Beresford Bushmaster DAC Reviews

Please Note - you may want to ignore this post as I will be using my DIY dac to compare to the Bushmaster - I am doing this partly in response to the comments about USB async dacs - be warned! :D

I have been running the Bushmaster for a couple of days now using both the headphone outputs (into Sennheiser HD280 Pro's) and line outputs into Sony TA-VA777ES / Geddes Abbey clones. I will report on how this performed in a later post.

My setup for the comparison in this post is a Mac Mini (2009) via Kimber USB cable into a Balanced-output asynchronous USB Dac (exau2i/EUVL built ESS9022 dac) into Stax SRM T1S/ Lambda Nova Signature headphones. Optical out goes via vdH cable to the Bushmaster and to the Stax via Grover Huffman cables. The BM is running on the supplied psu - I am awaiting a replacement 12v battery. I am using the Stax as it has both Balanced and Single-Ended inputs.

I am running PureMusic on the Mac with no upsampling, all music is in AIFF format.

I have used two albums for most of the listening - 'Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor' by Caro Emerald and 'The Girl in the Other Room' by Diane Krall. The listening was done after about 20 hours running in on the Bushmaster - the USB dac has been running for many months.

The output from both USB and Bushmaster is very good - each with its own strengths - USB has more attack(!) than the Bushmaster, the BM has more space round instruments and the bass-lines are clearer / possibly a little deeper, brush strokes on drums (on the Diane Krall tracks) come over very cleanly on both Dacs. Voices on both units come over very clearly with no trace of sibilence or harshness.

It is difficult to comment on soundstage depth/width via headphones - what I would say is that the BM is very capable at separating instruments and musical themes - after Caro/Diane I listened to some piano music - Beethoven/Debussy and the interweaving threads of the music are clearly presented.

From an Intellectual point of view (i.e. using my brain analytically) I would say the the Bushmaster had the edge in that I could hear more detail through it - HOWEVER - listening to Caro Emerald / 'Just One Dance' on the Bushmaster I could hear her saying she 'could make my dreams come true' - on the USB dac I knew she could. Both dacs made my feet tap - the USB dac makes me want to get up and dance.

From a Financial point of view the Bushmaster makes a great deal of sense - although my USB dac is DIY there is a similar / commercial version available at $2000.

From an End User perspective I have a couple of minor niggles with the Bushmaster; firstly with my Sennheisers(64 ohms) I barely have to move the control to get full volume - note that I have not reduced the volume settings in PureMusic - I will try this and see if there is any loss in sound quality.

Secondly if I change setting on the computer software (e.g. to try upsampling) I seem to lose connection and I have to power the Bushmaster off/on - I do not know whether this is the Mac or the BM. When the Mac comes to the end of the selected music there is a 10-15 second gap and then a beep - I guess it has something to do with the BM not seeing a signal anymore.

Reading the above you may wonder why I bought the Bushmaster - the main reason is that software is needed on the computer to drive the USB to I2S convertor and this is not always compatible with other music software running on the Mac. The Bushmaster is plug'n'play - simple!

I have some SLA batteries I can probably use whilst I wait for the Li-Po battery to arrive.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ali Tait

Anyone near me getting a Bushmaster?

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Tony (Wee Tee Cee) in Glasgows ordered one.
Be interested in hearing it myself..gimme a shout if you organise a visit Ali?

(assuming thats ok Tony!)

sounds like a plan, I'm working conventional hours mon-fri just now so a weekend would be fine. Best get a few hours on the beast to let it have a fair fight. Straight out of the blocks it has passed everything else I have heard. Might even give Ali's audio note that I really liked a square go. Let me know how you two are fixed and we can get together and have a wee session.
Regards Tony.

As I "swapped" my Gatorized Caiman (with which I had been very happy) for a REGA DAC some months ago, and as I have not found any other AoS members post on a comparison between the 2 I felt honour bound to pay my dollar to Stan and order one - that's my excuse if anyone at home asks and I'm sticking to it :)

So, just placed and paid Stan - looking forward to hearing your new DAC.

