Bryston BDA-1 DAC being shipped

BlueFox

Got the word today my Bryston DAC is being shipped. So, I should have it late next week. Unfortunately, next Friday night is poker night so I will not be able to give it the Friday night special review process. That will have to wait until Saturday night.

I have another tweak I am adding to the two channel system, but it will have to wait until after I get the DAC. If I enhance the two-channel system now, and then throw in the DAC next week I will not be able to do an accurate A/B comparison of the Bryston DAC versus the existing BenchMark Dac1 Pre.

The other tweak I want to do to the two-channel system is treat all the electrical connections with this electrical contact enhancer from MapleShade. If it works as advertised I should get a slightly better sound from the system.

Has anyone tried this stuff?

http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/audioproducts/silclear.php
http://bryston.com/bda1_m.html

debussyj

Hi Bud,

I am anxiously awaiting your review of this new DAC! Sorry, I forgot they were hand building it and shipping would take awhile. Best of luck with the new toy!

DJ (Colleen):o

SKsolutions

Sweet piece, you HAVE to write something up with that one. Congrats!

BlueFox

I received the Bryston BDA-1 DAC on Wednesday, and hooked it up Thursday night. I decided to take Friday off so I could stay up all night and drink beer. Oops, I mean drink beer while listening to the BDA-1.

So after three days, this is my initial impression of the Bryston versus the Benchmark DAC1 Pre.

First, the Benchmark is great. I have had it for a while and have spent countless hours listening to it, and been very happy. But, I did have the upgrade bug, and after learning of the Bryston decided to give it a try.

Cosmetics - appearance:

The Benchmark Dac1 is an 8” wide and only comes in silver. While this does not affect the sound, all my other components are black, so it stuck out. While listening to music I would see it and start wondering how to paint it black without damaging it. This is not conducive to a good listening session.

Bryston provides options to order the BDA-1 in different widths, and black or silver. I choose 17” width, and black. Now sitting on the shelf it blends in with the other components, so I am happy about that issue.

One issue with the Benchmark that bothered me was its LEDs. They use big blue LEDs. While I like the color, and it goes with the blue LEDs on the pre-amp and power amps, it was too big. At night, especially in the dark, it burns into your eye like a laser. Of course, it is only one LED.

Bryston has 4 LEDs going when the DAC is operational. The colors are similar to Sony’s for DVD and SACD players; green and orange. The Bryston has a green LED for sampling rate, lock, and input selection. If upsampling is enabled then that is an orange LED. Manufactures need to put these LEDs behind the panel, and drill a tiny pin hole for the light. Sometimes I think manufacturers design these LEDs for Stevie Wonder.

Sound:

Not being an audio critic I lack the proper adjectives to describe the sonic attributes of equipment, so this part will be general. Basically, to me, the Bryston sounds better than the Benchmark. It is clearer, more open, more musical.

I tried upsampling ON/OFF and decided to leave it ON. While there might be some CDs that sound better with upsampling OFF I listen to random shuffle of songs off my music server, so it is impractical to jump up and down for every song to toggle upsampling.

The Benchmark appeared to be sharper in sound, while the Bryston appears more rounded. I guess that might be considered more analog like. Listening to music I occasionally had the feeling I was hearing something in the music that I did not notice before, but I could not swear to that. For example, I primarily listen to classical music now, and on one song I was hearing someone hit a triangle (or something) in the background, and I had the feeling I never noticed that before.

Another thing I noticed is the soundstage appears more defined. An instrument appears at point X, and another is at X+1, etc. One thing is that while the sound stage did not expand left or right (SDA territory), it did seem to expand vertically.

Anyway, there is one thing I can positively state as fact. The XLR output of the Bryston is a lot higher than the Benchmark. I would listen to the Benchmark at -35 db, but I get the same output from the Bryston at -45, -50db.

Also, I compared the digital out of my Sony 5400ES SACD/CD player through the Bryston to the Sony’s DAC, and preferred the Bryston. With the DAC1 I would use the Sony’s DAC. However, that might have had more to do with the Sony’s XLR output also being higher than the Benchmark.

Anyway, since I paid $1600 for the DAC1 Pre, and found the Bryston online for the same price, I would recommend to anyone interested to get the Bryston. While the difference is small, it is apparent, and is better. One point though, the Benchmark DAC1 Pre is a pre-amp and a DAC, while the Bryston is only a DAC, so perhaps a more accurate comparison would be to the basic Benchmark DAC1 at $1000.

Rest of system:

iPod Classic/Wadia iTransport (lossless files), Cambridge-Audio 840E pre-amp, 2 Cambridge-Audio 840W amps bridged mono @ 800W/channel into 4 ohms, PSB Synchrony One towers (4 ohm), Sony XA5400ES SACD/CD, Panamax M5300-EX power conditioner, Mapleshade Omega Mikro Zephyr digital IC, Kimber Kable Hero XLR ICs, Mapleshade Double Golden Helix Plus speaker cables, factory stock power cords.

megasat16

BlueFox wrote: »

I received the Bryston BDA-1 DAC on Wednesday, and hooked it up Thursday night. I decided to take Friday off so I could stay up all night and drink beer. Oops, I mean drink beer while listening to the BDA-1.

You are a little crazy in a good way! Thanks for the review and nice writeup!

Are you sure you polished the CDs before trying the listening sessions? It may make a huge difference in sound...;):cool:

BlueFox

megasat16 wrote: »

You are a little crazy in a good way! Thanks for the review and nice writeup!

Are you sure you polished the CDs before trying the listening sessions? It may make a huge difference in sound...;):cool:

No. I am saving the polish for DVDs.

BlueFox

I am moving this "review" to a seperate thread so it would be appreciated if any review replies were placed in that thread.

debussyj

Hey Bud,
Thanks for the great review. I had a feeling you were going to like the Bryston for the very reasons you cited. Not only is it an elegant sounding unit, but it's looks (construction) are no slouch. Hmm, perhaps an upgrade could be in my future. Enjoy! Colleen