Beresford Bushmaster DAC Reviews

[DSJR]

Before abandoning the inexpensive Van Damme interconnects, try reversing the direction. Sounds daft must may help a tiny bit.

What is it about Tellurium cables that makes it seem like the guy has re-defined the physics of an interconnect eh? We're talking low frequencies in the audio band here, not microwaves FFS... Noone's measured any yet I think, so it must be some jiggling around with capacitance and inductance to get a result, surely?

[maxrob200]

Further impressions of the BM:

It resolves the ebb and flow of music really well. Like a good turntable LOL. The BM allows the music to flow, giving instruments and voices their own space, in time with the rest of the performance. Like a good Big Band that swings, the BM does that in spades
I played Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster, and the breathing when they played their saxophones practically made me breath with them. Cat Stevens Tea for the Tillerman was really good. Bee Gees Alone have plenty of their falsetto swing etc etc etc

Some call it PRaT, but IMO different equipment presents PRaT in their own way. Naim for instance is different in their presentation of PRaT than a good valve amp

I remember my first Linn LP12 and how it made my feet tap to the music. True, it may have sins of omission but certainly preferable to sins of commission. Owning SOTA, Oracle and numerous other turntables since then haven't captured for me that toe tapping feeling. Many digital sources tried have been found lacking in that regard. I dont have high end money to spend nowadays so cannot speak for mega-buck DACs but I've heard plenty.

The BM DAC makes me tap my toes to the music and overtime as it "burns in" (if such a notion exists), I feel the overall presentation would just get better overall...

[Labarum]

Once I manage to add a variable output on the BM . . .

I am waiting, Stan.

[StanleyB]

Still on the drawing board. Too many projects in front of me.

[icehockeyboy]

Hey all. Had my Bushmaster for a couple of days. Found some very interesting results.

1) The RCA interconnect you use can have a profound effect (duh), but much more so that on the output of my Harmon Kardon HD990 CD player (which also has it's own DAC input). Using my Van Damme interconnect, the sound is way livelier and detailed, with great soundstaging, but the bass loses its warmth. Out of curiousity, I switched to the cheapo one that came with the CD player. Bass came back, but the soundstage became very flat. A real easy listen though.

2) My Arcam amp allows attenuation of each input, so for a laugh I notched up the setting for the Bushmaster. Wow - transformation ! I could never get a good result via this route with the CD player, but the Bushmaster just loves it - the soundstaging has returned, the treble is silky smooth and the detail better. It's the best sound I have heard from my rig yet.

I ordered an NVA Sound Chord before ordering the Bushmaster, in an attempt to sort out a slightly unruly treble issue I had, so now very curious how that will mix in - anybody got any experience on that front ?

In summary - so far, very pleased.

Cheers

Sound Cords are really good ic's, but in my own experience bettered by the Silver High Breed Quintessence. I only recently made this comparison using the BM as I own both.

[DSJR]

I am waiting, Stan.

You could always make your own IC buffer/volume stage you know, with modern fast low noise op-amps . Carefully soldered up it would be acoustically transparent to the signal from the BM so all the new benefits would come through...

[StanleyB]

You could always make your own IC buffer/volume stage you know, with modern fast low noise op-amps . Carefully soldered up it would be acoustically transparent to the signal from the BM so all the new benefits would come through...

You could, but technology won't progress by much if we kept improving expensive old methods instead of introducing more cost effective and cutting edge new ones. The US and the Far East have been taking those risks, and it is time that more British designers did the same. Otherwise we'll never clear that £1trillion debt..

[ZincAlloy]

Hi David - I don't recall receiving one. Happy to introduce myself - can you please resend or point me in the right direction, thanks.
Ken

[MartinT]

Hi Ken, you must have received an activation e-mail to get this far? Please would you go to the welcome area here and introduce yourself? Thanks!

[StanleyB]

Maybe its the power supply instead of the voltage. I will be finished building one of the two box power supplies that I make for the Touch for the BM today, given the low current the BM needs its no problem making one supply that can range from 12v to 16v, so I will see if I hear anything. .

I used the variable preset power supply that you so kindly built for me when I was developing the Bushmaster. Is that the prototype that you are going to turn into a finished product? If it is, then I can certainly recommend it. To be honest, I used it on the 16V settings to test that the BM could perform reliably at 16V, and can't ever remember lowering the voltage setting on it.