[frankliu]

Hi James/Chris and everyone,

I am a beginner here. Please forgive me if my questions are silly. I have about some music files on my NAS, I would like to play them with BDP-1 or BDP-2 -->DAC topping D70 --> amp and speakers. The files are in ape, FLAC, or wave format. my questions:
1. for the sound quality difference of BDP1 vs BDP2, are they similar or small enough? my budget is limited.
2. some of my music files have Chinese names, I am thinking to use the Bryston Manic Moose to control BDP1/2 from a PC or iPhone, will these names display correctly?
3. if I am only the USB DAC, will the IAD card upgrade relevant to my situation? I don't know much about the IDA card upgrade.

Thank you, your insights are much appreciated.

best,
Frank

[R. Daneel]

Hi!

To answer questions no. 1 and 3, someone else can hopefully chime in on the no. 2.

1) Don't concern yourself with differences between the BDP-1 and BDP-2 (with integrated IAD). I couldn't hear any difference with both machines playing side by side, and I am a stickler when it comes to these things. For all intents and purposes, they are identical. If your budget is limited, the last thing you should be upgrading is the transport.
3) the IAD affects sound only through electrical (AES and BNC) outputs. It does not make any difference which soundcard you have when playing audio through USB.

The only issue I see with BDP-1 is the limited processing speed of it's CPU but if you don't intend to have Terabytes of HDDs connected at the same time, I wouldn't worry about it much.

To add a side note to this, from my understanding IAD is based on the BUC-1 USB/SPDIF converter. It was Bryston's intention to have a custom prpduct rather than having to depend on 3rd party solutions, in this case a digital portion of the ESI Juli@ soundcard. The Juli@ is based on the VIA Envy24 chipset (developed by IC Ensemble but subsequently acquired by VIA) and is a supremely designed piece of engineering so I seriously doubt any significant improvements can be made upon it with existing SPDIF standard. For those who want to learn more...

Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Antun

[CanadianMaestro]

Frank,

Welcome. First-timer, I'm guessing.

#1: 

Try to hear both of them, in your system. If possible. Then decide.

There is no substitute for real-world listening.

cheers


Addendum: I use AES 95% of the time for my BDP-2 (and BDP-1 previously). It just gives me better SQ than USB. So, the IAD in the BDP-2 seems to make a difference. As rdaneel said, if you plan to use USB a lot, then it's a moot comparison.

[frankliu]

Hi Rdaneel,

thank you so much for your suggestions, much appreciated!!

Sincerely,
Frank

Hi!

To answer questions no. 1 and 3, someone else can hopefully chime in on the no. 2.

1) Don't concern yourself with differences between the BDP-1 and BDP-2 (with integrated IAD). I couldn't hear any difference with both machines playing side by side, and I am a stickler when it comes to these things. For all intents and purposes, they are identical. If your budget is limited, the last thing you should be upgrading is the transport.
3) the IAD affects sound only through electrical (AES and BNC) outputs. It does not make any difference which soundcard you have when playing audio through USB.

The only issue I see with BDP-1 is the limited processing speed of it's CPU but if you don't intend to have Terabytes of HDDs connected at the same time, I wouldn't worry about it much.

To add a side note to this, from my understanding IAD is based on the BUC-1 USB/SPDIF converter. It was Bryston's intention to have a custom prpduct rather than having to depend on 3rd party solutions, in this case a digital portion of the ESI Juli@ soundcard. The Juli@ is based on the VIA Envy24 chipset (developed by IC Ensemble but subsequently acquired by VIA) and is a supremely designed piece of engineering so I seriously doubt any significant improvements can be made upon it with existing SPDIF standard. For those who want to learn more...

Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Antun

[frankliu]

Hi Canadian Maestro,

I totally agree about your audition suggestions. However, it is hard for me to visit anyone during this pandemic.

May I ask why you upgrade from BDP1 to BDP2?

thanks,
Frank

Frank,

Welcome. First-timer, I'm guessing.

#1: 

Try to hear both of them, in your system. If possible. Then decide.

There is no substitute for real-world listening.

cheers


Addendum: I use AES 95% of the time for my BDP-2 (and BDP-1 previously). It just gives me better SQ than USB. So, the IAD in the BDP-2 seems to make a difference. As rdaneel said, if you plan to use USB a lot, then it's a moot comparison.

[CanadianMaestro]

Hi Canadian Maestro,

I totally agree about your audition suggestions. However, it is hard for me to visit anyone during this pandemic.

May I ask why you upgrade from BDP1 to BDP2?

thanks,
Frank

Hi Frank,

The pandemic does pose difficulties for auditioning. Keep cool, stay put, and listen to whatever gear you do have in house.

I upgraded to BDP-2 because of my very large digital libraries on attached USB drives (they take less time to load on the -2 and are prone to fewer reboots/failures because of the more robust power supply in the -2). Also, the IAD sounded better thru my AES cable, than did BDP-1. Not day/night difference.

Stay safe,
cheers

Pete

[frankliu]

Thanks, Pete!

[Swisschommy]

Edit: I just saw you bought a BDP-2: Great choice for a solidly built streamer. Disregard my message below.


(The streaming bridge into a USB DAC like the Topping D70 will make no difference in Sound Quality as the signal is buffered inside the Topping. The Topping and more importantly, your speakers will determine how the streamed files sound. As the previous authors noted, there is little or no difference in sound quality between BDP1 or 2, but a difference in user experience such as file loading speed, crashing etc. Other than USB connection, the implementation of the streaming bridge may have a small impact on sound quality.

You can use a cheap Rasberry PI to stream the music from your NAS. What is a lot more important is the software interface, the library and the UX such as loading time, art work, organizing your library etc. Most common ones are Volumino, PiCore Player etc. This SW solution is mostly shareware and the hardware is as little as Euro 50.-

On your NAS you have to run a music server such as Logitec Media Server where you configure the behaviour of your endpoint (streaming bridge).