Tell me more. I am thinking of sending in my BP25 (with MPS-1 power supply) to get the DAC added. The reviews I have read are very impressive. Can you compare it to anything else you have heard?
Hi BeeBop,
YaaaaHooo!
The BP26DA arrived yesterday and was hooked up in no time.
First things first - Since I am an Audio Consultant here in Los Angeles, and one of the lines, I offer is Bryston, that should be a known fact.
That said, "out of the box" it created "distinct" differences in the sound of my system.
The strange thing about Audio, is that you can be perfectly happy with the sound and abilities of your system, when you make a change or addition, and the change causes you to either hear "more" information or hear it in a more accurate way.
This is what the BP26DA did.
I have been using an ONIX CD1 CDP (same as the MBL CDP 2) which is an excellent Player (the MBL version was marketed for between $3000 - $4000)
This player has a volume control and I ran straight from the XLR outs to the XLR ins of a Son of Ampzilla Power Amp via .5 meter AudioQuest Cheetah ICs.
Because of the straight track, and because of the very short signal path I honestly wasn't expecting any "big" differences to jump at me. Especially as good as this system has been sounding.
I have recently made statements like "Best and most accurate bass I have ever heard in any system". I might mention that I had very little complaint with the highs, with the exception of just a slight edge that accompanied very crisp dynamics, but this was only evident at "high volume levels" (above 90db) and only on very occasional sounds.
Well I was wrong.
From sound one, the blackness between sounds melted deeper into the backround forming much more full and well placed sonic images.
The three things that immediately "displayed themselves" were that blackness, the "more solid and dense" images, the smooth but even more extended Highs, the deeper and even more resolved and controlled bass, and a truer tone and timbre, especially to strings and metals.
And without a doubt, the ability to "reach deep" into a recording and "resolve" details and images, that were slightly out of focus or not even noticed before.
I cannot draw any "direct comparisons" with pre/dacs I have used in this system, but I have heard (recently) the BenchMark, the Dodson ($8k retail), the Placette Active, and a few other "very" impressive peices.
I can't say that anything I have heard previously, had "any" advantage sonically, that I could pick out under those circumstances.
But never the less, I wanted to have a nice, good quality pre-amp to show my demo system to my clients, and this one won out. I had considered the Krell 280P and it almost won by default, but I gave it to a client, before opening it.
Now this evaluation was performed within an hour of firing this baby up.
It was also performed using a .5 meter Jaguar "analog" cable as a digital cable. My EagleEye "digital" cable should arrive today. If this gets any better, I can't imagine I'll be doing much except eating, working, sleeping and listening to this system for a while
