Beresford Bushmaster DAC Reviews

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Ah, that gives you potential advantage over some of us who are using Squeezebox Touch as a transport (pretty much ten times cheaper box). Have you tried different (less fancy) transport into Bushmaster, and compared it with Majik? (you can tell I have a big respect for Majik, can't you?)

It doesn't supprise me you like it if you crave some warmth ... the majik definitely does smooth and musical!

Ive listened to the BM with my pc and soundcard as a source but as I said to Stan I wasn't critically listening really ...
I've not plugged anything else in at home as it all goes through the majik ...
I might bypass te majik if I keep the BM in the system for digital sources as the auto switching will make life easier for Hannah

[Russell Turner]

Have you tried the headphone amp section yet Hamish?

Reminds me Stan I should really plug my Beyerdynamic DT1350's into this DAC sometime soon matey...

Russ

[loonytunes]

Just out of curiosity (and I hope this will not seem as if I'm hijacking the thread), but has anyone been in the position to compare Bushmaster with the NAD M51 DAC? There's been a lot of hoopla recently surrounding this DAC, and some people I know have been lately raving about it.

I thought you might be interested in this YouTube vid magiccarpetride: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ7IWvw4YUA

Amazingly - I don't know how - but you get the sense that it sounds good even through PC loudspeakers. Someone do a similar vid with their Bushmaster

[magiccarpetride]

It doesn't supprise me you like it if you crave some warmth ... the majik definitely does smooth and musical!

Ive listened to the BM with my pc and soundcard as a source but as I said to Stan I wasn't critically listening really ...
I've not plugged anything else in at home as it all goes through the majik ...
I might bypass te majik if I keep the BM in the system for digital sources as the auto switching will make life easier for Hannah

Well, I'm only a few hours away from hearing it for my self... Your review gave me insanely high hopes.. I do hope and desire it won't be a let down. Anything approaching that smooth liquidity of Majik would be a heaven sent! Especially for the piddly sum I forked out for the Bushmaster. It's way less than I paid for my speaker cables, for crying out loud!!!

[The Vinyl Adventure]

The BM is approx 2% of the value of my system and fits in just fine
Concidering some circles will tell you to spend 10% of the system value on cables it's doing ok
I'm sure you will love it ... I guess it can't correct what's upstream, that may well be my advantage(???) but by the sound of some of the comments it makes the best of what's upstream at very least

[RichB]

I might bypass te majik if I keep the BM in the system for digital sources as the auto switching will make life easier for Hannah

My Mrs still hasnt figured out that if she wants to hear the telly through the stereo she has to press the button marked optical on the DAC.

Bloody hell, reading this thread has me itching for one these BMs even if it means having to use a usb-spdif converter. I'm off to rattle the penny jar...

[The Vinyl Adventure]

My missis has managed to work out how to get the hifi sound out of the tele, but not the other way round ... Purly because she listens to spotify and I often leave it on the mode to listen to the majik ... I've even labled the input on the majik to say "TV" .... Still no good ...

[The Vinyl Adventure]

I think she plays daft to annoy me

[magiccarpetride]

The BM is approx 2% of the value of my system and fits in just fine
Concidering some circles will tell you to spend 10% of the system value on cables it's doing ok
I'm sure you will love it ... I guess it can't correct what's upstream, that may well be my advantage(???) but by the sound of some of the comments it makes the best of what's upstream at very least

Finally got it in and spent some time listening to it. Right off the bat it was super easy to tell that Bushmaster is in a completely different league. It simply changed everything, and in a very dramatic way.

I got a hunch that it needs some burn-in time. This is because I felt that it seems somewhat lopsided. What I mean by that is that Bushmaster sounds a bit bottom-heavy to me. Not that I don't enjoy the seemingly bottomless bass extension and the unbelievable extra weight and substantiality, but a lot of familiar passages with prominent highs now sound quite muffled and pushed way back into the sound stage. Is that how Bushmaster usually sounds out of the box, or am I actually now learning how was the original master actually recorded and mixed down?

I'll give it some more burn in time before I jump to any conclusions. For now, I must report incredible improvement in detail retrieval, stunning coherence, all the instruments are now gelling in a way I've never ever heard before, not with any high end system. This forces my entire body to keep swaying and making funny gyrations in my chair. The voices-to-instrument separation is outta sight, so clean and incredibly articulate.

I can now follow the bass melody without straining even a bit, it sings and gyrates and actually carries the entire song, track after track. I couldn't believe hearing how George Duke's "Love Reborn" from his 1979 album "Brazilian Love Affair" now comes to full life, as if the entire band is performing right in front of me.

Ella Fitzgerald "Embraceable You" -- I was holding back tears, her voice is divine. The shrill and shrieky violins that Caiman was giving me are now a distant unpleasant memory...

I had no idea that Amy Winehouse had such a gorgeous voice! I mean I knew she was fantastic, but this good? You need a high end converter, such as Bushmaster, if you want to hear the whole story.

Big disappointment -- Annie Lennox CD "Medusa". Gone are the icy cold crystal highs I'm so used to hearing on her "A Whiter Shade Of Pale". Is that supposed to happen, or is Bushmaster just warming up for the task of delivering icy cold highs?

Huge improvement -- Amandina Beyer's hi-rez Vivaldi's Four Seasons. What used to sound harsh and almost unlistenable is now the most gorgeous classical sounding piece! What an accomplishment!

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?

Bravo, Stanley!

[NRG]

I've not noticed any burn in, it sounds as good now as it did when I got it. 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.

Listening to my modified Caimen in isolation is very good, its not until the BM is switched in do you hear the slight hardness and slightly lean presentation. Its very good, battery pack on the way so hoping for a further improvement.