Can anyone give me a Bryston primer?
 

Hello to the Bryston Board!

This is my first time on this board, so please be gentle. I started a thread on another AA forum board a while back and one of the brand names that popped up during the discussion was Bryston.

The theme/name of the thread is 'Playing SACD on old equipment' and, among other interesting suggestions, there were a couple of posters who suggested employing DACs; namely, the BDA-3 and, later, the BDA-3.14 Streamer.

Having nearly zero clues about external DACs, I though that I'd ask the Bryston folks for a somewhat focused primer. We presently own a Sony x800M2 player and are awaiting an Oppo BDP-203 player. Although we were unaware of it, at the time, we purchased the Sony x800M2 thinking that we could [directly] play the SACD and the DVD-A format discs that are in our collection...which brings me full circle to DACs.

At some point, the discussion in the thread I mentioned turned toward employing one's computer to "rip" audio off of physical audio media for storage on a computer HDD. We presently don't have anything better than USB 2.0 data transfer technology -- aboard our early-2011 MacBook Pro (MBP) 17 -- so I have my doubts about whether or not using it for this purpose is realistic...and the Bryston BDA-3.14 seems to be aimed at the "computer audio source" people.

As you can surely tell by now, I don't know much about external DACs or their common uses. If anyone would care to take me to 1st grade on this subject, I'd be very grateful for the kick in the behind. Unlike a lot of folks in the present day, I actually want to be schooled by real teachers. :thumbsup:

Hi Bill

Yes the trend to day is to RIP all your physical media like CD's and DVD audio discs to a hard-drive and then use that hard-drive in a Digital Player to listen to your music. Also streaming music is becoming the norm as well.

So first thing you need to do is rip to a hard drive. Does your MAC have any ripping software that will allows you to rip to a USB hard-drive or USB thumb-drive?

Once you have ripped to the drive then you can play it back through a digital player like the Bryston 3.14 or stream music to it - which attaches to a preamplifier. What is the rest of your stereo system?

james

The Rest of the System
 

Thank you for the post, James.

Although I believe we'll have the physical media format part of the equation under control -- after our new Oppo -203 arrives -- we have older 2-channel stereo components to deliver the signals to our speakers.

At present, the signal from the new Oppo will be passed to our Mac MX130 Control Center. The MX130 divides the signal up (more or less) by sending the signal to our Mac 4200 receiver and our Mac MC300 amplifier. The 4200 amplifies its signal and outputs it to a pair of B&W N805s, while the MC300 does the same by employing a pair of B&W N802s. It may not be a top of line stereo system, but I like it -- particularly, the way that the MX130's surround processor delays the signal in Hall Mode.

Although this should soon be remedied by the Oppo -203 we just purchased, we have never really had a true surround setup. Nevertheless, the MX130's surround processor [somehow] delays the audio coming out of those Nautilus 805s enough to add an enjoyable "depth" to our listening experience. So far, I'd have to say that the the best sounding regular CD we've listened to, in quite a while, is Ambrosia's first album...but I digress.

Okay, so it reads like we need to think about a computer upgrade. No, we don't have any ripping software, but we do own a player/recorder that can make physical copies -- the Denon CDR-W1500 -- but, alas, that doesn't allow us to keep up with the trend of storing audio on a computer HDD...which brings me back to our old computer.

As for streaming audio ...please wait for it... I have never done it. We live in the mountains, so we don't have access to bona fide high-speed internet. I'm sending this message to you via a hotspot we get with our "smart" phone service, so I think that the streaming aspect of what's going on in audio may have to wait, as well.

Thanks again for the post, and I think that I'll be asking more rookie questions about DACs and/or Streamers after we upgrade our laptop. If anyone else would care to join the discussion, please feel free to add a post to the thread.

Have a great night ~ Bill in the Hills :thumbsup:

Hi Bill,

Yes you are fine with the CD's and DVD's etc. with the OPPO.

The computer side though needs some attention so I would look into getting a more up to date computer with ripping capability and rip your physical CD's to a USB hard-drive.

Then products like our 3.14 DAC/Streamer make sense in your system.

You do not need high speed internet to stream most music as it is highly compressed music so you should be Ok there as well.

james

Bill-in the Hills -
Congratulations on the OPPO 203. Now that you have playback of physical media covered, why are you considering ripping?

It is a fair bit of effort, though it becomes routine after the first few.

Ripping and streaming are related but different. Further, for good ripping access to the Internet is mostly required (the best ripping software will have access to large on-line databases, saving you from having to enter disk/track information manually, for example).

A hot-spot can download this data of course (it is not that much), but if you are playing your disks, why bother?

Streaming is a bit different - you are accessing someone's else's ripped library - Spotify's library for example.

It's the Kid in Me
 

clpetersen..... The thread I mentioned in the original post (OP) took a turn on me. It started out as an old vet (me) asking for basic information about playing our physical medium formats, so, long story short, we eventually purchased the Oppo -203 ... but I don't want to get ahead of myself.

