Beresford Bushmaster DAC

[gilesw]

Hi Stan,

Thanks for you message. I've just had a chat with another hi-fi geek at work and he suspects that it might be jitter from my poor spdif sources, an old slimdevices squeezebox or my asus motherboard. I'm going to try out a m2tech hiface 2 and see if I get a better sound with that. It does seem to be male vocals that were the problem. I was listening to blur parklife when I noticed it most.

[nat8808]

I was listening to my BM last night and found it a bit fatiguing, at least that's what I think it was. I have metal tweaters and I've removed the grills. I do find that vocals are very prominent with the dac compared to my old naim cdp. It could just be that I'm not used to music being as revealing as this. I've got my old squeezebox playing some flacs rather than my pc now though so may be a different spdif source will help the situation. For the moment it sounds to me like the treble is the cause of my issues..

Sometimes it can just be down to a more revealing system. Perhaps more revealing in the top end than the in the studio.. they are still reliant on good sounding DACs and monitors afterall.

I recently did a swap that got me some JAS Audio Oriors. The ribbon tweeter feels like it is very fast, detailed and extended.

Listening to Radio 3, is a mixed bag now! Speech can be sibilant and a little irritating but get to the music and it sounds fantastic - immediate and open in the treble. (and of course that is with bandwidth limited FM)

With CDs it's fine too in the top end - quite sweet when that's how it is, hard and fast when the sound is like that (on some electronica, noise music).

So, yes.. a more revealing system perhaps showing up sibilance from BBC presenters now but not from other things.

[nat8808]

I've got my bushmaster now but I can't easily do a comparison with my naim cd5i because I only have one set of analog phonos, chord crysalis. Is there an analog stereo phono you guys recommend?

CAn you compare using two identical but cheap interconnects?

[HighFidelityGuy]

Another thing I'd recommend you try are THESE

They're felt rings that you put round your tweeters that help to tone down treble by reducing reflections. They can also help improve the stereo image. I have a pair and found they found they did both. I didn't have a problem with harsh treble at first but it got worse the more revealing my system got. So it sounds like you're in a similar boat.

If they won't fit your speakers then THIS company will make you a custom set.

The Russ Andrews ones are great value for money though, which is something I find can rarely be said about his products.

[nat8808]

Another thing I'd recommend you try are THESE

They're felt rings that you put round your tweeters that help to tone down treble by reducing reflections. They can also help improve the stereo image. I have a pair and found they found they did both. I didn't have a problem with harsh treble at first but it got worse the more revealing my system got. So it sounds like you're in a similar boat.

If they won't fit your speakers then THIS company will make you a custom set.

The Russ Andrews ones are great value for money though, which is something I find can rarely be said about his products.

Thanks for that bit advice Dave. I'd forgotten about that kind of thing and might give it a go on mine.

[The Grand Wazoo]

Jim, from Diffraction Be Gone, is a member here of long standing. If you buy from him, be sure to mention AoS.
Some of his postings are interesting - try this one

[gilesw]

Well I've finally got to do some testing after a hectic weekend. I ordered a mark grant coax cable in the week so I thought of something I hadn't tried, using the coax output of my old squeezebox rather than the optical. I'm not totally sure yet but I think that the treble problems are much better with this output I haven't found it tiring yet... So I think my problems are jitter related, and the coax output is marginally better in that regard.

The hiface2 is arriving next week so I'll get to try things straight from my pc. Keith @purite audio is also sending my a young dac to demo. I hope for the sake of my bank balance that doesn't sound much better!

[maxrob200]

I am using a Squeezebox SB3 with flac files off a NAS and then spdif co-ax (Belden 1694A) out to the BM and the performance is pretty amazing, especially vocals

[gilesw]

Hi Maxrob200,

That's the config I'm using now. I've also got some of the markgrant analog cables and a linear power supply. I'm not sure how much difference those components make but I could definitely tell a difference after swapping that digi coax. I'm going to try swapping out the other cables tonight after a decent listening session.

[RoboCopper]

Stick this one on the shelves of a mainland European High End Hifi Emporium, and folks will think it's a Burmester and you can add a couple of zeros on the price tag, Stan.

I wish Bushmaster has those fonts.
If there is one like this I am ordering straight away Stan