[James Tanner]

Also available from us.

http://bryston.com/products/other/digital_AES_EBU.html

james

[werd]

You should include 1.5mtr as a standard length also on your web page.

[James Tanner]

James:

Just to let you know I FINALLY ripped all of my CDs onto a WD My Passport Ultra 2TB drive. Whew, that was a lot of work!)

I am amazed that it sound SUBSTANTIALLY BETTER than the original CDs played through an Oppo 95 to the BDA-2 directly! Smoother with details I did not hear before – also more “coherent”. astounded

Any personal or Bryston observations around this?

Best – hope all is well

John

[werd]

On your next dac any chance of ditching the upsampling button?

[srb]

On your next dac any chance of ditching the upsampling button?

Can't really think of a good reason to do that.  It's an on-chip enable/disable function, it's not like any signal goes through the switch to get degraded.  I think the majority of songs in a library sound better with upsampling bypassed, however for poorly recorded or compressed tracks, upsampling can often make them sound better.

Steve

[R. Daneel]

I tend to listen to the music without up-sampling. I am not sure, however, whether the bit-depth is changed from 16bit to 24bit once it passes the sampling rate converter built into the DAC regardless of the up-sampling feature.

The difference is not a great one to my ears. Up-sampling adds a little bit of bottom end thickness which seems to alleviate some of the harshness in the mids with poor quality recordings. I really cannot say it adds or takes away something from the highs though.

I think it will be most interesting to see how Bryston will handle DSD. James doesn't seem inclined on current solutions such as PCM-to-DSD conversion and then treating the signal as DSD. What would be incredibly cool is if Bryston would introduce a DSD-only DAC with one USB input and a pair of single-ended and balanced analogue outpuis to complement their PCM-only BDA-2 DAC. That might be an expensive undertake though.

Cheers!
Antun

[Rod_S]

...

I think it will be most interesting to see how Bryston will handle DSD. James doesn't seem inclined on current solutions such as PCM-to-DSD conversion and then treating the signal as DSD. What would be incredibly cool is if Bryston would introduce a DSD-only DAC with one USB input and a pair of single-ended and balanced analogue outpuis to complement their PCM-only BDA-2 DAC. That might be an expensive undertake though.

Cheers!
Antun

That would be a product I would be interested in.

[James Tanner]

I tend to listen to the music without up-sampling. I am not sure, however, whether the bit-depth is changed from 16bit to 24bit once it passes the sampling rate converter built into the DAC regardless of the up-sampling feature.

The difference is not a great one to my ears. Up-sampling adds a little bit of bottom end thickness which seems to alleviate some of the harshness in the mids with poor quality recordings. I really cannot say it adds or takes away something from the highs though.

I think it will be most interesting to see how Bryston will handle DSD. James doesn't seem inclined on current solutions such as PCM-to-DSD conversion and then treating the signal as DSD. What would be incredibly cool is if Bryston would introduce a DSD-only DAC with one USB input and a pair of single-ended and balanced analogue outpuis to complement their PCM-only BDA-2 DAC. That might be an expensive undertake though.

Cheers!
Antun

Hi Antun

There is nothing wrong with DSD over PCM (DOP) as it is still a DSD file. My concern is with the fact that there are other was to decode DSD as well (64, 128, 256, DOP, Native  etc.) and I think a DAC show allow for all versions going forward. Also DSD DACs up-sample to a specific very high frequency all incoming Digital signals so playing a PCM native file is not possible if you are upsampling every signal coming in.

I think the best solution is to design a DAC that has 2 different circuit paths - one optimized for DSD and one optimized for PCM. There are some newer chips coming out that should allow us to do this.

james

[werd]

Once i get Dsd files through a vendor like Hd Tracks i am not getting a DSD dac? I thought about one seriously for awhile. Probably would've bought the Matrix.

[Rod_S]

I think the best solution is to design a DAC that has 2 different circuit paths - one optimized for DSD and one optimized for PCM. There are some newer chips coming out that should allow us to do this.

james

hmm, very interesting, very interesting indeed as I pick up on how you phrased that. Are you suggesting that this is something we may indeed see from Bryston in the future?

[James Tanner]

hmm, very interesting, very interesting indeed as I pick up on how you phrased that. Are you suggesting that this is something we may indeed see from Bryston in the future?

Hi Rod,

I think this will be the correct approach going forward and I am certainly looking into it.  The question really is will DSD become much of a market force in the future so the extra expense of a more complicated DAC may or may not make sense?

james

[Rod_S]

That makes sense. Currently PCM in the form of FLAC, ALC, etc. dominate in the high res digital download arena but I suppose that's due in part to the fact DSD downloads are relatively new. If they only remain available in just a select few sites to purchase it probably won't catch on. It's interesting though because the physical form of the medium, SACD remains very poplar though with the classical music and jazz music labels and there is certainly no signs of slowing down on the amount of material coming to market.

[Servingthemusic.com]

Hi Antun

There is nothing wrong with DSD over PCM (DOP) as it is still a DSD file. My concern is with the fact that there are other was to decode DSD as well (64, 128, 256, DOP, Native  etc.) and I think a DAC show allow for all versions going forward. Also DSD DACs up-sample to a specific very high frequency all incoming Digital signals so playing a PCM native file is not possible if you are upsampling every signal coming in.

