Beresford Bushmaster DAC Reviews

[Gazjam]

Spot on write up Ali, agree 100%
Agree with Ali's order of the Dacs.
Not trying to ruffle any feathers but that's how it was fella's.

I'd add though that we put the Bushmaster and Rega back in circuit with the valve amps just to see how it went.
The same relative result, the Rega being better...but Ali's valve amps upped the stakes sound wise for both Dacs.
Just goes to show the old chestnut about using different kit can change the sound.
That's the benefit of getting together and hearing stuff with other kit - highly recommended!

One thing I personally was chuffed about was the RS3 speakers just responded to every kit change sounding better and better.
With the TQ Black...bloody hell!
Seriously we all just looked at each other...wtf!?

Thanks to Ali and Brian for bringing over their kit, its always good to know what direction to head in system wise and for me it HAS to be the Rega kit with the TQ Black.

But in the spirit of throwing in some controversy in this thread..
Honestly I thought the Rega dac (whilst not as good overall) was not a million miles away from the valve Dac. Sorry Ali!
Ali's was was better, yes, but both dacs gave just as enjoyable as listen to my ears.
I felt that some areas were a wee bit preferable, specifically; with the Rega the top end was a wee bit more precise and there wasn't that slight touch of "bloom" to the bass.

The valve dac WAS better though and no doubt with Ali's open baffle speakers it would sound amazing.

Its all about kit synergy. I think Rega's on to something here....
The main thing I took from the day is that you have to hear kit for yourself to really make a valid judgement. We all hear differently and changing one piece of kit (even a cable!) can alter the sound.

[Gazjam]

Aye, though this is the same dac that is having problems playing from a laptop, so perhaps there is a problem with it?

As for the Black, yes it's quite something. As a user of valves I've not heard cables make much if any difference in the past, but I guess that's not the case with SS!

Good point Ali about the laptop, we never got to the bottom of that one.

Oddly though..
Brians laptop played 24/96 Flacs fine through his Bushmaster, it was only when we played that 16/44 tracks that it broke up.

Also, the Bushmaster played files (16/44 and 24/96) without a problem from my music server and also a mates SB Touch.
So I'm not convinced the Bushmaster itself was at fault to be honest. Stans QC is usually excellent in my experience.

*EDIT*
Have to say the BM sounded good playing music from my server, and its a very good dac for the money as other have attested to.
System tastes, room, other kit all comes into play.

[webby]

May I suggest that some might find value in the price of each dac being shown.

Perhaps someone could fill in the prices?

1. AK4396 valve dac.
2. Rega
3. Caiman
4. Bushmaster

[nat8808]

Guys I would like to point out that any drop out between source and DAC won't be masked by the Bushmaster. It does not use a mute circuit to hide drop outs and blips in the music, which is different to many other DACs.

So these problems might be masked with other DACs at the expense of sound quality?

I guess that's all part of the problem of big name products, the whole review cycle blah blah blah that sound quality is actually put further back down the list of priorities so that good reviews and uncomplicated, smooth running, papering over cracks of other people's under-par transport products etc take precident.

Bit like Clinton-esque election politics - say whatever it takes to get in power and worry about the policies later because if you don't get elected your policies won't be enacted. Worry about ultimate sound quality later but make sure the product sells well.

Thankfully these days people like you Stan can use more modern word of mouth, online social networking if you like to bypass all that and have your product judged by sound quality alone (and value for money).

[Ali Tait]

Aye it was just a thought mate, as what we heard is not what many are saying.

No need to be sorry mate, I agree the Rega was very good. I just prefer the way valves present things. They were close, but I did prefer the valve dac. Also, it's a work in progress so there is more to come.

[webby]

Which Rega amp was it Gaz? The Brio?

[Ali Tait]

May I suggest that some might find value in the price of each dac being shown.

Perhaps someone could fill in the prices?

1. AK4396 valve dac.
2. Rega
3. Caiman
4. Bushmaster

I made that point in my post- the order happens to coincide with cost.

1. Not entirely sure, probably around £700 so far, it's a work in progress.
2. About £500 I think.
3. Not sure how much all the mods have cost, but got to be at least £300 I'd have thought.
4. About £200 isn't it?

[nat8808]

To be honest, that is EXACTLY my thought. I do not use a DAC inside any device, I only own external DACs (Stan's, Moodlab Concept), and I do use unspecific sources that all sound the same when configured to output bitferfect:

Dell D830 on docking station with coax and Foobar/Asio
Acer 1810TZ with toslink and Foobar/Asio
Asrock Z77 Pro3 workstation with coax and Foobar/Asio
Squeezebox Touch with Toslink
'Shitty' 18€ DVD-Player with toslink (bitperfect configurable!)
'Expensive' ex-1800€ DVD-Player with coax
Panasonic 42inch plasma with toslink

And IMHO the effects on the source side on SQ are neglectable when compared to a exchange of speakers, DAC, or amp.

You'll probably find that all of these sources use very similar chip-manufacturer datasheet implementations of circuits to handle digital audio.

Afterall, "bits is bits" and once you have THAT mindset you will not be spending any r & d money to see if things can be improved or even identifying potential problems in the first place, so the basic circuit is copied off the data sheet and stuck into every product. Therefore I would expect most consumer orientated digital sources to sound the same..

Even D/A sections are copied out in the same way. Lots of high-end CD players of yore , like TDA1541A ones for example just use the stated Philips circuits around, nothing changed, nothing really tweeked, just copied without much thought. As a caviat, I get this info solely from Lampizators site where he gives many examples using the official circuit layout diagrams.

[webby]

I made that point in my post- the order happens to coincide with cost.

1. Not entirely sure, probably around £700 so far, it's a work in progress.
2. About £500 I think.
3. Not sure how much all the mods have cost, but got to be at least £300 I'd have thought.
4. About £200 isn't it?

It's interesting that you found the performance go up, along with the cost, but I wonder how much more you get for the increased outlay.

Gaz reckoned the Rega was very close to the valve dac. How close was the Caiman to the Rega?

[Martinh]

I made that point in my post- the order happens to coincide with cost.

1. Not entirely sure, probably around £700 so far, it's a work in progress.
2. About £500 I think.
3. Not sure how much all the mods have cost, but got to be at least £300 I'd have thought.
4. About £200 isn't it?

Thanks for that - kinda puts everything in perspective, price-wise.

It would be interesting to repeat the session with a selection of similarly priced units.

Cheers,