Beresford Bushmaster DAC Reviews

bushmaster arrived today played for four hours did not sound to bad however stans,s dac needs to be run in .had to modify as my sources have bnc sockets stripped bushmaster replaced input rca with silver plated bnc sockets wired with teflon covered pure silver wire rca outputs also changed for silver plated cnc rca sockets silver wired also earth lug modified rivet replced with a screw thus only need to solder the wire leading to the earth tag which will help when furthet dismantling the dac to carry out any further mods ,also had to cut a slot in the inner front chassis by the power switch so as to be able to take out the board to carry out wire and socket mods and any future mods without any difficulty as stan,s dac is very well built bur arkward to dissasemble cnc output sockets large thus rca hole had to be enlarged.reassembled the unit fed for three day a diet of loose ends where are you 80,s funk on repeat via headphones asennheiser hd 485.

fed by marantz ud5005 universal player via silver plated 75 0hm coaxial cable terminated in silver plated 75 ohm bnc plugs then connected to a khzoumo individual left and right shunt 48 step passive preamp silver wired single input feeding in turn ajren helder ta 2020 battery powered t amp feeding tony gee solo horn loudspeakers the sound sublime bass taught informative midrange informative imaging great can easily pick out individal instrument depth of imaging is outstanding makes passive caiman sounde two dimensional how technology has come along teble shimmering detailed no harshness easy to folow hi hats sound real information never heard befoe even on discs i know well all the above is with the bushmaster fed via battery you may ask why change the sockets and wiring did this to the caiman dac and elicited an improvement on the bushmastereven more so as a great design i believe is being strangled via the wiring from the sockets both in and out from the board (sorry about my little pet hate even on equipment costing hundreds of pounds same awful wiring to sockets) .So thta aside a great dac i would happily recommend to anyone trying to get value for money and a good sound to boot the inputs are enoghe for my requirements .well done stan.thanks
sorry Martin my computer skills leave a lot to be desired please accept htis edited version of my post and the previous one.thanks Alrick LOVE

Hey - remind me not to lend aleman any kit - I doubt I'd recognise it on its return! :lol:

Still, he seems to like what he's done with the BM! :)

Hi Alrick, any chances of some pics? Maybe you can start a Mod Your Bushmaster thread off. The rest of us will follow :).

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Originally Posted by jandl100

Mine arrived today, so I thought I'd kick off a review thread. :)

I know that StanDACs need to run in, but just out of the box it's a stunner! :wowzer:

Stereo focus and fine detail is a step-up from what I have heard before - from StanDACs or anything else for that matter.

Delicacy, fine detail, articulation - all exemplary.

Blimey, Stan - at first listen, it's a stonker! :thumbsup:

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I had some issues with my Bushmaster which were caused by the different voltage here in North America. Stan was great with diagnosing the problem and promptly supplying the solution, so hat's off to Stan's absolutely fantastic customer support!

But the point I'd like to make is that, while my Bushmaster was out of commission, I was forced to switch back to my trusty old Caiman. After listening to Caiman for several days, I've gotten accustomed to its sound, and grew to like it. Started even suspecting that maybe there aren't any substantial differences between Caiman and Bushmaster.

However, the moment my Bushmaster became operational again, and when I plugged it in, I sighed a huge sigh of relief -- the sound is sooo much better, so much more silkier and at the same time firmer and more authoritative. It is clear to me that Bushmaster is in an entirely different league, and cannot be touched by Caiman.

Here re a a few photo,s of the work done to my bushmaster.Please excuse the photo,s i have taken as have new phone and iam not used to it yet.Work is not as tidy as some have seen but was in a hurry stans nice well made casework hides my mistakes nicely.
Also dug up an old linear power supply that used to supply my pink triangle replaced all capacitors with poly prop capacitors missing link mains cable set voltage 15.5 volts ,sounds even better than the battery supply i had been using .just smoother informative and relaxed sound with my system.because i live in a little terrace the ability to resolve detail at low volumes(most of my listening ,tv watching done late at night)is also helpuful.Anyway iam shure there will be more mods done by people with more skills than me .

Well done for the 1st mod! (as far as I know)

A couple of weeks ago, i was pondering on whether to get a new cdp or a dac to link up to my blu-ray player. One forum member suggested the bushmaster. And i can tell you it was advice much appreciated. :)

The ordering process is quick, and the customer service is top notch.

And the dac? straight out of the box it sounded great and after two days running in the sound has got smoother and sweeter, with more slam and depth to the bass. Something that i'd never fully appreciated was the depth of sound that you can get, and with this dac it's all there.

I know this dac has been out for a while and there of plenty of reviews here, for anyone who is relatively new to hi-fi like me and isn't sure how it would sound with a blu-ray player as the main source give it a go.

As stan says himself "now you know why i can afford to give a big grin guarantee".:D

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Originally Posted by magiccarpetride

But the point I'd like to make is that, while my Bushmaster was out of commission, I was forced to switch back to my trusty old Caiman. After listening to Caiman for several days, I've gotten accustomed to its sound, and grew to like it. Started even suspecting that maybe there aren't any substantial differences between Caiman and Bushmaster.

However, the moment my Bushmaster became operational again, and when I plugged it in, I sighed a huge sigh of relief -- the sound is sooo much better, so much more silkier and at the same time firmer and more authoritative. It is clear to me that Bushmaster is in an entirely different league, and cannot be touched by Caiman.

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Absolutely. Auditory memory is especially poor, which is why if you are comparing kit you *must* have both with you! Moving a unit on and then trying to compare it to your existing kit is a fruitless task.

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Originally Posted by Yomanze

Absolutely. Auditory memory is especially poor, which is why if you are comparing kit you *must* have both with you! Moving a unit on and then trying to compare it to your existing kit is a fruitless task.

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Not sure I understand what you're talking about. I have both Caiman and Bushmaster sitting next to each other. I can switch between them at will. I do not need to rely on my auditory memory, as I can hear them side-by-side.

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Originally Posted by magiccarpetride

Not sure I understand what you're talking about. I have both Caiman and Bushmaster sitting next to each other. I can switch between them at will. I do not need to rely on my auditory memory, as I can hear them side-by-side.

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Yes I don't dispute that & makes sense that the Bushmaster is a better DAC, but I was interested when you said: "After listening to Caiman for several days, I've gotten accustomed to its sound, and grew to like it. Started even suspecting that maybe there aren't any substantial differences between Caiman and Bushmaster."

I think it is almost impossible to compare kit from memory rather than what you ended up doing, which is comparing them side by side.