Spot on Stan. I have a cupboard full of unused power supplies and mains leads as I guess do many others. Makes total sense to me.
Val
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Spot on Stan. I have a cupboard full of unused power supplies and mains leads as I guess do many others. Makes total sense to me.
Val
Sounds like a good idea. I would maybe suggest that the appropriate DC power plug is included.
A good plan Stan! I have an after market PSU so don't want to pay for one I won't use https://theartofsound.net/forum/images/icons/icon14.png
Are you suggesting that customers could then solder a 2.1mm DC plug onto their power supply in preference to the DC plug they already have fitted to that power supply? That would be highly dangerous in most cases. There is little room for mistakes when soldering a DC plug or socket to a lead. I wrote off a few expensive power supplies in my time trying to do just that.
No.Quote:
Originally Posted by StanleyB
But if you were DIYing a PSU having the appropriate plug would be handy. Although with hindsight, simply knowing its a 2.1mm allows someone to buy an appropriate one
From a personal perspective I wouldn't consider upgrading if I can't (re)use my Best of both Worlds PSU.
I just thought I would like tobrieflyexpress my delight with this product and with the excellent service Stan has provided.
Beresford Bushmaster Review
A bit of background first
I'm a hardened headphone audiophile and have owned/borrowed many headphones over the past three years. Something in the region of over 200. I'm a computer audiophile also, so naturally I've had plenty of dacs, amps and associated equipment including power filters, ssd based audio computers, cables, converters......you get the picture.
This is what I want to say: the bushmaster is among the very best of things in audio I have ever bought.
That's not an emotional overreaction or a product of new toy syndrome (mainly because I don't suffer from this - new toy regret is more like it). If I'm being honest the phonak 232 IEM's are the best and most important thing for me, being attached to my undershirt pretty much all day long. After a long burn in and a change of tips (klipsch gel's) these sound stunning; better than the ie800 and the k3003 in my opinion.
Dac/Amp Combo
From a sound perspective, it's the best dac/amp combo I've ever come across and believe me folks, I've been searching for something like this for years. It outperformed the Burson conductor when I tried them side by side. Mdac, black cube linear usb, yulong d100, nuforce hdp, audio gd nfb12.1, all sound inferior and the surprising thing is that's it pretty much the case with any headphone I test with. That's the D7k, D5k, ultrasone signature pro, edition 8, akg k550, Beyer T1, shure 940, mad dog fostex, hd800......
The all-round sound presentation is testament to the strength of the inbuilt headphone amp and how it interacts with the DAC. Both amp and dac are properly done unlike for example the Mdac and it's poor headphone amp implementation. I always feel it's a sound that's honest to the headphone i'm listening to. The bass isn't exaggerated where the d7k has a perfect amount out of this system, the k167 sounds as fast as it so often promises to be and the signature DJ becomes too much for all but the hardened bass head - again - as it were meant to be. The T1's sound glorious out of this system. Genuinely this bushmaster really gives it all that it needs; A proper bass response, natural timbre, extended highs, mature soundstage, good imaging and most of all tonnes of detail. One can get the T1's now for £600 and with the bushmaster you've got yourself a genuine high end headphone system.
Dac only
As a standalone Dac it's mighty. The Mdac is similarly impressive and as dac's I hold both to be up there, obviously all at least a definitive level above things like my rdac/MF vdac. Much has been said about this already on this forum, with a lot of folk using it as a dac only. I don't feel the need to add much more.
Amp only
As an amplifier (of course using the inbuilt dac) I have others that sound slightly better. The graham slee solo UL diamond is an example, but it is not superior by a major margin at all. It's slightly more detailed across the bass spectrum and also more impressive in vocal pieces. I sometimes with the modified d7k, get a bit spooked by how the slee portrays human vocals, delicately and with air (superior to the bushmasters amp). Most importantly for me is that it has a more relaxed high range and shows more capability in dealing with sharper sounds that can sometimes sound too accentuated on the bushmasters amp. The bushmaster always projects a large headstage, bigger and more impressive than the Graham Slee, and injects more air into the presentation too. It's quicker, more aggressive and more dynamic. Many a time therefore it sounds better, though the more relaxed Slee is my preference for long time listening.
The burson soloist SL I have is only better with headphones that are midrange heavy (n shaped rather than u shaped), such as the ultrasone signature pro. Actually the soloist makes this ultrasone sound so much more musical and lush than I have heard with other equipment. The difference is, well, massive, especially in the realm of comparing amps where differences are not going to be very large anyway.
The bushmasters amp is the next best for this, ahead of the graham slee which makes this ultrasone sound quite bland and boring. I guess this 'boring' comes in large to the soundstage portrayal of the slee never being vast - both the bushmasters amp and the soloist have inherently larger soundstages but the latter looses out when it comes to detail retrieval especially in the upper high ranges. The slee and the bushmaster are both stunningly detailed.