Steve

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wee tee cee

sounds like a plan, I'm working conventional hours mon-fri just now so a weekend would be fine. Best get a few hours on the beast to let it have a fair fight. Straight out of the blocks it has passed everything else I have heard. Might even give Ali's audio note that I really liked a square go. Let me know how you two are fixed and we can get together and have a wee session.
Regards Tony.

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Cheers chaps, Bernie has kindly offered to let me borrow his. I'm interested in how it compares to the valve dac as I've now fitted O'Netics output transformers to it, which are rather special.

Still up for a get together sometime soon though, be good to meet up with you gents again. Can't do this coming weekend as we've a wedding on. how about the following one?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by worrasf

As I "swapped" my Gatorized Caiman (with which I had been very happy) for a REGA DAC some months ago, and as I have not found any other AoS members post on a comparison between the 2 I felt honour bound to pay my dollar to Stan and order one - that's my excuse if anyone at home asks and I'm sticking to it :)

So, just placed and paid Stan - looking forward to hearing your new DAC.

Steve

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This will be interesting Steve, know you love the Rega Dac in your system and the improvements it had over the Caiman.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sondale

From an End User perspective I have a couple of minor niggles with the Bushmaster; firstly with my Sennheisers(64 ohms) I barely have to move the control to get full volume - note that I have not reduced the volume settings in PureMusic - I will try this and see if there is any loss in sound quality.

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That's the one problem with headamp. With impedances from 12 Ohms to 600 Ohms, it is a hard job picking the right gain for every type of can. Maybe a variable preset gain control would be a good addition in a future upgrade of the Bushmaster?

Quote:

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Secondly if I change setting on the computer software (e.g. to try upsampling) I seem to lose connection and I have to power the Bushmaster off/on - I do not know whether this is the Mac or the BM. When the Mac comes to the end of the selected music there is a 10-15 second gap and then a beep - I guess it has something to do with the BM not seeing a signal anymore.

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The Bushmaster's anti-jitter circuit (don't mention it too loud or those Far Eastern guys will be poking around inside to see how it is designed ;)) doesn't mess about. If it thinks that the incoming digital circuit is way out of spec the data receiver will drop the signal. You should be able to recover by just advancing the input selector. Or if you leave it in auto mode the DAC would normally try to find a better signal from a different input.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by worrasf

As I "swapped" my Gatorized Caiman (with which I had been very happy) for a REGA DAC some months ago, and as I have not found any other AoS members post on a comparison between the 2 I felt honour bound to pay my dollar to Stan and order one - that's my excuse if anyone at home asks and I'm sticking to it :)

So, just placed and paid Stan - looking forward to hearing your new DAC.

Steve

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Please keep us posted Steve, I'd be interested in hearing how the BM compares to the Rega (as a self confessed Rega fan).

For a while I've been considering a sideways move from my Arcam to Rega Brio/Dac combo to match my RS3s, the bonus of a decent phono stage perhaps being the enticement i need to go beyond dipping my toes into vinyls.

If similar, or better performance could be achieved at lower cost with the BM then I could be persuaded to make the switch.

Stan - from the Squeezebox should I use the s/pdif or toslink connection to your DAC? Or is there no audible difference between the two (apart from complete electrical isolation using toslink from the SBT if that matters).

Are the interconnect cables that you sell on your website high enough up the audiophile food chain to deliver the musical goods, or do I need to buy some 'bling' or invest in some rare earth metal such as palladium :)?

Have you considered the deleterious affects (if any) of vibrations making there merry way through your DAC? Or do you use some super duper highly expensive isolation platform/feet (such as Vertex) when you assess your own equipment? You might already have damping material within the confines of you box.

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Originally Posted by RichB

Please keep us posted Steve, I'd be interested in hearing how the BM compares to the Rega (as a self confessed Rega fan).

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Will do. Already had an email from Stan and my BM is on it's way - now that's what I call customer service :)

I'm also really keen to check out the headphone amp in the BM. Since getting the REGA I have been using my self-build SOHA II headphone amp.
I've just moved from 12v to 6v valves with good effect and have upgraded the PCB with a few tweaks as suggested by the designer. Even managed to find a NOS Nobel 100K pot to replace the vanilla Alps blue - this is still in transit so not installed yet. The SOHA drives my 600 ohm Beyerdynamics with ease so it will be interesting to see how the BM performs with them.

Steve