i'm replying in regards to the vinyl vs. cd shootout.
michael fremer from 'stereophile' has been pushing records over cd's for years, and i have no problem with that. however, when he does play records and ooh's and aah's over them, the cartridge alone that he uses is twice the price of a bcd-1. forget the price of the turntable; it would take a second mortgage to buy one of those.
i have a decent analogue set-up at home--a denon turntable and ortophon cartridge. the denon i've had since the early 80's, the orthophon is fairly new. i still have quite a bit of vinyl that i play,and it sounds acceptable, nothing to write home about, and definitely not involving.
i believe cd's got a bad rap because early on they were not mastered correctly, some were very boomy and the high end was terrible. since the early 90's, cd mastering has improved, so it's became the source equipment's responsibility to involve the listener along with the rest of the electronics in the chain.
imo,i've always had good electronics because i use mac pre-amp and amp. the weakness was always the player. at the time i couldn't afford a mac cd player;i was close to purchasing one, but then i discovered the bcd-1. no more source problems.
one last thing, i played some older cd's that sounded very boomy on previous cd players i've owned; not so with the bryston. i believe the reason behind this is that the bcd-1 doesn't add warmth to the sound, where my other cd players did. those others being a mission, marantz, and an adcom 750.
i believe, based on my own ears, that the bcd-1 is about as neutral as a cd player can be.
because so many of us music lovers own hundreds to thousands of cd's, i want to thank bryston again for creating a machine that puts to rest the rumor that cd's sound inherently bad.
i even think that vinyl snob, mr. fremer, might, surprisingly, be impressed.
