Beresford Bushmaster DAC

[The Grand Wazoo]

an amalgam of your silver fascia and werners typography and led colour would look pretty cool i think, the big black power switch looks plain wrong and the fewer words the better. as previously mentioned, less is more, so the symbol for headphones and on/off would improve matters (in my opinion obviously).

i'm with werner on emoticons (loathe them) and people adding to/editing your own replies too. a big no-no

Just to clear this up - DaveK did not edit Werner's post - he couldn't if he wanted to as he does not have the necessary permissions to do so.
What he did do was quote Werner & then edit the quote.


Like this:

an amalgam of your face and your arse would look pretty cool i think, the big black Licorice Allsort looks plain wrong and the fewer fried eggs the better. as previously mentioned, less is more, so having no DAC at all would improve matters (in my opinion obviously).

i'm with Margaret Thatcher on having Arthur Scargill shot (loathe him) and people adding salt & pepper & eating your own replies too. a big no-no

[StanleyB]

The red LED has multiple functions, and it was my idea to break up the monotonous line of blue.
The on/off switch has to be at the front. The new EU legislation on power consumption and disconnection of the DAC from the power source does imply that you need to fit the power switch in an accessible location. That means at the front in this case. If it is at the back it won't be easy to get to.

[Labarum]

Why not turn the add-on box into a simple preamp-line driver, with say three inputs and a variable output (one or two sets of phonos as appropriate), selling for under £200 and able to drive remote power amps? Not what you had in mind, but may be ideal for the growing market in small active speakers out there, which at the lower end of the market should be encouraged I think

This seems a sensible option. It shouldn't push the price up too much, but increases the usefulness of the box considerably and makes it a product of interest to more customers.

It doesn't interest me at all , but having got so far how much would a basic phono stage add to the price - an extra chip and a few capacitors? "Basic" of course could set a very challenging standard - such is the hype in the audiophile market.

[bobbasrah]

For what it is worth (as opposed to FWIW - no smiley), I like the silver too, although the text alignment as both Gary and Werner proposed does look better than the slanted text IMHO.
The Black And White front that Werner proposed looked particularly neat, albeit that POWER looked easier on the eye than On : Off.
I guess that the parts such as power button and volume knob will be off the shelf though, so that will rather limit the options for economic manufacture at the target price.

Not sure that trying to centre the Model and Description over the volume knob should dictate the font and info as there is a lot of spare acreage on that faceplate. Bushmaster could be centralised with the rest right justified, or would that look too cluttered?

Plenty for Stan to consider though....

[jonnyd]

Really loving the silver version. Add my name to those who prefer Werner and Gary's word alignment etc. stan, is the brushed alu version a trial that you had made? Would you consider selling any of them? Would go very nicely with my silver Rotel RA-05....decisions decisions....

[dave2010]

Amazing this fashion thing. I really liked Stan's first attempt with black and gold around msg 423. Maybe black has gone out of fashion.

[StanleyB]

I have 8 pieces of the silver panel version left, which I am only sending out to AoS members inside the EU (and that still includes the UK... ahem.). So if you are not an AoS member and not in the EU, you'll have to wait your turn. Sorry.
IF there are any left over after that, I shall then consider requests from non-AoS members. To get on the "silver" list, send me an email from within the PM option. Your email goes into the waiting list.

[Labarum]

Personally, I would do something with the lettering on the fascia. The emblems on the inputs are a little busy. Perhaps T1 T2 C1 and C2 would suffice?

Also, the headphone socket may be better labeled with a headphone icon.

I see no need for it to say Digital to Analog Converter. Why not just DAC? Perhaps then you could fit Bushmaster DAC on one line?

Also, everything seems to be in line on a horizontal plane except the select switch. I assume there is physical reason for this.

I agree with all of this: keep it simple and uncluttered.

Single line under Switch, LEDs and jack

Power Select Auto T1 T2 C1 C2 H - where "H" is the headphone sign.

No gold band on knob. Nothing above the knob

On the Left (Beresford) Bushmaster DAC

with "Bushmaster DAC" in a less bold version of the font used in the Trademark.

The mixing of serif and san-serif fonts is best left to the experienced eye of a typesetter.

Edit: Looking again, if you can bring yourself to do it, remove the line encircling "Beresford".

[sq225917]

Bright shapes and areas appear smaller if they are surrounded by dark areas (“negative”), while the same shapes and areas of identical sizes as in the negative example appear bigger if they are placed in dark colour on a bright background (“positive”). (In German this is called “simultaneous contrast”, I’m sorry but I don’t know the proper English equivalent.) Therefore in competent typography the horizontal space between the glyphs (“letterspacing”) as well as the vertical distance between the type baselines (“leading”) needs to be increased if bright text is placed on dark background.





Werner.

I wasn't involved in the software (coding) end of things it was photometry research within the Rainbow Lab group at Cambridge Uni, researching how we perceive high dynamic range and more specifically synthesising pixel colour values using floating contrast ratios.

So make up your mind Werner which is it? If white shapes on black appear smaller then there's no need to space them out, because you'd effectively see a larger gap between them if the effect works as you claim. After all if white on black appears smaller then the surrounding black must be filling the space... ;-)

The effect you mention exists, but it only works where the brain has to interpolate values of colour because the item is too small to be wholly resolved by specific receptors within the eye causing the brain to have to make a best guess and fill in a value based on a stochastic sampling of the surrounding colour values- something we are very good at. In this instance then yup the averaging of the surrounding colour values can pull down or push up the 'estimated' value. But this only works in this way when something in genuinely too small to be resolved by the eye and it works in both directions.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

[Werner Berghofer]

Chris,

Just to clear this up - DaveK did not edit Werner's post - he couldn't if he wanted to as he does not have the necessary permissions to do so.

thank you for this clarification. At first glance I had the impression that DaveK had edited my post, and this caused my obviously too rude and blunt reply. A few minutes later I understood that DaveK actually added emoticons to my post in his quote, which is something completely different than editing my original post. Nonetheless I think when quoting a post the original content must not be altered. The moment I realized what really had happened I wanted to change the inappropriate tone of my reply to DaveK, but then I noticed that my reply already had been quoted in the meantime by another AoS member. It’s an old rule of electronic communication which I cleary violated: If an email or a comment offends you, don’t hit the “Reply” button immediately.

I hearby want to take the chance to officially apologize for the general tone of my posts, which often is considered blunt and rude. I can assure you that it never has been my intention to insult anybody, especially Stanley Beresford. I’m grateful to Stan for making me aware of the importance of the digital to analogue conversion process, and I was able to make certain steps up the endless ladder of knowledge in digital music reproduction due to the very fair prices of Stan’s products and his outstanding and reliable customer service. I moved on and now use other equipment, but I shall keep in mind that my current gear is more expensive and bulkier than Stan’s products. On repeated times I have suggested to a lot of people to try Stan’s DACs, because they offer a great performance for a very reasonable price. In fact, the last time I did so was just this morning, as a guy from India who’s reading this thread asked me for a DAC recommendation.

Also in real life (and when communicating in my native language) I’m well known for being very direct, in-your-face, outspoken and forthright. A lot of people don’t appreciate this and turn away from me, but also a lot of people like me just for being the person I am – of course after they overcame their initial shock of encountering me. I’m not suitable for tactics and diplomacy, and in fact I don’t get along well with people who are behaving this way. For me this is a waste of precious time and energy, and there are endless possibilities for misunderstandings and even injuries, which could have been avoided if communication would have been done in an open and direct way. But I see and understand that being open and direct often pisses people off. I think there’s always the option to check back how a comment was meant to be understood, but if someone is already insulted or angry this path often might not be desirable.

When discussing matters or working in a team my primary goal is getting things done in the best and most efficient and elegant way. It’s not my intention to always be “the winner” of a discussion or to be self-opinionated, and I’m aware that my tone, behaviour and even physical appearance (1.98 m long) is considered as dominating by at least half of the population. For those who believe in astrology: my birth sign is leo, my ascendant scorpio.

Werner.