On Sat, 7 Jul 2012 12:20:00 -0700, ScottW wrote
(in article ):
On Jul 7, 8:32am, Audio Empire wrote:
On Fri, 6 Jul 2012 05:24:09 -0700, rtweed wrote
(in article ):
I've just had delivery of a Beresford Bushmaster DAC: Stanley
Beresford's latest and greatest.
Just to be clear - I have no commercial relationship with Stanley's
company, but I've been interested in his DACs since purchasing his
excellent and low-cost 7520 model some years ago. I heard about his
new Bushmaster model pretty much by accident and decided to give it a
try....again it's a very low cost device, at least here in the UK
where Stanley is based. Already this device is getting a lot of very
good press.
I'd assumed it would be marginally better than the 7520. I was wrong.
This thing is in another league - I've really never heard anything
like it. I have it playing directly into a Behringer A500 power amp
and PMC speakers. They have never sounded better. Clarity like I've
never heard before - it's quite stunning.
I'd recommend any reader of this group to try to get your hands on one
and try it out for yourselves. For more info on this unit:
http://www.homehifi.co.uk/main/main.html
Apologies if this sounds like a fanboi rave, but I just think this is
a piece of kit that warrants attention.
Rob
Some Q's for you, if you don't mind, Rob.
1) How much, in US dollars, was the Bushmaster, as delivered to you? Did you
order it directly from Beresford in GB?
According to the web site....US (and other non-EU) customers avoid
the 20% VAT tax.
Yes, That's obvious that there is no VAT on US sales. But what was the price,
from Beresford with shipping. They don't list the price of the TC-7530 on the
web-site.
2) Is this unit, the TC-7530DC, made by TEC in China like Bereford's
previous
DACs, the TC-7510 and TC-7520?
3) What DAC chip(s) does the TC7530 use? I find that most of the IC DAC
chips
sound pretty much alike. The exception being the ESS SabreDAC.
4) Does it up-convert 16-bit, 44.1/48 KHz to 24/96? The website doesn't say.
And why, oh why do do many DAC manufacturers fail to provide either a light
or a digital display telling the user what actual sample rate the converter
has locked onto?
I'd like to know what drive capability the DAC has. Having no
output buffer stage may make my passive volume control unsuitable.
That's a distinct possibility.
The other question raised is in recommending an external DC supply
filter.
Is the internal supply filters inadequate?
Looks to me like the device takes a 12 volt wall-wart. Those can be marginal.
But single-ended power supplies do open-up the possibility of using a better
supply than the stock one. I have a phono-preamp that used a 12- volt
wall-wart (but would work on any DC supply from 12-18 volts) and I converted
it to run on 18 volt rechargeable gel-cells. It was visibly quieter on an
oscilloscope after that. Not sure I could actually hear any difference
though. I liked to think I could. The lowering of ripple and noise on the
output kind-of gave me peace of mind. 8^)
ScottW