Beresford Bushmaster DAC Reviews

[DaveK]

Absolutes are for religion, inquiry is for science.

Progress in any science is built on absolutes, surely? Most things start of as an idea, a hypothesis, a theory, which is then tested and, if proved, becomes an absolute on which further ideas etc are based and so the cycle contunues and progrees is made. IMO very few absolutes get reversed with the benefit of future discoveries and those that don't can surely be regarded as absolutes?
As to religion, I don't know much about non-Christian ones but absolutes are generally being demolished I would have thought in those, with the possible exception of the Rome based dinosaurs? No offence to anybody, beliefs are a personal thing .
Just my opinion .
Dave.

[lurcher]

Progress in any science is built on absolutes, surely? Most things start of as an idea, a hypothesis, a theory, which is then tested and, if proved, becomes an absolute on which further ideas etc are based and so the cycle contunues and progrees is made. IMO very few absolutes get reversed with the benefit of future discoveries and those that don't can surely be regarded as absolutes?

No, Absolutes have no part in science. And I think you are making the common mistake about the use of "theory" in science, its not the same as a legal theory. In science, a theory is the closest a concept can get to being a "fact", something is only awarded the tag of being a theory if its withstood many and varied tests, has make proven predictions and is the simplest model that explains the behavioured of the part of the universe it concerns itself with.

But even Theory's are open to being shown to be wrong, or more often to being incomplete, and so eventually replaced with a new model that explains more observations.

[DaveK]

Nick, I stand corrected .

[Marco]

I'm beginning to wonder if there are any 'absolutes' in audio electronics, or indeed in anything 'audio'.

There is: You get no sound if you don't switch your gear on. That's about yer lot!

Marco.

[DSJR]

I think the basic rules in audio reproduction were sorted decades ago, but it's the application where the subtle artistic differences come in I feel - there's enough leeway to interpret the rules...

[DaveK]

There is: You get no sound if you don't switch your gear on. That's about yer lot!

Marco.

It's little gems of information like that, given so freely, that keep me coming back to AoS .
Dave

[nat8808]

There is: You get no sound if you don't switch your gear on. That's about yer lot!

Marco.

I disagree!

Those "inky black backgrounds" are still there in spades.

[DaveK]

I disagree!

Those "inky black backgrounds" are still there in spades.

Not very often that Marco is proved wrong but this time you've got him dead to rights
Dave.

[gilesw]

Test Equipment:-

Slimdevice squeezebox
Naim cd5i
Linux pc with asus a8n nforce 3 coax and optical out
( mplayer -ao alsa:device=plughw track.flac )

Chord Crysalis stereo phonos
Denon AVR 3805
Monitor Audio 9i with modified caps

Coax cable made myself years ago from maplins
cambridge audio optical cable.

Burn in:-

2 days left on with online radio from the squeezebox

##################
Squeezebox low quality source test

I used my squeezebox as it was my only digital source at first. I use it for online radio mostly, things like radioio at 128kbit. They sounded good with the bushmaster and I could still hear a difference compared to the denon's built in dac that sounded muddy.

Naim comparison

Amazingly the volumes between the naim and my linux pc hooked up to the bushmaster seemed very similar, I had to just swap the phono leads over and left the volume the same...

Phil Colins face value track3. The Naim initially seemed more foot tappy and the bushmaster sounded less whole but eventually I began to miss the vocal quality of the bushmaster that was lacking with the naim. On the top end I noticed finger snaps that I weren’t obvious on the naim. Treble didn't seem harsh at all.

Jeans team van oben track12 (kraftworky type stuff), the electronic instruments sounded incredible on the bushmaster with massive sonic swoops showing off the bottom end, naim didn’t even hold my attention!

Optical and Coax comparison

Turns out my pc can output optical and coax concurrently so I could just swap the selector on the bushmaster over. I only did a quick test but to me the coax sounded better with firmer drums.

Round up

My naim is already boxed up ready to go, after hearing a few tracks I was convinced on the bushmaster. The thing I'm really pleased about is that beats still sound snappy, this was my main reason for picking the naim over a rega cd player years ago. The extra benefit are on vocals, they sound great. Classic hiphop and vocal house seemed to stand out for me. The other benefit seems to be the bass. I put some wu tang on and the lowend started to feel like a sub woofer from my floorstanders, very odd. I do wonder if I would get the same feel from 320kbit mp3s.

Take one guess at what I've just ordered? Yes a linear power supply pack with new phonos from mark grant. Any questions ask away.

[DSJR]

Would be interesting for Stans take on this, but one reason why optical is recommended for computer connection is because of electrical "stuff" that might inadvertantly get into the external DAC. May not apply to the BM of course and although you don't need to spend a fortune on a blingy optical lead, the very cheap ones might not be optically good enough?