When we talk about PRAT and dynamics the bushmasters amp succeeds the soloist too, behaving much like the slee (or meier Jazz - similar sound to the slee except it's less competent across the board).
Overall it performs very very well and the fact that I am mentioning it among £500+ highly regarded amps should speak volumes. Against sub £200 amps, the bushmaster thoroughly succeeds many. Objective 2 included.
Conclusion
If you've read the above, you know how highly I rate this thing.
Stan was excellent and so open from the first time I called in May enquiring about the amp/dac and where to buy it. We had a long talk about all things headphone related, even though there wasn't any in stock as of the sad news about the workshop owner. I bought one on ebay and stan agreed to modify the gain so the volume pot is usable with sensitive headphones, and he carried this out with real honesty. And that's where I'd like to end this review - honesty. This thing cost me under £200 and technically, of course, more could be charged. I would pay more, but Stan feels that it would be dishonest so decided not to. Seriously Stan, with the market moving as it is, that decision really shines through.
I really look forward to the USB version of this piece of equipment.
Misc
Testing equipment
Power: Clearer audio power conditioner
Transport: acer s3 (128gb samsung ssd, 4gb ram, i5, W7) & Dell Vostro 1500 (128gb kingston ssd, 4gb ram, core 2 duo, custom XP, usb hub)
USB cables: Belkin, chord silver plus
SPDIF converter: Musical Fidelity v-linkII
Optical/Co-axial cable: wide range inc. QED profile/performance and others
RCA cables: wide range inc. chord chameleon vee3, mark grant g1500hd,
Conditions:
Ambient noise levels: <30db (home listening). With demo equipment not at home <40db
Humidity and temperature: maintained. 21-23c and 50-60% humidity
Volume matching: using test tracks of different noise levels
Albums: All flac files, CD standard bit rates. Variety of genres, with a sample of artists being:
Riverside (prog rock), Within temptation (rock), Amethystium (New age), David Arkenstone (Celtic), Lisa Gerrard (World), Acoustic Alchemy (Spanish acoustic), Ah Ne Ma (Acoustic/world), ATB (chillout/trance), Tycho (Electro), 2pac (hip hop), MJ (pop), Yo Yo Ma (Classical), Hans Zimmer (OST), and the best out of them all... Einaudi (Neo Classical)
Hi Aleem,Quote:
Originally Posted by CSM
man thanks for your review. May I ask how would you describe the difference between Bushmaster and Burson conductor with HD800 phones? if possible amp only and also DAC+amp section.
Thanx Tomas
Great Review Aleem!
THanks!
Thanks for the appreciation guys!
The Conductor I only listened to as a dac/amp combination and used the denon d7k and 'fostex mad dog alpha t50rp.' With the fostex I thought the bushmaster beat the conductor hands down. It had much more authority, weight with each note and the overall presentation had more gravity. It just sounded more true to life compared to the conductor that gave a more thinner sound. The conductor had good speed and resolution, but highs were strident and the upper midrange sounded at times disjointed from the rest of the frequency spectrum. The fostex felt muddled up, like a headphone that is trying to give off a cold sound when in fact it is by nature a warm sounding headphone.
With the d7k differences were much less significant. I didn't try out both that much, so I can't say much, though I will say it was in it's fuller midrange presentation that the beresford won me over.
Addition to review above
Bushmaster with Fostex th900
Thanks to the kind folk over at HiFi headphones (brighton), a few days ago I in length tried the bushmaster with a fostex th900. I wanted to buy these headphones, but surprisingly found the build quality to be actually quite poor of a headphone £1200+. It's the same/worse as the £200 denon d2k. The cups are much heavier which I thought would have warranted a different headband/hinge design but no. The pads are stiffer and the clamp is more (a bad things for people with big heads like me - reason why I didn't get them). The packaging/accessories also smacked me in the face when I first saw it. Satisfactory for a headphone sub £200, not for something more.
About the sound. It's awesome.
Read Mike's review over at Headphonia:
http://www.headfonia.com/fostex-th900-and-th600/
In it he talks about the importance of a suitable amp, transforming these otherwise 'polite and proper' headphones into an industry leading sound. The graham slee UL diamond and Musical Fidelity M1HPAP both had the fostex sounding polite and proper. When I switched to the inbuilt amp, it really revealed itself. In other words, the inbuilt amp in the Bushmaster is thoroughly high end.
Mind you, that's not to say the other amps in mention are low performers - with the ATH W3000ANV (lovely headphone), they both sounded all round better than the bushmaster (esp the M1HPAP). I guess amp synergy is at play here too.
Thanks again to the guys at Hifi Headphones for letting me take 2 hours demoing equipment - the surprise of the bunch really was the graham slee bitzie. It sounded thoroughly impressive and really nice with the ultrasone sig pro.