Bushmaster Mk. II (TC-7533)

[garlech]

I am seriously considering one of these DACs to place between my Sonos ZP90 and CA Azur 351R.

All this talk of batteries begs the question: Does upgrading the power from mains to battery affect the quality mainly for headphone users or for DAC users as well?

Obviously when wearing headphones you are in a much quieter and closed off environment where I imagine the benefits of a lower noise floor are more pronounced whereas in a hifi situation where there is inevitable background noise I would guess the benefits to be less.

I guess where I am going with this is, would the battery upgrade be something worth serious consideration for DAC purposes (over heaphone purposes)?

[alexm84]

Just purchased the BM2 with latest chip installed. Will be my first DAC so pretty excited to see how it goes.
Stan is a great guy to deal with, answered any questions i had and made the sale quick and easy for me.

Thanks to everyone's great feedback on here for helping with the decision

[John]

I am seriously considering one of these DACs to place between my Sonos ZP90 and CA Azur 351R.

All this talk of batteries begs the question: Does upgrading the power from mains to battery affect the quality mainly for headphone users or for DAC users as well?

Obviously when wearing headphones you are in a much quieter and closed off environment where I imagine the benefits of a lower noise floor are more pronounced whereas in a hifi situation where there is inevitable background noise I would guess the benefits to be less.

I guess where I am going with this is, would the battery upgrade be something worth serious consideration for DAC purposes (over heaphone purposes)?

Most of us do not use headphones and noticed a big difference using batteries as well as those using headphones

[Alp]

Stan sent me a chip which had been tweaked for my Squeezebox Touch. The main difference I have noticed is that with EDO I can now get the best sound from the smallest buffer size (before I found the best sound was from a very large buffer size) and the sound is much more vinyl like as well as being more detailed. Together with my four new Temple Audio monoblocks, which have really improved the bass depth and attack, it is quite a step-up in the sound quality.

[Covenant]

Thats interesting Alastair. I presume you mean the chip that is optimised for battery use as well? I use EDO and have the buffer set to large so I will try the small buffer setting tonight.

[StanleyB]

Thats interesting Alastair. I presume you mean the chip that is optimised for battery use as well?

The Touch and Airport Express updates are in the FW after the battery update. I didn't want to run the chance of adding both the battery and wireless streamers codes in the same FW without some field trials. The last thing I want is that they clash with each other. Alastair and a few others with a Touch have been brave enough to give the combined code a try. MartinT is trying the battery only code for now, and I hope that he'll be able to try the battery & Touch code afterwards so that I can have some more data to go with.

I use EDO and have the buffer set to large so I will try the small buffer setting tonight.

That would be a good idea. It will be interesting to find out if the battery code on its own is capable enough to improve the wireless streamers as well.

If the results show that the wireless streamers update makes a difference in its own right, then anyone with a battery and wireless streamer who has had the Battery FW posted to them, should email me for further information if they wish to have their FW updated with both codes.

[Theadmans]

Thats interesting Alastair. I presume you mean the chip that is optimised for battery use as well? I use EDO and have the buffer set to large so I will try the small buffer setting tonight.

Jerry - I have a Touch with EDO - how do you check whether the buffer is large or small ? Also if it is not too complicated how do change the buffer size ?

...and Stan - you are calling this a Wireless Streamer update - I take it is also beneficial if you have the Touch running wired with CAT5 cable as I do ?

[Covenant]

Easy peasey Adam:
Settings/advanced/digital output/buffer tuning experiments.
The Touch will reboot when you have made the alteration.

[Alp]

Thats interesting Alastair. I presume you mean the chip that is optimised for battery use as well? I use EDO and have the buffer set to large so I will try the small buffer setting tonight.

Jerry, I think Stan has answered your question much better than I could have. It would be interesting to see if you do notice a difference after you adjust the buffer settings with the battery mod (or none at all).

[Alp]

Jerry - I have a Touch with EDO - how do you check whether the buffer is large or small ? Also if it is not too complicated how do change the buffer size ?

...and Stan - you are calling this a Wireless Streamer update - I take it is also beneficial if you have the Touch running wired with CAT5 cable as I do ?

As Jerry said this is easy to do. If you are willing to hack the EDO Lua scripts, you can add your own customised buffer options to the menu. Most people recommend disabling the wireless and feeding the Touch with a CAT5 cable so you should be OK.