[alexone]

Correct - need to use USB or SPDIF or HDMI if you want higher.

james

...my BDA-1 can do 192/24 via toslink. what was the reason to limit the BDA-3's toslink input ???

al.

[James Tanner]

...my BDA-1 can do 192/24 via toslink. what was the reason to limit the BDA-3's toslink input ???

al.

We didn't limit it.. its just that some optical connections seem to be able to do 192/24 but the manufacturer says the spec is 96/24 on the receiving chip.

james

[Grit]

I have both. It was noticeable improvement immediately. To me it was the next step up in the audio chain. I have not used it with DSD yet. The highs have less glare, while adding more subtleties to the highs and midrange.  The bass seems similar to the BDA-2. When I inserted the BDA-3 it was very shocking to me. James downplayed the BDA-3 so I did not expect such improvement. It's as if you get a new preamp,speakers or amp and you listen to your music collection all over again. I am hearing more information that I never heard before.

I am using the BDA-3 along with BDP-2 with the new sound card using AES. I'm sure everyone results will differ along with their opinions. Hope this helps.
I did keep my BDA-2 and BDP-1, just moved it to another system.
Cheers,
BJ

Thanks BJ, that was exactly what I was lpoking for, especially since I'm using AES and a BDP-2.

Between the new sound card and the BDA-3 vs BDA-2, which improvement was most noticeable?

[vklyushnikov]

Hi Steve

You have to believe your ears of course but the USB input on the BDA3 is state of the art and already has impedance matching and excellent grounding. 

I just prefer to have less in the signal path and some of these devices may work on poorly implemented circuitry but just seems redundant with quality USB receivers like we use.  If you remember the review that was done in Absolute Sound Magazine on the BDA2 the reviewer was surprised as he always preferred SPIDIF over USB but with the BDA2 he was convinced that proper implementation of USB was actually preferable.

james'

Hi James, did you compare BDA-3 USB input sound quality using BDP-2 USB out vs regular noisy computer - PC or Mac?  Does BDA-3  still sounds better with BDP-2? In ideal case there should be not any difference, but as we all know there are very,very few DACs with ideally isolated USB input.

[James Tanner]

Hi James, did you compare BDA-3 USB input sound quality using BDP-2 USB out vs regular noisy computer - PC or Mac?  Does BDA-3  still sounds better with BDP-2? In ideal case there should be not any difference, but as we all know there are very,very few DACs with ideally isolated USB input.

Hi

I do not like to blow our own horn (because we all have our own bias) but honestly I have never heard a computer sound better than the BDP-2.

james

[vklyushnikov]

Hi

I do not like to blow our own horn (because we all have our own bias) but honestly I have never heard a computer sound better than the BDP-2.

james

Actually my question is not about sonic advantages of BDP-2 but about level of isolation of BDA-3 USB input. There always be some folks including me who prefer using computer to specialized player and I try to understand how BDA-3 is compared with something like Berkeley Alpha USB or Ayre QB-9 - looks like these devices have most advanced USB interfaces to date. My experience with BDA-2 USB input was bad even with BDP-2 - it sounded so much worse than AES input. It would be great if you share some more design details of new USB input.

[James Tanner]

Actually my question is not about sonic advantages of BDP-2 but about level of isolation of BDA-3 USB input. There always be some folks including me who prefer using computer to specialized player and I try to understand how BDA-3 is compared with something like Berkeley Alpha USB or Ayre QB-9 - looks like these devices have most advanced USB interfaces to date. My experience with BDA-2 USB input was bad even with BDP-2 - it sounded so much worse than AES input. It would be great if you share some more design details of new USB input.

Sorry - misunderstood.  I always preferred the AES on the BDA2 but currently I prefer the USB on the BDA3 - used that setup at CES last week and it sounded superb even if I do say so myself.

james

[vklyushnikov]

Sorry - misunderstood.  I always preferred the AES on the BDA2 but currently I prefer the USB on the BDA3 - used that setup at CES last week and it sounded superb even if I do say so myself.

james

Ok, thank you. Did you try different USB cables? Do so called "audiophile" USB cables sound any better than usual computer-grade USB cables with BDA-3?

