Beresford Bushmaster DAC Reviews

[rxjr]

Received the unit today. Wow. Fast Shipping. Hooked up unit and it sounds good out of the box. I actually bought it for my audiophile husband Rex. He registered on the AOS forums, but couldn't seem to post. You can see his systems in the welcome section. He has a tip for you and everyone else that may be interested. Here it is: Giant Killer Amp: Qinpu A6000 MKII tube amp. Replace Chinese Tubes with 2 GE 5670 ($5.00 each) GE 5670 5 star ($25.00 ea) Western Electric 396a ($50.00 ea) or the ultimate tube: bendix 6385 (very rare: $175.00 ea) which he uses. Sound goes from very good to great to stunning. available at Amazon for $279.00 or cheaper at Ebay. For a rechargeable battery pack, the Mili Power King 18000 mah or incredicharge 18000 mah with outlets for 9-12 v, 5 v or 16-19 v. at amazon. He has it hooked up to the bushmaster using 9-12 v outlet and there is a huge improvement in slam and dynamics. For cd listening, He uses a radioshack optimus cd 3400 as transport, powered by a Custom Dick Sequerra PS1 battery powered supply. Try these cd recordings: Reference Recordings Reference Jazz and/or the Chesky Jazz sampler and prepare to be amazed. Thanks again for a great product.

[MartinT]

Thanks wife-of-Rex. I haven't heard of Qinpu but they look interesting. Available here on eBay for £152. Watch the voltage rating of 220V though!

[Mr.Ian]

Thanks wife-of-Rex. I haven't heard of Qinpu but they look interesting. Available here on eBay for £152. Watch the voltage rating of 220V though!

£92 on Taoboa

[rxjr]

Our Qinpu A6000 MKII has 110 volts ac for USA. Read the highly positive reviews of this little powerhouse at Amazon.com. It is loud and fills our 20 x 20 ft family room with ease. For the silly price of less than the cost of high end interconnects, this item is a no brainer.

pros: tube swapping to a GE 5670 ($5.00 @ ebay) is a must to hear what this thing can do. Although I believe this is a hybrid unit, using tubes for it's input with a solid state output, ALL the positive virtues of tubes are there: non-fatiguing sound, large, wide soundstage, pinpoint imaging, air around instruments, well defined instruments and vocalists (you can hear deep into recording), strong tight bass.

cons: only puts out 16 wpc into 8 ohms, 25 wpc into 4 ohms. However, these are very LOUD watts. headphone socket located in the back and is always active, with or without speakers connected.

Synergistic match for the Beresford Bushmaster, which I received Jan 29, 2013 and am still breaking in; but at present sounds really good out of the box.

The Bushmaster connected to my Incredicharge 18000 mah rechargeable battery pack really slams with loads of micro and macrodynamics. Outstanding bass and treble extension. Very clean presentation.

So for the adventurous among you, Amazon also has a 30 day no questions asked return policy on the Qinpu A6000 MKII. I can state with a high degree of certaintly that the sound improvements you hear from this little amp will be so far above and beyond what you will ever get even from $1,000.00 and up interconnects. Prepare to be amazed. So the questions is? What are you waiting for?

By the way, I bought 2 of these Qinpu amps. That's how much I like them.

Rex

[chrism]

Is it February 1st tomorrow or April 1st?

Regards

Chris

[Alex_UK]

I must admit, we are wondering if Rex has done a "Victor Kiam" and the Qinpu is his "Remington moment"... I'm sure Rex will put us straight.

[MartinT]

Victor Kiam - there's a name from the past!

[Alex_UK]

...And I must say Mrs Rex has an amazing knowledge of Rex's gear - mine wouldn't even know how to turn it on and the only tubes she knows are toothpaste or cosmetics ones. And as for a "Custom Dick Sequerra PS1" I shudder to think what she would think to do with that!

[StanleyB]

Quite a number of people have informed me that the Bushmaster brought an extra dimension to their valve amp, so I am not entirely surprised with the comments that Rex so enthusiastically made. It's still reasonably moderate compared to some of the ecstatic emailed feedback comments I have read. Some included pictures whilst one was a "full length" youtube essay with some expensive gear as supporting cast.

[rxjr]

My regular system: Qinpu A6000MKII tube amp with bendix 6385 tubes, M&K v1b and s1b subs (2) digital reference configuration, beresford bushmaster, grado sr60 and sony headphones, french made battery dac,audio alchemy dac in a box, apple ipad 3 for music streaming via pandora, miccus bluebridge bluetooth rcvr, knuconceptz 10 gauge spkr cable and krystal interconnects, radio shack optimus cd 3400 as transport powered by custom dick sequerra battery power supply. for movies: sony ps3, creative labs DDTs 5.1 decoder, Klipsch 5.1 spkrs.

My reference system: Apogee Diva speakers, Nakamichi Dragon Cassette deck, Audire Forte amp for Hsu subs (2), Perreaux preamp, tuner and 500 wpc amp capable of 5000 peaks when pushed, kimber cable rca and interconnects. sony ps3, logitech z5500 for movies. Modded Pioneer PL 1000 with Straight Line Tracking Tonearm. Heavily modded electronic x-overs for Apogee Divas and Hsu subs.

