[Mag]

Over on another forum I was mentioning in my listening sample. That my BCD-1 had better resolution on the cd hybrid layer than the sacd layer. As I mentioned I listen in MC stereo for the BCD-1 with 7 channel music enhance engaged. This better simulates the weight and depth of sacd for a better comparison. However the enhancer is not absolutely necessary as with some music the bass becomes too dominate.

Truth is I was being polite to sacd enthusiasts. Fact is every hybrid cd layer of the sacd I have has a slightly better resolution than the sacd layer played on my BCD-1.

I have read that the advantage of sacd is achieved when the recording is done is DSD. Now I could be wrong but since most sacd's have been re-mastered from pcm sources. It would stand to reason then that the BCD-1 should out perform all sacd that haven't been recorded in DSD from the outset. That leaves only very recent sacd releases that have been mastered properly in DSD in the last 5 or 6 years that may surpass the BCD-1 resolution.

Am I alone on this, is there other BCD-1, BDA-1 owners that share my opinion?

[Phil A]

I have a BCD-1 and Marantz DV9600 universal.  The highs are noticeably better on SACD.  I have found in many instances the BCD-1 images better.  For example, I have the SACD soundtrack of "O Brother Where Art Thou."  Alison Krauss does "Down to the River to Pray."  On her recent collection CD "A Hundred Miles or More", the song is included as plain old PCM.  I clearly think it sounds better with better imaging on the BCD-1.  On many things, you can notice the inherent limitation of the CD medium.  I'm hoping Bryston (but it's probably wishful) offers DSD decoding on the SP3.  I'm waiting for the new Oppo Blu-Ray player that will do SACD and hoping it will pass DSD like the 980.  If not, I'll likely have the DV9600 modded.  I saw the other post and stayed out of it.  Before I had the DV9600, I had a Sony XA777ES with Modwright's Absolute Truth mod.  I had a decent DAC laying around (an old MicroMega DuoPro) and I decided with SACD dead as mainstream and few releases coming out of mainstream stuff (particularly after Universal quit doing their titles), my purchases were less and less and it was time to sell it while I could get decent money for it and go with the universal player and wait and see what happens.  I do have about 250 SACDs and probably 60 DVD-As, so I have hi-rez stuff to play. 

[Mag]

Thanks for your response and I respect your opinion. I would have to conclude that your Marantz sacd player is significantly superior to my Sony NS9100ES in sacd playback.

I realize with so many variables from one audiophile's system to another. It will be difficult to establish that a well recorded cd, sacd hybrid played in the BCD-1 is in the same league-category as sacd in terms of resolution.

Certainly there will be audiophiles with trained ears that will be sensitive to the marginal differences that exist between the two. Thus the preference of one format over another.

If the determining factor then is the quality of the sacd player in establishing superiority  resolution of sacd over the BCD-1. Then it is an outright lie or bias against Bryston to say that the same equivalent recording played in either the BCD-1 or BDA-1 is not at the resolution of sacd which is considered Hi-Resolution.

[Phil A]

Before the BCD-1, and with my MicroMega Duo Pro DAC (which is similar sonically to the BCD-1 - images about the same but you can hear some timing differences, particularly in he bass and it is not as controlled as he BCD-1 - I had a Proceed PMDT at the time which was an outstanding transport) in the sysem and with my modded XA-777ES, I've had many SACD players brought over for comparison.  I had a friend bring over his Marantz 8260, my Sony 2000ES CD/SACD changer, a friends Sony XA9000ES, etc.  Learned tons about differences, as did the friends who brought over their machines.  The 8260 has Goldmond cones on it and was brought over by Karl Schuster of www.empiricaldesign.net.  James recently posted his comments about the Bryston DAC (and he was with me at the store when I auditioned the BCD-1 the second time right before I bought it) and he makes wonderful cables too.  Last time I spoke to him, before he bought the Bryston DAC, he was talking about getting the second version of he Marantz SA-11 (and selling his DV9600) and I have not touched based with him since then.  Anyway after hearing his 8260 in my system back then, he sold it a short while later and bought the Marantz DV9600.  When I sold my Modwright XA-777ES, I touched base with him about the DV9600 knowing he had a great frame of reference about my system and what was in it.  He was temporarily helping at the local high end shop and I ran over to buy my DV9600.  I'd love to see DSD in the new Bryston pre/pro.  It's becoming more commonplace in home theater receivers a couple of steps up from entry level (and I'm due for a new bedroom rec'r as mine will be 8 yrs. old in March) and it would be nice to see a real high end company do it right.  If the SP3 doesn't include DSD, I'll have to decide it I want to have my DV9600 modded and to what extent.

[Mag]

Apparently the Yamaha 2ch/7ch Enhancer feature is pretty much an exclusive to Yamaha av/receivers. I assumed this was a common feature to mid-level av/receivers.

 A compression enhancer intended for regenerating missing harmonics in lossy compression schemes such as mp3. Works quite well with cd wav format too.

 It really improves the overall sound comparable to that of sacd's. I don't think it would surpass sacd in resolution if the BCD-1's resolution wasn't outputting at high resolution.

Without the enhancer it would be easy to dismiss the BCD-1 in an sacd comparison because of the depth & weight difference.

[Mag]

It has been suggested by someone before but I never done it until yesterday. That was transfer the cd layer of a hybrid sacd to cd-r. What a difference it made in improving the tonal qualities of the music.
What this means then is that the cd layer of sacd played through the BCD-1 is the best mixed, best recordings and highest resolution of any recording format that I have heard.

I had wrote before that the same cd hybrid sacd recording was only marginally better than sacd. Now I will say the same sacd hybrid cd layer recording played through the BCD-1, transferred to cd-r, is significantly higher resolution than the sacds I have heard played through my Sony NS9100es.
This comparison as before was in MC stereo with Yamaha 7 channel enhancer.

However, some cd recordings may for some listeners be overly forward. There are times when the mood calls for a more laid back presentation.