[Sonnova]

I just bought From Specialty Audio/Video Inc. in FL, via E-Bay (Thanks Arny)
a new TET TC-7510 MKIII (also sold as a Berseford TC-7510 MKIII DAC). This
unpretentious little box sports a Burr-Brown PCM-1716 DAC chip and a Crystal
CS8414 Digital Audio Receiver and dual 5534 op-amps for output. It only cost
me $100 (+$13 shipping) and I got it in three days via USPS priority mail. It
sports 4 inputs, two TOSLINK and two RCA AES/EBU inputs. Sorry, but no
FireWire or USB at this price. It also has a more than decent headphone
output which drives both my Koss Pro-4As and my AKG 340 hybrid electrostatics
very well.

This is easily one of the best sounding DACs I've ever heard, easily besting
the Benchmark DAC1 that I borrowed from a friend (boy was he embarrassed -
especially after spending a grand for the thing! ). I bought it because I was
under the impression that my Assemblage DAC 2.6, which, while beautifully
made, was only 20-bit. After taking it out of my system to install the
TC-7510, I opened the Assemblage up only to find that It too used exactly the
same chip set as the TC-7510, except for the analog section which is better
than the Tiawanese analog section (the DAC 2.6 uses Burr-Brown OPA134s
instead of 5534s. While the 5534s have better noise figures (4nV/root Hz vs 8
nV/root Hx for the OPA134s), the latter have 20V/ns slew vs 13V/ns and much
better power supplies (one for each channel). I kept the matching
Assemblage D2D-1 sample rate converter in the system and fed its output into
both the DAC1 and the TC-7510. This up-converts any sample-rate to 48, 88, or
96KHz. I have it set to 96 KHz.

Compared to the DAC1, the TC-7510 has a cleaner top end, and images better
(at least on my symphony master tapes) and has slightly better bass than does
the DAC1. Some discussion groups on the internet have said that the TC-7510
has to "burn-in" (for about 10 hours To say that I'm impressed (especially
for the price) would be an understatement. Sure, it doesn't have the DAC-1s
build quality or its looks, but when it comes to performance, this cheap li'l
bugger rocks.

I haven't A/B it with the DAC 2.6 yet, But when I do, I'll make my decision
as to which to keep. Finding that my Assemblage was true 24-bit, and used the
exact same DAR and DAC chip as the TC-7510 was a real revelation to me, and
while I have always thought that it sounded great, I was concerned because I
was under the impression that it was only a 16-bit unit.

Irrespective of whether I keep the TC-7510 or not, this is still the value
of the year. Don't pass it up. Go on E-Bay and look for DACs. This one is
sold by Specialty Audio Video Inc. and they list it at $119 and invite the
buyer to make an offer. I offered them $99 for it and they accepted. Do not
hesitate. Go directly to E-Bay and buy yourself one of these. You won't
regret it!

[RoninTO]

On Mar 1, 11:28*am, Sonnova wrote:
I just bought From Specialty Audio/Video Inc. in FL, via E-Bay (Thanks Arny)
a new TET TC-7510 MKIII (also sold as a Berseford TC-7510 MKIII DAC). This
unpretentious little box sports a Burr-Brown *PCM-1716 DAC chip and a Crystal
CS8414 Digital Audio Receiver and dual 5534 op-amps for output. It only cost
me $100 (+$13 shipping) and I got it in three days via USPS priority mail. It
sports 4 inputs, two TOSLINK and two RCA AES/EBU inputs. Sorry, but no
FireWire or USB at this price. It also has a more than decent headphone
output which drives both my Koss Pro-4As and my AKG 340 hybrid electrostatics
very well.

