BDA-1 USB Upgrade

[kfr01]

The BDA-1 would be perfect for me, but the USB doesn't support 24/192. Are there any rumors of a refresh or update on the horizon?

[cmalak]

Best to PM James Tanner of Bryston with your question. If you find out, please let us know. Thx

[cmalak]

kfr01...by the way, the USB input even on 16/44 material was inferior to S/PDIF inputs according to the many reviews. I think if you are thinking of the BDA-1 with a PC as a source, you are best served by getting a decent USB-SPDIF converter with this unit. There is a very cost effective converter from Musical Fidelity that uses asynchronous USB transfer mode that was recently reviewed in Stereophile for $169 I believe and John Atkinson thought it did a great job. The other one he recommends highly is the Halide USB-S/PDIF converter but that is a bit more money. The review for that one is up on their site: Halide Design S/PDIF Bridge USB-S/PDIF converter | Stereophile.com

The review for the Musical Fidelity converter appeared in one of the last two issues but is not yet up on the website. Good luck.

[James Tanner - Bryston]

Originally Posted by kfr01

The BDA-1 would be perfect for me, but the USB doesn't support 24/192. Are there any rumors of a refresh or update on the horizon?

Hi,

Correct the USB on the BDA-1 is 48/16 bit. When used with our BDP-1 Digital Player it bypasses all the issues with USB.

There are no plans to change it in the near future. I think the converter idea mentioned above is a good solution if you need the higher sample rates with the USB input on the BDA-1.

james

[kfr01]

Originally Posted by James Tanner - Bryston

Hi,

Correct the USB on the BDA-1 is 48/16 bit. When used with our BDP-1 Digital Player it bypasses all the issues with USB.

There are no plans to change it in the near future. I think the converter idea mentioned above is a good solution if you need the higher sample rates with the USB input on the BDA-1.

james

James - thanks for your reply.

I heard the BDA-1 driven by a BDP-1 yesterday at a dealer and it sounded great.

For whatever it is worth, the fact that Bryston's unit doesn't support higher resolution signals at the USB input is the only reason I will be looking elsewhere for a DAC.

I'm a bit bummed that there are no near term plans for higher resolution USB from Bryston, because I really liked the sound.

[James Tanner - Bryston]

Originally Posted by kfr01

James - thanks for your reply.

I heard the BDA-1 driven by a BDP-1 yesterday at a dealer and it sounded great.

For whatever it is worth, the fact that Bryston's unit doesn't support higher resolution signals at the USB input is the only reason I will be looking elsewhere for a DAC.

I'm a bit bummed that there are no near term plans for higher resolution USB from Bryston, because I really liked the sound.

Hi kfr,

Yes I certainly understand but using the BDP-1 digital Player with the BDA-1 DAC is the better approach in our opinion.

james

[kfr01]

James:

I think the BDP-1 makes a lot of sense for those that don't already have a computer serving as a media center.

For those of us that have already embraced computer audio, I don't really see why we'd ever buy it.

I hope someday Bryston decides to release a USB DAC that supports high resolution material (without requiring the BDP-1). It'd be at the top of my list.

[cmalak]

Kfr01...is there a reason why you are averse to using a USB to S/PDIF converter?

[kfr01]

Cmalak: I'd prefer to buy a product that is built for my purpose. Buying a product knowing that I'll need to add another converter to the chain, just to adapt it to my purpose, doesn't really make sense to me.

If adding a converter actually performs better than proper USB support, I'm all ears. Thoughts?

Edit: I'm really not trying to be too down on the Bryston... if this one feature were different, the BDA-1 would be on order. Alas, the DAC search of 2011 continues...

[Antonmb]

I am feeding my BDA-1 via SPDIF from a Squeezebox Touch connected via ethernet to a server. The Touch can handle up to 24/96 - while not 192, it sounds phenomenal to me on hdtracks 88 and 96 downloads. This gets me away from USB altogether and lets me put the server in a different part of the house, eliminating any issues with fan or hard drive noise in the listening room. The BDA-1 is everything I could ask for in this configuration.