Above is a listing of my current equipment.
My regular system, when purchased new, cost me approx $2,500.00.

My reference system cost me approx $30,000.00, about the price of a BMW sports sedan at that time.

Victor was right. My wife is not thoroughly aware of all the brand of equipment I use and its functions. That was me talking. However, she is highly aware of the high cost and expenditures involved this crazy equipment upgrade adventure I have been on since 1975; starting from Japanese brands such sansui, pioneer, kenwood, marantz, teac, akai, to u.s. brands like marantz,bose, dbx, etc... to my current configurations as listed above. My apologies to brands I have long forgotten during this upgrade process.

My reference system gives me the following: 3d Pinpoint imaging so good you can tell the height of the various performers, even their distance from the main microphones. Soundstage so wide and so deep, it appears to go beyond the confines of my living room, sometimes 30 feet out into the street. Sounds even seem to emanate behind me, depending on the recordings. Accurately reproduces all kinds of music, from Jazz to rock to soul, even hiphop. Badly recorded or canned music will be revealed, warts and all. The Apogee Divas are considered to be one of the Best Speakers in the world, even to this date. Stereophile, The Absolute sound, other hi-end mags all agree, and so do I. Extremely difficult to drive, wimpy, underpowered amps need not apply. Hence, it is powered by a 150 lb. 2 man lift, Perreaux Amp with a minimum of 500 wpc capable of 5,000 wpc peaks when pushed. The Nakamichi Dragon, renowned as the best cassette deck in the world, is so dynamic and clean sounding, so free from hiss, and other analog foibles, that the sound seems to emanate from a well recorded and decoded digital source.

My regular system, started life as an attempt of mine, to get into video 5.1 sound reproduction. Tired of the ever increasing cost of High End components, and their ever miniscule improvements vs cost increases, I decided to venture into modestly priced but good performing audio equipment. See the current prices on high end equipment lately: $150,000.00 on a Dan D'Agostino amp, Speakers costing $20,000.00 and up. This madness had to stop. I had to get off this train. My only regret was passing up on Audio Note Speakers and Cary Single Ended 300B monoblock amps which a dealer was willing to sell to me for cheap, but alas, my wife finally put her foot down, said no, and that was that. And so ended my audio adventure for the time being. So, yes, my wife may not know all the brands and functions of my various pieces of equipment, but she is well aware of the cost and ever increasing piles of audio gear, no matter how hard I try to hide them from her (don't we all do this).

Compared to my reference system, my regular system gives me very good to excellent imaging, pinpoint at times, depending on recordings, wide but not so deep soundstage, accurate reproduction of various kinds of music, non-fatiguing sound, good to great micro and macro dynamics, loudness and slam; I can still tell the difference between well recorded and badly done recordings, foot tapping tempo and pace, and overall enjoyment of the music. Overall, I judge my regular system to get me to about 80% of my reference system, which I consider extremely good, especially considering the price differential of these 2 systems.

Currently,I am always on the lookout, for reasonably priced, excellent performing gear, but don't tell my wife that.

Enter the Qinpu A6000 MK II: As stated in my previous posts, this little amp gave me, lots of musical enjoyment, for its obviously ridiculous low price. High End performance, this good, for so cheap, is an understatement. for those who fawn, and ooh and aah, at the latest, overrated and overpriced, power plugs, muti-thousand dollar cables and interconnects, this baby will forever, change your perception, of what sanely priced, good music is all about. Transformative, maybe. Epiphany, maybe. Only you and your ears can decide. Mine have. (Be sure to read the reviews on Amazon.com from audiophiles and non-audiophiles alike, and form your own conclusions).

Enter the Beresford Bushmaster: I purchased the Bushmaster, based on the great and sometimes not so great reviews (there will always be detractors), here on the AOS Forums. Sanely priced, I decided to give this one a go. Here's what I found:

Great sound out of the box; no digital nasties; smooth, non-fatiguing sound. Wide reasonably deep soundstage, palpable 3d imaging, excellent reproduction of musical timbres, great slam and pace (my dog jumped out of the couch on one cut of the reference jazz recordings), good micro and macro dynamics, great musicality, enables me to hear into the recordings, instruments sound live and real in Jazz at the pawnshop cd; I could go on and on, but to my ears, Stanley Beresford, has achieved a minor, if not major, miracle with this unit, considering its extremely affordable price. Nuff said.

For those of similar minds, like me, who are tired, of the non-stop, ever increasing costs, but extremely miniscule improvements, in sound quality of our hobby, the Qinpu A6000 MKII and the Beresford Bushmaster, are components, that are so great sounding, that I daresay, have destroyed the myth, that to get great sound, you have to have an inexhaustible bank account or a trust fund. Dare I say that for me, these two components, have accurately defined, what this hobby, for me, is all about. High end sound, sanely priced for the common man. Keep the music keep playing.

rex