Beresford Bushmaster DAC Reviews

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Originally Posted by magiccarpetride

Overall, not even a trace of harshness, hardness or sibilance. But at the expense of losing some crystal clarity in the highs I was getting from the Caiman (I must say I kind of miss that glassy hardness, I guess I inadvertently became the victim of another Stockholm syndrome). Or was it just jitter and digital noise that Caiman was giving me and I was interpreting it as a musical signal?

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The Caiman relied on a receiver chip that has a old style jitter performance (i.e. not state of the art). The Bushmaster uses a crystal locked oscillator instead, which has also been kept away from any other nearby oscillation circuits. This is one of the reasons why the so "familiar" jitter harshness in digital music files isn't present in the Bushmaster. I expect other designers to copy that section of my design once they have figured out how it operates.

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Originally Posted by NRG

One thing I've found puzzling is that recorded vinyl played back via the same system sounds a little 'enhanced'...I cant put it into words yet but theres something different between playing the LP live and playing the recorded version.

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I casually raised this point in a thread many months ago after noticing it as well. What I have managed to deduct so far that the analogue to digital converter used to rip the vinyl track has a bearing on the sound.

By the end of last nights sesion I was wondering if it was my familiarity with the Majiks dac that was swaying my opinion ...
The 4 1/2 hours of listening lead to a sound from the bushmaster that seemed calmer than it did when I first turned it on... But I wasn't sure whether that in its self was familiarity with it?
There is one conclusion that I definitely came to and that is that its staying in my system for the foreseeable future...
The biggerst thing that it does for me is sound like its not failing at what it's trying to do where as I say, compared to the majik ds most other dacs ive heard either don't try or sound like yet are failing at what they try
My missis absolutely loves it too ... She looked at me in disbelief when I said I though both sounds had equal merits ... She also looked at me is disbelief when I said that to get the sound I was getting both boxes ha to stay :)

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Originally Posted by StanleyB

I casually raised this point in a thread many months ago after noticing it as well. What I have managed to deduct so far that the analogue to digital converter used to rip the vinyl track has a bearing on the sound.

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Someone told me once that vinyl recorded to digital can often sound better then the record spinner playing due to the fact that when you record the vinyl you often listen to it at a much lower level (or through headphones or not at all) thereby reducing the effect that playback has on the sound of the spinner and the recording. Ie you listen to vinyl loudly and the sound/vibrations influence what you hear by interfering with the player it's self. So when you record then play back the digital file at the higher volumes it is like listening to your record player without the normal impact the sound has on the player ...
I could think of no argument against that ...
He used a cheap sound blaster (the one I linked to in the other thread) for recording his vinyl ... And yeah, to me the recordings sounded better ...
The referance system was the at the time fully tricked out lp12 with some sort of dynavector cart on it vs the linn klimax ds through Adam tensor betas
The lp12 was on its own wall shelf too ... But the betas moved to much air that the door to the bathroom that was behind and to the side of them gently swung back and forth ... The music was by infected mushroom ... Which has just reminded me, I really should play some through the BM, see how it likes that sort of bass! ;)

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Originally Posted by StanleyB

I casually raised this point in a thread many months ago after noticing it as well. What I have managed to deduct so far that the analogue to digital converter used to rip the vinyl track has a bearing on the sound.

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Interesting, its by no means unpleasant, I was curious as to why. The passive Caimen doesn't appear to do the same but then it tends to be a little lean in direct comparison and perhaps not as revealing. :)

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Originally Posted by Hamish

Someone told me once that vinyl recorded to digital can often sound better then the record spinner playing due to the fact that when you record the vinyl you often listen to it at a much lower level (or through headphones or not at all) thereby reducing the effect that playback has on the sound of the spinner and the recording. Ie you listen to vinyl loudly and the sound/vibrations influence what you hear by interfering with the player it's self. So when you record then play back the digital file at the higher volumes it is like listening to your record player without the normal impact the sound has on the player ...

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Shouldn't affect my system as my amp/Phono and decks etc are in a different room to the 'speakers! ;)

May be worth a try none the less ... It's not like it's a hard concept to prove or disprove ... Assuming the rooms are connected there might still be some influence at play
The only other thing I could think of was that the cheap sound blaster is actualy a work of audiophile genius ;)

I have actually started to play my TT through the Bushmaster :eyebrows:. I got a phono stage (TC-760) wired into an ADC that I picked up cheaply on eBay and the digital out from the ADC goes into the BM. Once I manage to add a variable output on the BM I shall be able to retire my analogue preamp for good.

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Originally Posted by StanleyB

I have actually started to play my TT through the Bushmaster :eyebrows:. I got a phono stage (TC-760) wired into an ADC that I picked up cheaply on eBay and the digital out from the ADC goes into the BM. Once I manage to add a variable output on the BM I shall be able to retire my analogue preamp for good.

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Hi Stan,

Any chance you could point me to a similar ADC?

Nathan

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Originally Posted by StanleyB

I have actually started to play my TT through the Bushmaster :eyebrows:. I got a phono stage (TC-760) wired into an ADC that I picked up cheaply on eBay and the digital out from the ADC goes into the BM. Once I manage to add a variable output on the BM I shall be able to retire my analogue preamp for good.

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I suggested doing a similar thing using the Caiman when I discovered how capable it was as a pre-amp a little under a year ago. I was informed that such a course of action would be to the detriment of SQ from the TT, how are you finding it Stan?