Since a few have asked of my experience privately, I wanted to give a brief summary publicly, as it may be useful for others. Plus Mike asked for it.
As mentioned earlier Audiomagus was generous enough to send a prototype for a meet and was always kind enough to answer my questions on the phone. The people I talked with were always knowledgeable on technical questions and sorry if there was a problem. The value of good customer service can't be overemphasized.
But good customer service requires some competency in the basic service arena and Audiomagus is a disaster here. I gave them some slack and even defended them for delays in a new product introduction though statements where often inconsistent ("We're assembling them right now. I've got bruises on my hands already." "We're going to spend the whole weekend to get these out." "We're starting Monday." "Oh yes, we've been shipping. We'll get to yours shortly".). After a final grounding/buzz issue delay my two models arrived - serials #0001 and #0002 (I'm not sure if the 'rush' to send them was my connection to this community, but I have my doubts how many earlier units were shipped).
And one of them still ended up with a grounding issue. Coupled with mapstecs, that makes 2/3rds of the units we know about had a fault that Audiomagus was aware of. What rigorous QAing these three units underwent during their delay is anyones guess, but my impression is Audio Magus isn't a large company so I have difficulty understanding their slips here.
But still I debated holding on to the working unit. I was torn (especially when factoring the intro v. normal price), but as one was going back I decided to send the other.
I returned home from a trip and noticed the refund hadn't been granted yet, so I called them. I was told someone would be contacting me that day. I waited a week and called again. This time I was told I'd be getting a call within a few hours. A couple days later I emailed them. A prompt response came that the refund had been granted. I emailed back asking when it was, so I knew when it should show at my bank. Never heard back.
Yesterday I did get my refund so I'm now thankfully done with them. I suggest if you ever think about doing business with Audiomagnus you consider my experience. I certainly never will buy a product from them again. Nice, knowledgeable guys are a big plus, but only a plus if basic competency is nowhere to be seen.
As for the MagiDAC (besides the fact that you can only get it through Audiomagus), its price has fluctuated up, settling, at the time of this writing, at $500 (nearly double the intro price). Although the transformer seems to have changed from the previous base, and I have not heard the new unit, I have serious doubts it could improve to the level of other DAC options out there. $500 is a whole other price bracket and the Headamp Pico and Apogee Duet are but two obvious choices that are leagues above the three MagiDACs I've heard. Consider the used market and your choices explode. You could even buy a couple Parasound 1100s off eBay for that.
