B.M.C. PureDAC

[Leonardo Drummond]

Ok, so I know you guys don't like long posts or reviews, so I'll make this as short as possible. I recently got to spend some time with the PureDAC and found it to be a really interesting DAC. I'm very sorry if this ends up being an unwanted topic, but maybe someone's interested in it, so hey... maybe it's worth the risk.

 

I found it to be a fine use of a Sabre chip. Sounds colder than both my Abrahamsen V6.0 and Electrocompaniet ECD-1, but comparatively more tonally correct. Mids take a step or two backwards and are more relaxed. The V6.0's mids, surprisingly, end up sounding harsh in comparison. It's just a very cohesive, linear and incredibly refined and transparent sound signature. Very detailed as well, but a bit less spacious than the other units I have here. All in all, I'd consider it clearly a step above both the Abrahamsen and the Electro, something that surprised me since I once compared the V6.0 to an EMM Labs DAC and found the difference to be really small. The PureDAC gives me a different personality when compared to my DACs, but to my ears it does sound better and more correct with most music genres and headphones I heard with it – especially so in the living room's system with the Jamo R907s.

 

Apparently it doesn't have an extra gain stage and both the headphone amp and preamp are driven straight from the I/V converter of the DAC or something like that. Interestingly though, plugging my headphones into both headphone outs I found a completely different sound signature. It sounded mid-centric, slightly blurry and not nearly as refined as when it was used solely as a DAC feeding the GS-X. This was worse on the SE, but still present in the balanced outs.

 

So to me it's an outstanding DAC and an ok headphone amp at the price.

 

To wrap it up... a picture!

 

Edited March 31, 2014 by Leonardo Drummond

[nopants]

some interesting choices with respect to the assembly inside

 

I'm a bit wary of the (over)abundance of film caps too

 

Is there any info on the chipset?

[tkam]

It uses the popular sabre chip

[blessingx]

http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2014/04/04/headphone-bliss-b-m-c-audio-amazes-with-puredac/

[Leonardo Drummond]

Interesting that he liked the headphone out... I didn't. It sounded almost the opposite of when I used it as a DAC feeding the GS-X. One thing about which we agree that I didn't put in this summarized "review" here is how it in fact is very silent with IEMs. To me it was no good anyway because I was stuck with the SE out for my Roxannes, and this output is seriously compromised (like he said as well), but it was indeed dead quiet.

[spritzer]

Is there anybody on that site that isn't retarded?  They are very much in favor of "new and shiny" over anything that makes sense. 

 

Looked at some internal pics of this BMC, holy fuck this is bad.  The agenda was clearly to use the cheapest crap known to man everywhere... 

[tkam]

I like that the manual for thing even recommends you don't use the SE headphone out.

[DefQon]

Removing all those el cheapo ceramic caps for at least a Vishay 3382 or Evox/Wima mkp's will bring some improvement to looks and maybe sound.

[nopants]

or you could just use smd c0g's and have enough space on the board for vertical heatsinks instead of that angled bracket deal