This is easily one of the best sounding DACs I've ever heard, easily besting
the Benchmark DAC1 that I borrowed from a friend (boy was he embarrassed -
especially after spending a grand for the thing! ). I bought it because I was
under the impression that my Assemblage DAC 2.6, which, while beautifully
made, was only 20-bit. After taking it out of my system to install the
TC-7510, I opened the Assemblage up only to find that It too used exactly the
same chip set as the TC-7510, except for the analog section which is better
than the Tiawanese analog section (the DAC 2.6 uses Burr-Brown OPA134s
instead of 5534s. While the 5534s have better noise figures (4nV/root Hz vs 8
nV/root Hx for the OPA134s), the latter have 20V/ns slew vs 13V/ns and much
better power supplies (one for each channel). * *I *kept the matching
Assemblage D2D-1 sample rate converter in the system and fed its output into
both the DAC1 and the TC-7510. This up-converts any sample-rate to 48, 88, or
96KHz. I have it set to 96 KHz. *

Compared to the DAC1, the TC-7510 has a cleaner top end, and images better
(at least on my symphony master tapes) and has slightly better bass than does
the DAC1. Some discussion groups on the internet have said that the TC-7510
has to "burn-in" (for about 10 hours To say that I'm impressed (especially
for the price) would be an understatement. Sure, it doesn't have the DAC-1s
build quality or its looks, but when it comes to performance, this cheap li'l
bugger rocks.

I haven't A/B it with the DAC 2.6 yet, But when I do, I'll make my decision
as to which to keep. Finding that my Assemblage was true 24-bit, and used the
exact same DAR and DAC chip as the TC-7510 was a real revelation to me, and
while I have always thought that it sounded great, I was concerned because I
was under the impression that it was only a 16-bit unit. *

Irrespective of whether I keep the TC-7510 or not, *this is still the value
of the year. Don't pass it up. Go on E-Bay and look for DACs. This one is
sold by Specialty Audio Video Inc. and they list it at $119 and invite the
buyer to make an offer. I offered them $99 for it and they accepted. Do not
hesitate. Go directly to E-Bay and buy yourself one of these. You won't
regret it!

Thanks for the tip. I purchased the DAC this morning from Specialty
Audio/Visual. I should receive it in a week's time. I paid $99.00
for the unit and $25.00 to ship it to Toronto, Canada. Shipping cost
were a little high given it was being sent by USPS. I will let you
know how the unit compares to my Sonic Frontiers MKII...I expect it
will outperform.

Cheers, Ron

[Sonnova]

On Mon, 2 Mar 2009 20:14:01 -0800, RoninTO wrote
(in article ):

On Mar 1, 11:28*am, Sonnova wrote:
I just bought From Specialty Audio/Video Inc. in FL, via E-Bay (Thanks Arny)
a new TET TC-7510 MKIII (also sold as a Berseford TC-7510 MKIII DAC). This
unpretentious little box sports a Burr-Brown *PCM-1716 DAC chip and a
Crystal
CS8414 Digital Audio Receiver and dual 5534 op-amps for output. It only cost
me $100 (+$13 shipping) and I got it in three days via USPS priority mail.
It
sports 4 inputs, two TOSLINK and two RCA AES/EBU inputs. Sorry, but no
FireWire or USB at this price. It also has a more than decent headphone
output which drives both my Koss Pro-4As and my AKG 340 hybrid
electrostatics
very well.

This is easily one of the best sounding DACs I've ever heard, easily besting
the Benchmark DAC1 that I borrowed from a friend (boy was he embarrassed -
especially after spending a grand for the thing! ). I bought it because I
was
under the impression that my Assemblage DAC 2.6, which, while beautifully
made, was only 20-bit. After taking it out of my system to install the
TC-7510, I opened the Assemblage up only to find that It too used exactly
the
same chip set as the TC-7510, except for the analog section which is better
than the Tiawanese analog section (the DAC 2.6 uses Burr-Brown OPA134s
instead of 5534s. While the 5534s have better noise figures (4nV/root Hz vs
8
nV/root Hx for the OPA134s), the latter have 20V/ns slew vs 13V/ns and much
better power supplies (one for each channel). * *I *kept the matching
Assemblage D2D-1 sample rate converter in the system and fed its output into
both the DAC1 and the TC-7510. This up-converts any sample-rate to 48, 88,
or
96KHz. I have it set to 96 KHz. *

Compared to the DAC1, the TC-7510 has a cleaner top end, and images better
(at least on my symphony master tapes) and has slightly better bass than
does
the DAC1. Some discussion groups on the internet have said that the TC-7510
has to "burn-in" (for about 10 hours To say that I'm impressed (especially
for the price) would be an understatement. Sure, it doesn't have the DAC-1s
build quality or its looks, but when it comes to performance, this cheap
li'l
bugger rocks.

