Marantz PM6006 DAC VS Dragonfly Red

[Fra.berryhf]

Hi everybody,

This is a thread about Raspberry pi dacs and digital connections.

I'm moving to a new amplifier and the Marantz PM6006 seems to fit perfectly my budget. My current source is a Raspberry Pi 3B+ with a DACBerry One+HAT (https://www.osaelectronics.com/product/dacberry-one-plus/) and a Audioquest Dragonfly Red, I use both of them accordingly to my needs. I was wondering if the Marantz's DAC, a Cirrus Logic CS4398 (24-bit/192kHz), is better then one of the listed above. The DACBerry has a S/PDIF out, so I can connect the Raspberry to the Marantz's DAC trough the DACBerry. Once I heard from Darko that his Schiit modi 3 sounds better if the signal comes from the Topping D10S
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgRLCAbrr2c), using the Topping only as a S/PDIF converter. Getting to the point: do you think that the combo DACBerry One+ S/PDIF + Marant's Cirrus Logic would sound better than the Dragonfly Red? I'm asking also because I heard a lot about the Raspberry electrical noise and maybe the digital link could "filter" the signal and stop it. I know the best answer comes from a listening test, but, if you're in this forum, you probably understand that "need" of knowing that you're getting the best sound possible from your gear. Or maybe this is all moved by the fact I'll find my self with two unused dacs and I want to find a use for them. I hope this is not a dumb question, personally I think that I will keep on using the Dragonfly as my main Dac, simply because I'm in love with that sound. Every thoughts or opinion of the community is higly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

P.S. I use the Raspberry running Volumio + Dac with two setups, the main one, an old Yamaha integrated amplifier with two Triangle Borea Br03 and a secondary setup composed by the JBL Lsr 305 active speakers. I attach a pic of the jbls

 

[Tks]

Tough to say really, given Marantz's awful track record concerning performance of their modern AVRs for example.

The THD+N seems to be 92dB for the DigiOne (not great by today's standards, though the Red isn't great either at 87dB), and adding a Marantz into the mix doesn't seem sensible in my view personally. Also forget about the whole "digitally filter" aspect of the theory, the Dragonfly itself is digitally fed, so there shouldn't be much of a difference on that front.

Main thing is, if you enjoy the sound of the current setup, then don't bother with the Marantz (and in generally, don't bother with them at all, I take the company to be bad faith actors that do more insult to audio as a hobby these days).

As for suggestions, I have no idea what would suffice to replace the Marantz you have your eyes on. I'm not much of a speaker person (never owned passives), so trying to find an integrated amp - I hope someone could chime in with a decent recommendation.

 

[Fra.berryhf]

Thank you for you reply. I see you point but it's not easy to find a decent used integrated amp under 300 Eur in Europe. I personnally never heard nothin like this around Marantz, but I'm pretty new in the HiFi trade. That said, I should look for an integrated amp without an internal DAC as it would be just a waste of money. I gave a thought on the Rega Io, but here in Italy it costs around 350 EURs, about 100 more of Marantz.

So any advice for a good used Integrated Amp is highly appreciated!

 

[Fra.berryhf]

Update:
I finally purchased a used Marantz pm6006, I'll let you know how its DAC performs. Pretty surely my dragonfly red will sound better. Glad I did it

 

[Deanbed]

Tough to say really, given Marantz's awful track record concerning performance of their modern AVRs for example.

The THD+N seems to be 92dB for the DigiOne (not great by today's standards, though the Red isn't great either at 87dB), and adding a Marantz into the mix doesn't seem sensible in my view personally. Also forget about the whole "digitally filter" aspect of the theory, the Dragonfly itself is digitally fed, so there shouldn't be much of a difference on that front.

Main thing is, if you enjoy the sound of the current setup, then don't bother with the Marantz (and in generally, don't bother with them at all, I take the company to be bad faith actors that do more insult to audio as a hobby these days).

As for suggestions, I have no idea what would suffice to replace the Marantz you have your eyes on. I'm not much of a speaker person (never owned passives), so trying to find an integrated amp - I hope someone could chime in with a decent recommendation.

Am I missing something?. Marantz has a built in dac which I use. Now I read about people saying don't use the marantz pm6006 go for the dragonfly blue, I see that has a usb type connection with a phono out. I am confused what has a dragonfly git to do with listening through your marantz amp.they are 2 different machines. By the way I love the sound of the marantz pm6006. I play a lot of my flac music into it from my marantz cd6007 that has a usb port for digital input. I find no faults & music is fantastic.

 

[Deanbed]

Unsure what you meant. I already have a marantz amp the pm6007 & previously owned marantz although tried many others over 50 years but I went back to the marantz because it gave a more clear detailed realistic sound. Obviously it has a dac in it which must suit my sound as I enjoy it. I just wondered what a dragonfly red/ blue or whatever the colour is & what it could add to my listening, how & why? I listen through Sennheiser momentum 3 blue tooth headphones or B&W 607 s2 anniversary speakers. Mobile phone is a samsung s21 with loads of flac music but no headphone socket as my headphones & all my buds are bluetooth

 

[Deanbed]

I see these dragonflys are if you want you play files from your pc due to their usb connection so no use to me. I do have a few thousand flac files on my pc transferred to many usb sticks which I plug into the marantz cd 6007 as its a cd/usb player & very good too. I can't use a dragonfly due to no headphone socket on my samsung s21 ultra mobile. So not missing much then especially as more than happy with the quality

.

 

[Fra.berryhf]

The Dragonfly is a DAC, that means your audio source. So, if you listen to flac or mp3 files you have to hook up the Dragonfly to a computer (PC, Raspberry Pi or a smartphone will all work) and then you can wire it to your main system. When you use the CD6007 you're using the CD payer internal Dac, that should be decent, but there is always space for upgrade. You can for example connect you CD player via optical to an external dac (like the Topping d10, but not the Dragonfly that is USB only) and then to your amp.