Beresford Bushmaster DAC Reviews

[StanleyB]

It's all about the music, and having access to the right tools at the right price that suits most pockets. I am at a loss to understand why anyone would wish to obstruct new advances designed to solve outstanding problems that have been identified since the last millennium with the reproduction of digital music.

[RoboCopper]

Stan, why dont you take motherboard of BM, put into fancy boxes, put unnecessary fancy caps, power supplies, golden fuses and resistors, heavy pieces of aluminium, balanced outputs etc etc, increase price to £1000 and people will maybe appreciate the sound of BM more. Yes, change name to Audio Dynaream Absoluta Bulshitini Extrema or similar.....maybe other audiophiles will be flocking to get it.


Although it will probably sound same as mine MK1, definitely not 5x better as the price would suggest.

Put also LCD 43inch screen from Argos for showing 384khz sampling rates, remote to switch on/off from ebay packed in heavy aluminum sheets and coffee filters to change sound for filter lovers
Price will jump to £2600 now

[myles]

Stan, why dont you take motherboard of BM, put into fancy boxes, put unnecessary fancy caps, power supplies, golden fuses and resistors, heavy pieces of aluminium, balanced outputs etc etc, increase price to £1000 and people will maybe appreciate the sound of BM more. Yes, change name to Audio Dynaream Absoluta Bulshitini Extrema or similar.....maybe other audiophiles will be flocking to get it.


Although it will probably sound same as mine MK1, definitely not 5x better as the price would suggest.

Put also LCD 43inch screen from Argos for showing 384khz sampling rates, remote to switch on/off from ebay packed in heavy aluminum sheets and coffee filters to change sound for filter lovers
Price will jump to £2600 now

I'm in. Can I have some blue LEDs as well?

[loonytunes]

When the time is right, I certainly want to hear the Bushmaster in my own system. The two likely candidates for me is this here BM and the Metrum Octave DAC which also looks interesting - granted more expensive though - but yet another one that punches well above its asking price.

I want to get the infrastructure right first though to make the most of the experience - right now I only have my original DPA coax digi cable and I think I should be looking for something better to make a really solid connection between transport and DAC - others here have recommended the Mike Homar cable (a true 75 ohm design right down to the plugs).

Also Stan mentioned early that I could get elevated performance using a CD player as transport - however I have both the CD player and SBT - so I shall compare the two.

For me the source is the most important part of the hi-fi separates chain, so getting that bit right is imperative.

[StanleyB]

For me the source is the most important part of the hi-fi separates chain, so getting that bit right is imperative.

The Bushmaster is designed to accept multiple sources .

[synsei]

Might I suggest that all parties involved in the recent spirited discussion about the BM's sonic attributes please go back and re-read the posts as I have. It is apparent to me that a lot of what was written has either been taken entirely out of context or simply misunderstood, which lead to a couple of fraught exchanges and an occasional loss of integrity

[The Grand Wazoo]

Indeed, and I think in one or two cases, conclusions are being jumped to in order to reinforce personal prejudices.
Can we have a little less bitterness and ill-disguised venom please gents?

[jandl100]

Oh dear, I haven't been on this thread for a day or two and it's started to get a bit venomous. Perhaps Stan is to blame for naming the DAC after a poisonous snake.

Anyway, magiccarpetride has now run-in his BM sufficiently and seems to have joined the unreservedly enthusiastic folks here. A rolled off top is no longer in evidence chez-mcr.
link

[Jamtoast]

So, many more hours of listen to the BM later and I continue to be really impressed. The most natural sounding DAC I've owned, but plenty of punch. Overall a delight and still can't quite believe the low price given how it sounds.

The only small issue I've had is occasionally the DAC not recognising the signal (TOSLINK) from my Mac Mini and going into search mode. Took me a while to work out what was going on when the music started dropping in and out. Because I had the LEDs switched off (nice feature) it wasn't obvious the BM was scanning through the inputs.

Not a big deal as I only use a single input anyway so have just manually selected.

[StanleyB]

The only small issue I've had is occasionally the DAC not recognising the signal (TOSLINK) from my Mac Mini and going into search mode. Took me a while to work out what was going on when the music started dropping in and out. Because I had the LEDs switched off (nice feature) it wasn't obvious the BM was scanning through the inputs.

I am using the audio presence command from the source (be it laptop or CD player etc.) to activate the auto search mode. So if the MAC for whatever reason suddenly fires off that command the Bushmaster will execute a search right away. The manual select mode is there as a back up for just such cases as the one you have experienced.
I'll put a delay command of a few seconds in the next firmware update so that the BM can hold off from going into auto search for a while just in case the original source springs back into life in that period.
The firmware is in a chip that is in a socket. So it will be possible to swap over the chip. some of these features are new in their concept and operation as far as their use in a product of mine is concerned. So I do expect that some erroneous behaviours to rear their heads, which is why I put the firmware in a socket so that updates can be implemented.