Hopstretch Posted October 15, 2008 Report Posted October 15, 2008 Got the Audio Advisor catalog in the mail today and the big push is on the recently-released $1,995 Bryston BDA-1 DAC, which looks quite interesting on paper. Any thoughts from the resident DAC gurus on the basic design? The manual is here.
Hopstretch Posted October 27, 2008 Author Report Posted October 27, 2008 Apparently, it's a "giant killer."
morphsci Posted October 27, 2008 Report Posted October 27, 2008 While I generally dislike the term "giant killer" if this is like other Bryston gear I have heard, then I just might believe it in this case. There gear has that no-nosense, solid, Canadian look, feel and sound. I do think that an I2S input would have been nice, but I also understand why they did not feel the need to put one in.
Cankin Posted October 28, 2008 Report Posted October 28, 2008 Hrmm...dual CS4398 DACs. What's wrong with CS4398?
ingwe Posted October 28, 2008 Report Posted October 28, 2008 While I generally dislike the term "giant killer" if this is like other Bryston gear I have heard, then I just might believe it in this case. There gear has that no-nosense, solid, Canadian look, feel and sound. ..... Canadian sound?
GPH Posted October 28, 2008 Report Posted October 28, 2008 Canadian sound sucks, Quebec sound is superior.
deepak Posted October 28, 2008 Report Posted October 28, 2008 Canadian sound sucks, Quebec sound is superior. Oh my god, separatist!
grawk Posted October 28, 2008 Report Posted October 28, 2008 No, he's saying that the quebec variant sucks harder than the ontario variant. Not that quebec sound isn't sucky canadian sound
GPH Posted October 28, 2008 Report Posted October 28, 2008 Oh my god, separatist! Hydro-electric power = cleaner power = better sound Simple equation (at least for Patrick82 it would be)
grawk Posted October 28, 2008 Report Posted October 28, 2008 My only question is how can a $2000 dac be a giant killer? It's certainly not a cheap product.
Asr Posted October 28, 2008 Report Posted October 28, 2008 What's wrong with CS4398? Nothing "wrong" per se with CS4398, but they could've gone with better DACs. CS4398 is so...mid-fi. It's also in a bunch of other mid-fi gear including some <$5K Esoteric and Marantz CDPs.
Sherwood Posted October 28, 2008 Report Posted October 28, 2008 The market for "giants" over 2k is pretty negligible. I'm assuming all the giant killers now just square off against each other throwing stones far too high in the air.
Dreadhead Posted March 13, 2009 Report Posted March 13, 2009 Nope. I've heard reviews from others though that are very complimentary. They keep going on Audiogon for reasonably high prices too. I would be seriously considering one if I wasn't considering just going to a reference professional DAC (Lavry Gold/Weiss DAC1/Prism Dream AD-2) and being done with it.
AlanY Posted March 13, 2009 Report Posted March 13, 2009 Dreadhead, you should add the Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC to your list. It's designed by the team who designed the Pacific Microsonics Model Two, which was certainly up there as one of the finest professional DACs in the world.
Knuckledragger Posted March 13, 2009 Report Posted March 13, 2009 Nonsense, he should buy Mikhail's Audio Note DAC.
Dusty Chalk Posted March 13, 2009 Report Posted March 13, 2009 It's designed by the team who designed the Pacific Microsonics Model Two...Interest just went up a notch.
Voltron Posted March 13, 2009 Report Posted March 13, 2009 I just checked out the Alpha Dac at a shop yesterday, although I didn't get to hear it in action due to short time and their preamp not cooperating. I am trying to figure out if there is a way to use their preferred Lynx AES16e PCI-Express digital I/O card with any Mac laptop (current or recent past) or if the big box Macs are the only option for that beast.
grawk Posted March 13, 2009 Report Posted March 13, 2009 pci express is only going to work with a non-portable solution.
Torpedo Posted March 13, 2009 Report Posted March 13, 2009 That Alpha is one of the very few DACs currently made which raises my interest. If you ever manage to listen to it...
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