Thanks for the additional info. Even without the whole DSD thing I know I would need a DAC and I intended to just use my Lexicon MC-12 to perform those duties, at least initially until I perhaps went for a dedicated DAC. I would like to be able to do DSD as well however I need to fill in all my knowledge gaps there. So I need a DAC capable of DSD playback, ok check, so that rules out the 2 Bryston's which sucks. My intended connection method between the BDP-2 and whatever DAC was going to be AES/EBU however are you also saying that for DSD that's a no go, I need to run a USB connection instead between the BDP-2 and chosen DAC?
I'm not aware of a DSD Dac that does not operate via USB (there might be one.....)
The thing you've got to understand is that asking a DAC to do PCM well and DSD well
is akin to you asking an astronaut to go to the moon and mars at the same time.....
It's pretty difficult.....that's why you don't see DSD yet from Bryston, or Berkeley for
instance.....
There is actually a decent DSD ONLY Dac that is super tiny from Schiit audio
and costs about 149.00. I listended to it on my big system one night when
a friend brought it over (and it was the BDP2 feeding it) and it sounded great.....
but no better than if that track had been in PCM run through my DAC inside
my Esoteric K-03.....
Your very best shot at finding a DAC that does both and does both well
is to go with a DAC that does not rely on a DAC chip perse, but operates
on what's called a "field programmed gate array" or FPGA for short...
The two I'm aware of are:
The Directstream from PS Audio
and the tiny little Hugo from Chord, which I've heard as well and sounds
unbelievable!
In the end, what I would do is drop kick the idea of DSD. If you want
DSD, go get a very good SACD player and some SACDs from ebay and there
you go, pure DSD......the problem with files from the web is that a lot of them
started life as a PCM file anyways, so you don't really know the provenance
unless it comes from a label such as blue coast records, but they offer
their stuff in high resolution PCM as well and to my ears they sound amazing...
That's why I've sort of abandoned the idea of DSD, although I enjoy my SACD
collection a lot.....
There's no question that DSD has gained some ground, but as people settle in,
they'll realize the amount of material out there is still super limited and without
them knowing what that file originally was, they might not be getting the
benefits of what makes single bit dsd desirable in the first place.....
The PS Audio direct stream DAC would be a compelling choice and I've seen
them as low as 3900 nearly new, The hugo could probably be had under 2K
For less than that, you could buy seperate DACs from Schiit Audio, one for
DSD thru USB and one for your PCM files through AES/EBU
Good luck.....
