But Border Patrol ended up #2. I went into their site and it seems like a real nice unit to me.
I love researching new technology and diving in to see where it leads me. Three years ago I wanted a new DAC. My Van Alstine Fet Valve Hybrid DAC still worked perfectly, sounded great, but only played 44.1 kHz and 96 kHz recordings, didn't play DSD and it was 10 years old. Hi-RES recordings were showing up everywhere and they were affordable. It was time to kick my hobby into high gear and explore the bleeding edge of recorded music.
2L-The Nordic Sound, Sound Liason, PS Audio Octave Records and Chesky Records to name a few, record and release recordings in hi-res formats. Carmen Gomes recordings on Sound Liason are recorded in 352kHz, mastered to both 352kHz and 768kHz and are available to buy in all hi-res formats, this is as close to a live mike feed as anyone will ever hear. Carmen's "Thousand Shades of Blue" in 768 kHz/32 bit clocks in at 16.3 GB. Octave Records SACD disks rip to DSD64 and average 1.75 GB. DXD352 kHz albums average 5.5 GB.
An average 44.1 kHz/16 bit Redbook recording is around 400 MB. All those extra bits are thrown away to make a Redbook file which can be from 23% to a only 2.5% the size of the original recording. I wanted to hear what the original recordings sounded like.
I haven't heard a Border Patrol DAC, based on reviews it sounds great. Three guys in our audio group have ANK (Audio Note) DACs, two 5.1 Signatures and a 2.1, all heavily modified with premium parts, they sound great too. All those DACs are NOS but can only play 44.1 kHz to 96 kHz recordings. Not the direction I wanted to go. Maybe the ANK vs HoloAudio shootout will happen this year, logistics and egos have to be negotiated.
The Sound Advocate has a thoughtful review of the Border Patrol SE-i DAC and compares it to an ANK DAC although not the higher level 5.1 Signature or 2.1.
https://www.thesoundadvocate.com/2022/07/borderpatrol-se-i-dac-fully-assessed/The reviewer (like many audiophiles) doesn't think hi-res is necessary for musical enjoyment.
"
Another interesting thing about the BorderPatrol SE-i DAC is that it only converts PCM (pulse code modulation) digital at sampling frequencies of 44.1K, 48K, 88.2K, and 96K. No ridiculous 192K. No fancy-schmancy DSD. No MQA decoding (thank goodness!). This DAC is for the Audiophile Purist!"
Ted Smith, PS Audio's lead developer may disagree: In August 2020, Ted Smith talked about the NOS Philips TDA 1543 chip in the BorderPatrol NOS DAC (and still used in 2025). His comment reminded me of my first DAC, a Scott Nixon Tube DAC I bought used in 2006 that also used the Philips TDA 1543 chip. The SN Tube DAC was a NOS design with no digital filter. The sound was pleasant but eventually I became bored because the music just laid there, there was no PRaT, and now I know why. The Van Alstine Insight I bought in 2008 was livelier but still rough around the edges compared to modern DACs.
6Moons has a review of the Scott Nixon Tube DAC
https://6moons.com/audioreviews/nixon/tubedac.htmlTed writes:
“It’s [Philips TDA 1543] a very simple chip. For people who want NOS or R-2R style DACs it’s great. Also most people don’t seem to read the datasheet, the chip requires an opamp to meet its specs (which aren’t great), but many simply use resistors on its outputs which adds a lot of 2nd harmonic distortion and restricts the dynamic range.
"If your favorite music doesn’t have a lot of high frequencies and it doesn’t get too loud, the chip works well.
"Without an output filter the timing and waveshape of impulses is lost and PRaT will suffer, but if the original recording is already rolled off this won’t be a problem.
I suspect most people that really enjoy orchestral or, say, grunge [or rock] would be disappointed, but jazz trios, women’s solo voice, etc. should sound fine.”
There's a lot more info about why PS Audio decided to upsample all digital music here:
An Upsampling Primer or Why Make More Bits?https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=183465.msg1926276#msg1926276
