My preference would be the BDA-3.14: for a small difference in price an audio streamer is built-in. The only thing that worries me is the behaviour of the HDMI input. Some users have complained that pops and clicks can occur with their BDA-3 when playing SACD’s. It does not happen with every SACD player, though.
Anyways, here is hoping that Bryston has solved these issues when the BDA-3.14 was developed.
Kind regards,
WillyP
A few months ago I attended a demo of the Bryston BDA-3.14 during an audio show and I was really impressed. That is why I decided to follow my own advice so I traded in my “old” streamer and bought the BDA-3.14.
The sound quality is indeed fantastic. Very insightful without being analytical or even aggressive. Everything just sounds right. Manic Moose has a learning curve, though. On my computer, it is very usable, especially for maintenance, but a big screen is almost a must. With a smartphone, you really miss the bigger screen, everything feels cramped. I will give Rigelian a try, but my first impressions are that it needs a tablet with a reasonable size.
I also like the new remote, the BR4. It is light, lies well in my hand and is a joy to use. To be honest, I like it even more than its far more expensive cousin, the BR2, that I also have. The text is easier to read than with the BR2.
There are some questions I would like to ask.
1. When the unit is switched on, it needs some time to boot, after all, it is also a computer. When it is finished, it is muted. Is this normal?
2. After the unit is switched off, the stand-by LED goes red, but the LED above the Optical/Streaming input is also on (yellow). Is this because there are two devices connected to the BDA-3.14 (a scratch disk and a hard disk with music)?
3. Speaking of yellow, the two LED”s that can turn into yellow, are not completely yellow. You still can see a part of a red LED. I don”t know how to describe it, but it looks like two LED’s that are not completely aligned with each other. I tried to take a photo of it, but then the effect is not visible. It just seems not completely right to me and I can”t remember seeing it with the BDA-3.14 which was on display during the show.
Who has the answers to my questions?
WillyP