it probably won't lift many modern players beyond recognition, but it could give a new lease of life to some older models and for computer-based music replay it is an excellent choice. Minimum phase filters do without the pre-ringing, but do have some phase shift in the audio band. The actual frequency response is, to all intents and purposes, identical to that of the linear phase filter. The 'steep' option, meanwhile, is another linear phase filter, but with faster roll-off above 20kHz so that, effectively, no aliasing occurs.

Devised by software specialist Anagram Technologies of Switzerland and licensed – exclusively, to date – to Cambridge, this uses high-power digital signal processing technology to perform the digital filtering function. Fed a 16-bit/44.1kHz rip of Dusty Springfield’s Son Of A Preacher Man, the DacMagic 100 serves up an open, spacious sound. Vocals are given space to breathe and, even with a mix of instruments thrown in, everything knits together well. If your DacMagic 100 is operating in USB Audio Class 2.0 mode, set the output sample rate to 192,000Hz.Meanwhile, steep is superlatively detailed in simple music – single voice/instrument, or just a few – but slightly loses out to linear in very dense textures. 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

Tonality is exceptionally neutral, with clean extension at both extremes and very well-balanced midrange. Better value than ever but with the same class-leading performance, the Cambridge Audio DacMagic 100 is a true audio bargain. 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. Whatever the theory says, it's good to be able to choose. The same is true of absolute phase, which can be inverted digitally by the DacMagic. All this wizardry is achieved by a Texas Instruments digital signal processing chip, aided and abetted by DAC chips from Wolfson and some decent op-amps and passive components. That smoothness clings to the violins leading Ólafur Arnalds’ Spiral (Sunrise Session) (24-bit/96kHz) in a way that makes it enjoyable without clouding the textural finesse or dynamic undulation of the strings that communicate the piece’s beautiful fragility. The Cambridge rides the dynamic ebbs and flows nicely, showing its grace in the quieter moments and its authority in the louder ones. 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. That seems an obvious requirement, but it's surprising how often it's not quite met – one finds that the entrance of a male voice puts a female one slightly in the shade, or vice versa.