I think the best solution is to design a DAC that has 2 different circuit paths - one optimized for DSD and one optimized for PCM. There are some newer chips coming out that should allow us to do this.

james

Hi James,

I love reading your posts on this subject. The BDA-1 is my reference DAC and even having reviewed far more expensive units I still love it, and the optional upsampling function, which I prefer most of the time.

Even with a a budget that stretches well beyond the cost of a new BDA-2, I would still put the BDA-2 as first on my list for a new DAC.

I very much look forward to your DSD solution and I have complete faith it will be a sound one, no pun intended..

[Servingthemusic.com]

That makes sense. Currently PCM in the form of FLAC, ALC, etc. dominate in the high res digital download arena but I suppose that's due in part to the fact DSD downloads are relatively new. If they only remain available in just a select few sites to purchase it probably won't catch on. It's interesting though because the physical form of the medium, SACD remains very poplar though with the classical music and jazz music labels and there is certainly no signs of slowing down on the amount of material coming to market.

let's put things in perspective. Acoustic Sounds currently has around 400 DSD downloads for sale. About 300 of those are rock, pop, or jazz. About 250 of those are artists you have heard of.

Are you going to build the architecture of your digital front end around DSD, basically a unicorn format as far as commercial availability.. Or around PCM files..the format that 99.9 of all,digital music is in?

DXD is the biggest joke...

[Servingthemusic.com]

Hi Rod,

I think this will be the correct approach going forward and I am certainly looking into it.  The question really is will DSD become much of a market force in the future so the extra expense of a more complicated DAC may or may not make sense?

james

James, if one is not an avid classical music aficionado, there 400 commercially available DSD downloads.

They are $25 a pop to boot.

I think,those numbers speak for themselves. But the marketing pressure, unfortunately created by the audio press, is real.

[Rod_S]

let's put things in perspective. Acoustic Sounds currently has around 400 DSD downloads for sale. About 300 of those are rock, pop, or jazz. About 250 of those are artists you have heard of.

Are you going to build the architecture of your digital front end around DSD, basically a unicorn format as far as commercial availability.. Or around PCM files..the format that 99.9 of all,digital music is in?

DXD is the biggest joke...

If I was an avid classical music and jazz listener I would definitely build a system around SACD and it's possible DSD may be the natural evolution of labels for both formats.

Formats take time so I wouldn't necessarily write it off, not just yet anyways however even if it does pick up stride it's likely to be no more than a niche format like DVD-A and SACD but they are both still here and offer superb audio for those that want a physical medium and they both offer surround sound which from what I can tell is almost non existent in the digital download arena. I wouldn't call the superb releases on SACD and DVD-Audio a joke as they are marvelous to listen to.

[werd]

Hi James,

I love reading your posts on this subject. The BDA-1 is my reference DAC and even having reviewed far more expensive units I still love it, and the optional upsampling function, which I prefer most of the time.

Even with a a budget that stretches well beyond the cost of a new BDA-2, I would still put the BDA-2 as first on my list for a new DAC.

I very much look forward to your DSD solution and I have complete faith it will be a sound one, no pun intended..

Hi

Try this, i wish i would have when i had the BDA1.

Go in with the appropriate sized torex and release the nut holding down the transformer. Then release the screws holding down the pcb board. About a 1/4 turn each, thats it. Everything comes from manufactures tighten down way to much. Which is useful for shipping but not playback. Remember when cd players had the transport screws? Same thing...

[Rod_S]

James, if one is not an avid classical music aficionado, there 400 commercially available DSD downloads.

They are $25 a pop to boot.

I think,those numbers speak for themselves. But the marketing pressure, unfortunately created by the audio press, is real.

True but that's also not much above most of the high resolution PCM download prices. It's the nature of the business, for those wanting high res the price is adjusted to reflect it and it's not cheap, either way.

[werd]

James, if one is not an avid classical music aficionado, there 400 commercially available DSD downloads.

They are $25 a pop to boot.

I think,those numbers speak for themselves. But the marketing pressure, unfortunately created by the audio press, is real.

I see dsd has risen from the dark ages. Its a start i am sure this time next year it'll be pretty good for DSD availability.

[Servingthemusic.com]

If I was an avid classical music and jazz listener I would definitely build a system around SACD and it's possible DSD may be the natural evolution of labels for both formats.

Formats take time so I wouldn't necessarily write it off, not just yet anyways however even if it does pick up stride it's likely to be no more than a niche format like DVD-A and SACD but they are both still here and offer superb audio for those that want a physical medium and they both offer surround sound which from what I can tell is almost non existent in the digital download arena. I wouldn't call the superb releases on SACD and DVD-Audio a joke as they are marvelous to listen to.

I am specifically separating the DSD DOWNLOAD market from the PHYSICAL SACD market.

I am a big fan of DSD and SACD sound wise. But the files freed from the physical format has been over hyped shamelessly.

FYI, I said DXD is a joke, not DSD. DXD is a manufacturer created buzzword. Period.

And I am sure you know that many, many SACDs and DSD downloads may have spent some time in the PCM domain, or so called
DXD for editing.