Hello!
I am a new member here. Recently I have ordered a BDA-2 D/A converter and the domestic distributor informed me that I would receive it shortly. I am very excited about this machine because over the last couple of months, I have searched and searched and auditioned a couple of other machines till I settled on the BDA-2.
Bryston naturally came to mind because six months ago I purchased a BHA-1 headphone amplifier and have been most impressed with it's natural sound and build quality. I was also most impressed with the guarantee and indeed, it is something to have and enjoy for many years even though I have no doubt that Bryston will be releasing improved versions every six or seven years.
However, I still wanted to give other brands a good chance to prove themselves and some of them were close and some equally good in some respects. There were also many categories in which BDA-2 took the lead so to speak so in some, but admittedly rare, cases it was subtle difference.
I also asked the Bryston's distributor for this part of Europe if they could install 4 RCA S/PDIF inputs instead of 2 RCA and 2 BNC. Shortly after, they informed me that it was indeed possible and that they would do it as a special order. Quite a service I must say. I just hope it didn't cause any problems for the engineers.
I have a couple of questions so if someone could provide some answers, I would be most grateful.
First, in a BDA-1 video, the sales representative talked about discrete input (before the D-A) and output (after D-A) stages. I know that BDA-2 also has a discrete output stage but were any changes done in the input stage? Is it still discrete?
In fact, apart from the change of D-A conversions chips and changes in the power suply (one larger transformer instead of two smaller shielded ones) are there any other differences in hardware?
All the best from Croatia!
Antun