[James Tanner]

Ok, thank you. Did you try different USB cables? Do so called "audiophile" USB cables sound any better than usual computer-grade USB cables with BDA-3?

Hi

Have not tried that yet and at shows I always use generic wiring and CD ripped files as I feel if you like what you hear you have to give credit to the gear and not some esoteric cable or file.

james

[Grant Hill]

Good morning everybody,

did someone try to play his sacd through a blu ray player connected via HDMI to the BDA3 and want to share his impressions? If I’m not wrong Scirica did it and it was quite happy with it…

[Bones13]

Ordered mine, shipping end of the month. BDA-3 continues to sell well it seems. Just had to get a BIT15 to go with it.

SACD via HDMI seems to work for some of the disk players out there. I saw that Oppo works. As I have an Oppo, I have not paid attention to others that might work.

The HDMI switching definitely sealed the deal for my man cave audio system, that works in a 2.1 video setup.

I plan to hang the Oppo, cable box and audio PC to the HDMI inputs.

I will be using Roon on the PC, and probably try HQ hooked to Roon to see if up sampling to DSD is any better than the BDA-3's filter with PCM.

[Grant Hill]

Please share your impressions here 

indeed the possibility to play sacds with an external player with HDMI output makes the BDA-3 a game changer...

ps: what exaclty is Roon?

[Bones13]

www.roonlabs.com

Its a music player/interface with many extra features. There is lots of discussion on most of the audio boards. Its worth looking at the site, googling for some reviews, and giving it a trial. It has tight integration with Tidal, so you can search your own library, and extend searches into Tidal.

I am pretty sure that it simply passes the music file to the USB interface in a bit perfect fashion, no extra filtering, or upsampling done. There is an "exclusive" mode that helps most players, but keeping out any Windows, or MacOS intrusion into the music stream. I don't know about whether there is a "memory" playback mode, which has helped in other programs. (that is loading the whole song file into RAM before playing it, therefore not dragging the song off of the disk while it plays. Probablt not as important with SSDs as it was with spinning disks)

HDPlayer and Roon recently hooked up to allow the wonderful Roon interface, and file management, to use HQPlayer to do its magic filtering/upsampling prior to outputting to the DAC. (I have not tried the HQPlayer yet, as my current DAC is an older NOS R2R DAC that does not accept anything above 16/44)

[Rod_S]

Ordered mine, shipping end of the month. BDA-3 continues to sell well it seems. Just had to get a BIT15 to go with it.

SACD via HDMI seems to work for some of the disk players out there. I saw that Oppo works. As I have an Oppo, I have not paid attention to others that might work.

The HDMI switching definitely sealed the deal for my man cave audio system, that works in a 2.1 video setup.

I plan to hang the Oppo, cable box and audio PC to the HDMI inputs.

I will be using Roon on the PC, and probably try HQ hooked to Roon to see if up sampling to DSD is any better than the BDA-3's filter with PCM.

Why would you want to connect all those through the BDA, are you simply using it as a switcher and nothing else? Seems one heck of a lot of money to spend to simply get a HDMI switcher. Also what's the reason I see often mentioned for wanting to conenct an Oppo to the BDA for SACD palyback? If people aren't using the BDA as a DAC (i.e. using it's analog outs) and are simply sending teh SACD signal back out via HDMI why wouldn't you not just connect the Oppo directly to your receiver/SSP?

[Bones13]

Main function will be a DAC from a dedicated, fanless PC using the USB interface. I have been looking at DACs for a few months now, and when I discovered the additional features of the BDA-3, I became interested. I was already looking at DACs in the 2-5K range.

Oppo -> BDA-3 for SACD, DVDa and BluRay playback via the HDMI

I am betting that the Cable box sounds better via HDMI through the BDA-3, than the audio out from the box direct to the pre-amp.
I will get one of the streaming boxes at some point - perhaps even replacing the cable box.

