Interesting, interesting!!
The upper HDMI connectors suggest there is a second smaller PCB on top of the larger lower one.
Having two USB ports means you can have it connected to the BDP and a computer at the same time. Although there seems to be no purpose to that since BDP does all that a computer does, just infinitely better.
I'd prefer to see a lower number of HDMI inputs and a higher number of S/PDIF inputs though. However, my needs are different from that of other people so it was a logical choice to include 4 HDMI inputs.
Sadly, at this moment I don't have a single DSD music title and with respect to everything I had read and heard from people who produce music, it is a utopia to get a pure DSD recording done right, without having to convert it to PCM at one point. Very little effects processing is applied during mixing of classical recordings but even slight volume adjustments are problematic with DSD so the whole "movement" stands on questionable foundation. That is what one of the producers of classical music told me. But, people want it and so manufacturers have to listen.
In any case, I'd buy a DSD DAC from no one else but Bryston if I had a need for one. I am not even convinced that DACs that cost literally three times as much as the BDA-2 sound superior. What I can say is that they sound slightly different, sometimes more resolving at the expense of natural music flow and sometimes smoother at the expense of micro-dynamics. To put it differently, if I do end up owning another DAC, the BDA-2 will by no means become redundant, let alone sold because I do feel like it is a long-term value and owning it makes me proud. As a lover of analogue tape, I now see that what sounded spectacular years ago, still sounds spectacular and BDA-2 is certainly in the "spectacular league".
Cheers!
Antun
