Beresford Bushmaster DAC Reviews

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Originally Posted by Darren

I'd like to try a Bushmaster in my work system but am deeply skeptical regarding substantial differences between reasonable dacs - certainly I've never heard any though my experience is limited.

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I was able to hear a difference between my DACMagic and the BM. At first the DM had more bass and clearer highs but that was when the BM was just a few hours old. After the BM broke in (and I can tell you I was VERY skeptical of the people on the forum saying that after 4 or 5 days the BM changed a lot and for the better) it bettered the DM in all areas.

If I didn't have them both hooked up at the same time with both outputs from my Touch running to each DAC where I could just change from AUX1 to AUX2 and not miss a beat it would have been harder to hear the difference. If you have to take a few minutes to shut everything down and change cables, fire everything back up and then compare it can be really hard to hear a difference, at least for me but when you have both running and can just click a button and change back and forth it is very easy to hear the differences.

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Originally Posted by Yomanze

5 metres is the way to go. ;)

From an RF engineer who knows more about this than I ever will...

As for the Bushmaster, Stan or anyone else who knows, is there a 30 days return policy?

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Well theres no hard and fast rule as you don't know what the rise time of the signal is but yes longer the better it would seem on the majority of commercial kit, 1.5m was just a minimum figure.

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Originally Posted by Yomanze

5 metres is the way to go. ;)

From an RF engineer who knows more about this than I ever will...

As for the Bushmaster, Stan or anyone else who knows, is there a 30 days return policy?

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I found this at the HomeHIFI site:

Returns
We value our reputation as a value for money trader. So should you wish to return an item after having had a chance to evaluate it for a few days, please contact us for the return address and any additional information that you may require.

Hey Dave and Bobby,
Many thanks for your remarks. I am tempted. Its either that or a Nexus 7 tablet......

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Originally Posted by StanleyB

Do you hear the hiss when the music is playing and/or when there is no music playing but with the volume control turned to max?

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Although I rarely use headphones, I have just the same hiss - except it is in the right channel.

My Grado SR80s pick it up whether the volume is turned-up or turned right down. When the music is playing it is very noticeable during quiet parts.

The hiss is quite choppy and seems to stop momentarily and then restart - quite unlike the white noise you get in both channels with the volume on max (no music). It is there irrespective of which input is selected but it did seem to reduce when I set the LEDs to be off. Turning BM off and on again made no difference.

There is no noise on the fixed output, which sounds excellent BTW after burning in.

Is there a fix to this problem, short of returning the unit and losing my hard-won burn-in?

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Originally Posted by Alp

Although I rarely use headphones, I have just the same hiss - except it is in the right channel.

My Grado SR80s pick it up whether the volume is turned-up or turned right down. When the music is playing it is very noticeable during quiet parts.

The hiss is quite choppy and seems to stop momentarily and then restart - quite unlike the white noise you get in both channels with the volume on max (no music). It is there irrespective of which input is selected but it did seem to reduce when I set the LEDs to be off. Turning BM off and on again made no difference.

There is no noise on the fixed output, which sounds excellent BTW after burning in.

Is there a fix to this problem, short of returning the unit and losing my hard-won burn-in?

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I'll have to give mine another listen. I only used the headphones for a few minutes and my wife had the television on at the same time so I'll do it again and pay closer attention.

UPDATE: I just tested the headphones again. First with no music at all and volume turned all the way up, next with music playing and finally with music paused and volume turned all the way up again and I have no hiss from any of them.

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Originally Posted by edmondwolfman

I'll have to give mine another listen. I only used the headphones for a few minutes and my wife had the television on at the same time so I'll do it again and pay closer attention.

UPDATE: I just tested the headphones again. First with no music at all and volume turned all the way up, next with music playing and finally with music paused and volume turned all the way up again and I have no hiss from any of them.

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I did the same initially which is why I only noticed it today. Thanks for checking. Hopefully Stan will come back with something. It definitely seems to be something to do with the LEDs. When they are set to go off after a few seconds, the hiss more-or-less disappears about 30 seconds later. On the few occasions I listen to headphones, I now know what to do.

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Originally Posted by Alp

Although I rarely use headphones, I have just the same hiss - except it is in the right channel.

My Grado SR80s pick it up whether the volume is turned-up or turned right down. When the music is playing it is very noticeable during quiet parts.

The hiss is quite choppy and seems to stop momentarily and then restart - quite unlike the white noise you get in both channels with the volume on max (no music). It is there irrespective of which input is selected but it did seem to reduce when I set the LEDs to be off. Turning BM off and on again made no difference.

There is no noise on the fixed output, which sounds excellent BTW after burning in.

Is there a fix to this problem, short of returning the unit and losing my hard-won burn-in?

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I also use the Grado SR80. When connected to the Bushmaster there is no hiss at all. With the music off and the volume turned at maximum level there is absolutely no sound audible (quite impressively so !). My guess is that somehow there must be interference getting in the course of your headphone signal. There's also no difference when the leds are on or out.
By the way,for reasonable listening levels I can only turn the volume knob one quarter of a turn up, putting the knob at 12 o'clock is already unbearably loud !

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Originally Posted by vinylspinner

Hi Jerry,

Would the BM improve on the Musical Fidelity A5? I know you had one at Jerry Towers for a little while, would like to hear your opinion.

Nigel

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Yup.

The A5 is a nice player, I enjoyed it.
But the imaging is a bit flat, especially compared to the Bushmaster, which is a superb imager once you're tuned in to it (which can take a while, it's so good as to be quite a different experience that you need to get used to, imo).

And there is a light & life, a musical freedom and exuberance, to the BM's playback that takes it into serious high end territory - you normally need to spend multiple-£k's to even have a chance of getting that sort of quality, ime. The A5 doesn't do it - most digital playback doesn't.

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Originally Posted by jandl100

Yup.

The A5 is a nice player, I enjoyed it.
But the imaging is a bit flat, especially compared to the Bushmaster, which is a superb imager once you're tuned in to it (which can take a while, it's so good as to be quite a different experience that you need to get used to, imo).

And there is a light & life, a musical freedom and exuberance, to the BM's playback that takes it into serious high end territory - you normally need to spend multiple-£k's to even have a chance of getting that sort of quality, ime. The A5 doesn't do it - most digital playback doesn't.

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The BM certainly seems to be a bit of a giant killer - so I thought I would elevate my experience with hi-end digital and borrow a digital giant from another music lover that fortunately lives nearby. I am soon to become accustomed to the sound of a 'Rega Isis'. Let's see if David can kill this Goliath!