As some time went on, the thread started to "evolve" into a more modern discussion. I began getting posts about employing our Sony X800M2 -- a so-called "universal" player without analog outputs -- and a DAC (like the Bryston DAC-3). Later still, I got a post about the newer Bryston DAC-Pi Streamer; a.k.a., the DAC-3.14. The DAC discussion drew in some posts about ripping audio to a computer...so you see where I'm going with this.

Anyway, seeing the name Bryston several times...and, more to the point, getting the clear message that they make pretty good equipment...well...it sort of prompted me to read up on the brand...but practically everyone who's ever wished for that "great sound" in their own home knows what I'm writing about -- namely, I caught another "bug." I'm now interested in knowing more about this [new to me] brand name and, eventually, I hope to start out by hearing one of their DACs in action.

As I previously mentioned, our early-2011 MacBook Pro 17 is getting a little long in the tooth. It still works great, but the bottlenecks presented by its outdated data transfer technology (USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt 1) make it a bit unrealistic for storing our [modest] audio collection. So, in closing, I'd say that the possibility of streaming music -- we don't have -- will have to wait a bit, but adding a good DAC to our existing A/V system is really growing on me.

Thanks for the great post ~ Bill :thumbsup:

USB 2.0 is "outdated", perhaps, but if storage is your primary concern in that context, I wouldn't consider it an obstacle to transferring your audio collection to a storage medium such as an external hard drive. It's what I have on the approximate-same-vintage HP Windows 10 desktop I use for ripping CDs, DADs, and SACDs (and for downloading high-resolution files), and for sending that data (in my case, via copy-and-paste from the desktop's internal drive) to an external drive for storage. Slower than USB 3.0, but not unwieldy.

Just a thought.

Nice
 

Jim..... Just as I posted in that other AA thread I mentioned, this is the reason I post here. These "counter-point" type posts really make these threads interesting for me. So you're saying that this "ripping and storing" thing can be done with older computer hardware -- I like it! :yes:

Perhaps it was a few of the posts I read -- after adding a thread to a forum that's more video intensive -- that threw me off a bit. Over there, the emphasis is on blu ray and 4K UHD blu ray discs, which, I assume, contain much more data.

Regardless, great post! :D

Hi Bill,

I was kind of late to the ripping CD party because I was still using a CD player not long ago and honestly I don't think I will ever go back to physical media anytime soon. For context, I am using a Bryston BDA-3 DAC with a Bryston BDP-2 digital player (will soon send to Bryston to upgrade to BDP-3). Before I had everything set up, I had many questions and was afraid to jump aboard until I had everything answered but I made that jump and got things quickly set up the more I was using the combo. James and others were helpful along the way to get the best of the combo. For your information, the BDP-2 has USB 2.0 and I am using the USB output to feed my BDA-3; it works just fine and I ripped all my CD in AIFF format, which is uncompressed so that makes the music files larger than FLAC for example. As you are in the MAC ecosystem, I would suggest AIFF or ALAC. But it depends on the playback software you are using on MAC.

As a starting point, you can do like many people were doing (and still do) by using your computer as playback machine. All you need is a *good* USB cable in that case. If you want less hassle, then a Bryston BDP is a very good option. If you go with the BDA-3.14, you will have both in one machine. That alone saves some cabling and shelf space (and costs while at it). The trend now among many audiophiles is to move toward online streaming platforms like Tidal and Qobuz (spotify too) and this requires audio grade LAN cables and switches. For this I am a bit behind the curve as I still prefer to own my music and rip my CDs. I like to manage my stored digital medias. This saves monthly subscription fees too. But if I still buy CDs, in the end it could be more costly than a monthly subscription; I have been thinking about this lately. Plus, I ordered a CD from Amazon and it took 1 month to receive it. If I have had a Tidal subscription, I could have enjoyed that CD within seconds. This is another thing to consider. If you have a large CD collection, it could take a while to rip everything. But if you look at your local craigslist, you will see entire CD collections sold for peanuts (about as low as 0.10$ a CD). Some friends and family members gave me their entire CD collection. For the most part most people are quite happy with spotify on their iPhone, and bluetooth radio.

At this point in time, and with a BDA-3.14 with streaming capabilities I would seriously consider online streaming as a viable option. There are pros and cons in each route and you have to consider all the options before making a decision on how you are going to playback music. Once your decision is made, you can gear up and setup everything.

Very Helpful, Sir...
 

Thank you for adding a great post to the thread, as well, Serge.

I see that you picked up on our USB 2.0 issue, but did you catch the part about not having civilized high-speed internet here? We live in the mountains, you see, and our little town government wants to keep us in the dial-up era. I know that it seems hard to believe, in this day and age, but the next town over -- which is much flatter, I admit -- has fiber optic transmission lines already installed.

Seriously, if we didn't have the smartphone hotspot signal provided by those satellites orbiting the planet, we would still be hearing a dial tone and, eventually, the phrase "You've got mail !" I mean, it's so ridiculuous that you gotta laugh about it. :snicker:

Thanks again and I'd love to read more of your thoughts on this.

P.S. ~ it's great to know that there are others who've had the same kind of reticence on the forum. :thumbsup: