Beresford Bushmaster DAC Reviews

[Russell Turner]

If you were using the Bushmaster, I don't see how you could have been listening to an SACD in hi-res. You most probably were listening to the red book 16/44 layer.

Nope definitely 24bit 88.2KHz FLAC files ripped directly from the SACD two channel layer, streaming from my Squeezebox Touch into the Bushmaster DAC... I have got a 24bit 96KHz MFSL vinyl rip here that I might compare to see any notable differences.

Russell,
Since you mentioned it: If you listen really closely and attentively to “Within you without you”, what do you hear in the right channel between the 3:44 and 3:47 time marks? Guess you really need the ears of a cat and a very revealing headphone, but I remember the first time I heard this detail, I really thought the ghost of George Harrison was standing directly behind my right shoulder.
Werner.

You mean the countdown aye I can hear it, admittedly not as well as my headphone set-up but it's there, I prefer the background "details" on Day in the Life, now they are difficult to hear and my Hifi doesn't pick them out, but it does a good job with the saturated tape and creaking chair on the piano ending.

;-)

[Stratmangler]

Nope definitely 24bit 88.2KHz FLAC files ripped directly from the SACD two channel layer...

I'm intrigued by this - how did you do it?

[Russell Turner]

Modified Oppo DV-980H player that offers pure DSD output over HDMI 1.2 but also gives the option for PCM output, the Oppo internally converts the DSD to PCM at 24-bit/88.2kHz and the "mod" captures this PCM signal and outputs it through three stereo S/PDIF (coaxial) jacks (if it is multichannel).

And I didn't do it...

[StanleyB]

Stan - would using the Touch volume control be good enough without the need for a dedicated pre-amp between the Touch and a power amp? Again I don't want to 'stifle' the ultimate SQ from the BM.

I have no idea at this stage if the Touch volume control will work OK without killing SQ. I use the digital volume control in Mediamonkey myself and all sounds OK to me in my case.

Stan - I mentioned about the auto switching yesterday and have the culprit down to the Sonos ZP90 - on both coax and spdif... What reference level did you settle at for the switching selection? I would have thought that digital outputs would be roughly a standard...I wonder if in your work you had looked into (you must have) the levels that different products output at....mainly I'm thinking if there would be a way of 'Trimming' the output level of the sonos to play nicely with everything else as without the Sonos plugged in it all works great!!

I don't use any output level for the auto switching. The DAC detects the audio presence signal that is part of the audio data transmission. That audio presence signal is generally used in DACs and CD/DVD players to mute or on-mute the audio from the DAC.
However some equipment manufacturers do not appear to have implemented that audio presence command. The Sonos and (some of)the SKY box)es seem to have ignored that rule and transmit a continuous code to say that their box is in operation oven though it is not.

The Bushmaster's operation is partly software controlled. So I shall see if there is any command that I can add to the software so that you can get the Bushmaster to ignore the Sonos altogether when in search mode.
If I do manage to figure one out you'll have to remove the current firmware chip and insert the modified one. Then send back to me the old firmware chip so that I can recycle it.

[Rubberdog]

If that would be possible stan you could solve all my issues and make this the perfect dac!

Please don't think by any means that I'm moaning! the switching would be a bonus to an already great dac.

[StanleyB]

See post #336 HERE for discussion on the SKY signal issue, which your Sonos also seems to suffer from.

[Werner Berghofer]

Russell,

You mean the countdown

exactly! I remember it was a quite spooky moment when I heard it for the first time. Now I know that one does not always hear all the details present in a song at once. The perception is very different, depending on what aspects of a song the attention is focussed: The lyrics, the melody, the rhythm — whatever.

I’m glad to read that this tender detail is revealed by Stan’s Bushmaster. Must be a great DAC!

Werner.

[StanleyB]

I’m glad to read that this tender detail is revealed by Stan’s Bushmaster. Must be a great DAC!

I'll see if I can find an excuse to put the price up .

[Rubberdog]

Stan,

If the polling of the inputs is controlled via software, rather than looking it as a single case for my self....would it be possible to tweak the software?

If all users were to use the first input of the dac for their problem input and then the ones with the correct signal makeup in the other positions...if there were no valid signal to input 2, the dac would default back to input 1? So basically the dac ignores the first input if any of the other 3 had valid inputs? Does that make sense to you??

I'd happily pay for an upgrade to this and Im pretty sure many other users would too if it got their switching to work with these annoying inputs.

[loonytunes]

I was intending to keep to using a laptop into an asynchronous DAC which theoretically is superior to spdif, but I am so glad that spdif from a Touch is giving perhaps better results than some async DACs mentioned here (example MDAC). Sometimes I wonder if all this async USB stuff is nonsense - I am no engineer - but ultimately the ears do tell.

To me, having an SBT as source is so much more convenient and easy to use - rather than chasing the async USB crowd connected to an ugly computer which I have to admit, did bug me for a while.