Beresford Bushmaster DAC Reviews

Dav, I understand better than anyone how frustrating it can be when such a fantastic product doesn't quite come up to operational expectations. I too found myself in a similar position to you and I was frustrated because what I was hearing was simply fabulous. The resulting negotiations did not go well so in the end I bit the bullet, sent the BM back and bought a Rega DAC. Had the issue been sorted to my satisfaction I promise you the BM would still be in my system.

Everyone handles such situations differently and I am big enough to admit that perhaps I could have been a little more diplomatic. Despite this I would still say that the Bushmaster is the best sounding DAC currently retailing at under £500.

Yes Stan has always been excellent with me - the 2 replacement chips I have asked for both arrived the next day after ringing him.

I notice there appears to be a new line on the Beresford Bushmaster section of the Beresford website "Now shipping with improved firmware for even better performance" - I would be interested to know what this relates to.

MartinT - I notice you said you leave your Bushmaster on all the time. Can I ask if you use Sleep Mode or just leave the blue LED on?

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Originally Posted by MartinT

This seems a little disingenuous, unless I'm missing something. So you didn't actually give Stan a chance to fix the problem (a minor problem at that, just involving the LEDs)? In which case, the negative vibes are a little unwarranted. I have owned three of Stan's devices and his customer service has always been exemplary. The devices (including my Bushmaster) have never gone wrong and are left switched on all the time - there is no heat problem as they generate precious little heat in the first place. Power glitches can be a menace and this may well be the source of your problems.

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I did give Stan plenty of chances to fix the problem. Being that I was so happy with the sound I have to admit was a bit heart broken when I wasn't having the response I was hoping for. If I'm using someone's product I like to feel happy about my interaction with them. I mean this is no large multinational organisation, this is Stan's personal signature on the product! Until things went wrong I was perfectly happy. The product was delivered on time and to his further credit Stan even refunded it the day he got it back! However, the tone throughout my email contact has been towards either me not knowing how the product works or a problem in my system, along with offering me a refund on more than one occasion despite me making it perfectly clear I wanted a working product. I thought this product sounded great, I didn't want to let go of it.

Being that my first and send ICs behaved differently I don't think mains power is the cause of the problem. In fact there are now several people who have had this issue clearly pointing to a fault with the DAC that needs to be rectified.

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Originally Posted by mudan

I did give Stan plenty of chances to fix the problem. Being that I was so happy with the sound I have to admit was a bit heart broken when I wasn't having the response I was hoping for. If I'm using someone's product I like to feel happy about my interaction with them. I mean this is no large multination organisation, this is Stan's personal signature on the product! Until things went wrong I was perfectly happy. The product was delivered on time and to his further credit Stan even refunded it the day he got it back! However, the tone throughout my email contact has been towards either me not knowing how the product works or a problem in my system, along with offering me a refund on more than one occasion despite me making it perfectly clear I wanted a working product. I thought this product sounded great, I didn't want to let go of it.

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Despite what I've written before and as much as it pains me to write it, this all sounds very familiar, especially the piece in bold... :eyebrows:

If Stan is willing to run with it I am happy to offer my services as a reviewer, and as someone who has suffered from this problem, to test whether the latest firmware update has solved it. I promise to be fair and unbiased. Apart from anything else, if it is generated by some sort of system incompatability then if the same problem should emerge it might be helpful to Stan and all his customers to identify exactly what the circumstances are which generate the issue...

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Originally Posted by Theadmans

Yes Stan has always been excellent with me - the 2 replacement chips I have asked for both arrived the next day after ringing him.

I notice there appears to be a new line on the Beresford Bushmaster section of the Beresford website "Now shipping with improved firmware for even better performance" - I would be interested to know what this relates to.

MartinT - I notice you said you leave your Bushmaster on all the time. Can I ask if you use Sleep Mode or just leave the blue LED on?

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I believe part of that firmware change may relate to updated sleep mode behaviour(when it works!). Rev1.4 instructions contain new steps on how to enter sleep mode along with how to reset your dac should you have issues. Stan emailed me a PDF for rev 1.4 which was in the last IC I had. Maybe there's other digital system improvements too ?

My sleep mode doesn't seem to be working properly either... no great shakes, didn't know it had one & I quite like the LEDS :mental:

It's nice having blue LEDs but not ones that are so bright!

What troubled me more about my second IC is that when I tried to enter sleep mode the DAC would just freeze i.e. no sound output even if I pressed Select and no movement on the LEDs. The only way to get it to work again was to turn it off/on.

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Originally Posted by mudan

I believe part of that firmware change may relate to updated sleep mode behaviour(when it works!). Rev1.4 instructions contain new steps on how to enter sleep mode along with how to reset your dac should you have issues. Stan emailed me a PDF for rev 1.4 which was in the last IC I had. Maybe there's other digital system improvements too ?

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...OK thanks - I got my latest chip from Stan at the end of March - not sure if it is rev 1.4 - useful info though. I'll check this rev 1.4 malarkey out with Stan if my chip goes wrong again.

From the comments made about the sleep mode it appears to be a feature that is more trouble than it is worth. I wrote the software code for it primarily to hide the scanning light emitted by the LEDs when in auto mode. Those pulsating LEDs can get very irritating otherwise. But there are other ways to hide the scanning of the LEDs.

I suspect that there is a wake up function call error in the software compiler that I use. I'll ask on the compiler manufacturer forum about that. The sleep mode problem seems however to be overshadowing the performance of the BM. So I shall edit the online instructions and remove any reference of the sleep mode. That should . I'll have an amended instruction printed as well.
I shall also remove the software call to the sleep mode function from any future updates and sales so that it is no longer available as a feature. I'll see if I can implement that over this weekend.

Good to hear that you acknowledge there is an issue. I think disabling the sleep feature is a good move. In order to keep those happy who find the LEDs too bright would there be an easy way to make them glow less bright or would that involve changing the build and fitting different spec parts?