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Just my recent experience on DACS....
So, my shiny new Beresford Bushmaster DAC arrived two weeks ago. It took less than four days from order to doorstep....considering where I live and the more than vague 'postcodes' we have here I would say that was pretty impressive, bordering miracle status.
Anyhows, plugged it in to Cambridge Audio 640c (transport) into Cambridge Audio 640 Amp into B&W 685's (I know,fairly 'low-fi' amongst this forum).....couldn't help it but put in Pink Floyd, Delicate Sound of Thunder.
Now bearing in mind I had spent close to £200 and it looks pretty natty coupled with all the anticipation/reviews I had to control myself and give it a harsh critical listen...to be on the fence so to speak. Ignore all Emperors new clothes and all that.
Having only ever owned a cheap Fiio DAC (which was pretty good, until it died on me) I had nothing else to compare it to but powered it up.............drum roll......
I can only liken the experience to that of, you know when you in an aeroplane and your ears go fuzzy with the pressure and then they suddenly equalise and everything is then really open and sharp. Well thats what we have here. I had to rewind a few tracks and listen again as there was so much more to take in than before, so many more instruments and dynamic placement that I had to make sure it wasn't me. But yes, they were there in abundance, clear and punchy, a far broader spectrum of sound that I have not experienced with my set up before.
I did the usual comparison of Apple Lossless files and then the same CD and have to say on the whole, the CD sounded better. Maybe my ripping, on an old Macbook and the Apple Lossless format contra a good ripper into FLAC is just not quite up to it. Certain tunes such as Welcome to the cruel world, Ben Harper sound pretty darn good in Apple Lossless format as well as similar genre which are generally cleaner, i.e less intruments, sound fairly ace. Movies, fed from Apple tv 1 modded with Broadcom Card and general TV stuff also leap out at you. Darn it's good....how did I cope before?! There is now so much more detail that I was missing before.
So onto the main reviewer, My Wife...(Wi-fi)...she is super critical of me spending anything remotely hi-fi related...but understands my needs, so long as she can have another pair of shoes....ahem......I put on her fave Avalon, Roxy Music in CD format which she listen for a full one minute and she said it sounded amazing. At that, I stopped the CD and sent her off to the supermarket, for the weekly shop. Test over. Harsh, but she doesn't procrastinate and pontificate like me, she'll listen and then give it the the critical marks out of ten straight away
So thats it.
Now, I know that my set up is fairly low-fi but at least it is a start and this DAC has certainly improved the sound, full stop, which is what it is all about.
However, and this is surely going to be the problem for all of us, this is now the normal, par for the score sound and after a while will I be hoping for something better? Right? I think in this instance, I'll cash my chips in buy a few more cd's, dust down all the old cd's and just enjoy..................at least for the moment anyway
Since this time the DAC has now been properly run in and sounds even better. Still finding new sounds on old albums that I have listened to countless of times.
The biggest difference though is when I pipe the tv through it..really good...just shows how tinny my on board Sony DAC was.
Yours,
Michael |
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