Getting the Audio PC video to the monitor is just a plus.

I do have an HDMI switcher, my second. They all are cheap and flaky so far for me.

[Grant Hill]

www.roonlabs.com

Its a music player/interface with many extra features. There is lots of discussion on most of the audio boards. Its worth looking at the site, googling for some reviews, and giving it a trial. It has tight integration with Tidal, so you can search your own library, and extend searches into Tidal.

I am pretty sure that it simply passes the music file to the USB interface in a bit perfect fashion, no extra filtering, or upsampling done. There is an "exclusive" mode that helps most players, but keeping out any Windows, or MacOS intrusion into the music stream. I don't know about whether there is a "memory" playback mode, which has helped in other programs. (that is loading the whole song file into RAM before playing it, therefore not dragging the song off of the disk while it plays. Probablt not as important with SSDs as it was with spinning disks)

HDPlayer and Roon recently hooked up to allow the wonderful Roon interface, and file management, to use HQPlayer to do its magic filtering/upsampling prior to outputting to the DAC. (I have not tried the HQPlayer yet, as my current DAC is an older NOS R2R DAC that does not accept anything above 16/44)

Thanks, I will look at it

[Grant Hill]

Why would you want to connect all those through the BDA, are you simply using it as a switcher and nothing else? Seems one heck of a lot of money to spend to simply get a HDMI switcher. Also what's the reason I see often mentioned for wanting to conenct an Oppo to the BDA for SACD palyback? If people aren't using the BDA as a DAC (i.e. using it's analog outs) and are simply sending teh SACD signal back out via HDMI why wouldn't you not just connect the Oppo directly to your receiver/SSP?

I think people will use BDA3 as a dac- it's one of the few to be able to maintain the hd stream from an  external sacd player and convert the hd signal received. I don't think a switcher will give the same result in terms of quality. Of course other blue ray players can be used, as long they have hdmi sound output (Cambridge, pioneer, denon, marantz). They will take care of the video and Bda3 will take care of  the sound...

[Grant Hill]

Mr. Tanner - and everybody else of course - please feel free to correct me if I misunderstood something ...

[Rod_S]

Main function will be a DAC from a dedicated, fanless PC using the USB interface. I have been looking at DACs for a few months now, and when I discovered the additional features of the BDA-3, I became interested. I was already looking at DACs in the 2-5K range.

Oppo -> BDA-3 for SACD, DVDa and BluRay playback via the HDMI

I am betting that the Cable box sounds better via HDMI through the BDA-3, than the audio out from the box direct to the pre-amp.
I will get one of the streaming boxes at some point - perhaps even replacing the cable box.

Getting the Audio PC video to the monitor is just a plus.

I do have an HDMI switcher, my second. They all are cheap and flaky so far for me.

So you are using the BDA as a DAC even with the Oppo connection? i.e. Oppo signal enters the BDA and is output via the analog outs and not HDMI? If that's the case then I understand the why's If not and you are outputting via HDMI then what's the point as the HDMI signal is just a pass thru is it not thus the BDA isn't doing anything? Also I don't see how the cable box HDMI audio would sound better going through the BDA if it's just a pass thru and you aren't outputting analog.

I would imagine though that the quality and reliability of the HDMI hardware would be light years better than the switchers you have been using.

[Rod_S]

I think people will use BDA3 as a dac- it's one of the few to be able to maintain the hd stream from an  external sacd player and convert the hd signal received. I don't think a switcher will give the same result in terms of quality. Of course other blue ray players can be used, as long they have hdmi sound output (Cambridge, pioneer, denon, marantz). They will take care of the video and Bda3 will take care of  the sound...

Yeah if it's being used as a DAC then I understand, i.e. HDMI in from a SACD player but analog out, not HDMI out, that makes sense. What was throwing me was if people were sending the HDMI signal from a SACD player thru the BDA, staying with HDMI then that leaves me scratching my head why one would pay 3 grand for a pass-thru and ultimately a 4x1 switcher that contributes nothing to the video and audio.