I haven't A/B it with the DAC 2.6 yet, But when I do, I'll make my decision
as to which to keep. Finding that my Assemblage was true 24-bit, and used
the
exact same DAR and DAC chip as the TC-7510 was a real revelation to me, and
while I have always thought that it sounded great, I was concerned because I
was under the impression that it was only a 16-bit unit. *

Irrespective of whether I keep the TC-7510 or not, *this is still the value
of the year. Don't pass it up. Go on E-Bay and look for DACs. This one is
sold by Specialty Audio Video Inc. and they list it at $119 and invite the
buyer to make an offer. I offered them $99 for it and they accepted. Do not
hesitate. Go directly to E-Bay and buy yourself one of these. You won't
regret it!

Thanks for the tip. I purchased the DAC this morning from Specialty
Audio/Visual. I should receive it in a week's time. I paid $99.00
for the unit and $25.00 to ship it to Toronto, Canada. Shipping cost
were a little high given it was being sent by USPS. I will let you
know how the unit compares to my Sonic Frontiers MKII...I expect it
will outperform.

Cheers, Ron

I wonder how the Sonic Frontiers compares, circuit-wise with the Assemblage
DAC 2.6, since Assemblage was a subsidiary of Sonic Frontiers. I wonder if
the DAC 2.6 and subsequent DAC 3.0 weren't merely kit versions of Sonic
Frontier products? I have been listening to the TC-7510, and as good as it is
(and it is VERY good) it doesn't sound quite as refined as my 8-year old DAC
2.6. One thing that I'm about to do is replace the Burr-Brown OPA134 op amps
in the Assemblage unit with the new, very high performance National
Semiconductor LME49710MA Op Amps. They have better noise figures, higher slew
rates, wider gain-bandwidth, symmetrical slew, and orders of magnitude less
distortion and wider dynamic range than the OPA134. Whether or not these
differences will make a marked improvement in the sound of an already very
good sounding product is is yet to be found-out, but the DAC 2.6 has each
channel's Op-Amps socketed, the pin-out is the same for both op-amps so the
swap is easy and the LME49710MAs were certainly cheap enough from Digi-Key to
risk it.

I don't know about Canadian delivery, but I ordered my TC-7510 last Wednesday
and received it via USPS priority mail on Saturday morning. USPS is certainly
faster at delivering packages this size than is UPS, and cheaper too!

[RoninTO]

On Mar 3, 12:52*pm, Sonnova wrote:
On Mon, 2 Mar 2009 20:14:01 -0800, RoninTO wrote
(in article ):





On Mar 1, 11:28*am, Sonnova wrote:
I just bought From Specialty Audio/Video Inc. in FL, via E-Bay (Thanks Arny)
a new TET TC-7510 MKIII (also sold as a Berseford TC-7510 MKIII DAC). This
unpretentious little box sports a Burr-Brown *PCM-1716 DAC chip and a
Crystal
CS8414 Digital Audio Receiver and dual 5534 op-amps for output. It only cost
me $100 (+$13 shipping) and I got it in three days via USPS priority mail.
It
sports 4 inputs, two TOSLINK and two RCA AES/EBU inputs. Sorry, but no
FireWire or USB at this price. It also has a more than decent headphone
output which drives both my Koss Pro-4As and my AKG 340 hybrid
electrostatics
very well.

This is easily one of the best sounding DACs I've ever heard, easily besting
the Benchmark DAC1 that I borrowed from a friend (boy was he embarrassed -
especially after spending a grand for the thing! ). I bought it because I
was
under the impression that my Assemblage DAC 2.6, which, while beautifully
made, was only 20-bit. After taking it out of my system to install the
TC-7510, I opened the Assemblage up only to find that It too used exactly
the
same chip set as the TC-7510, except for the analog section which is better
than the Tiawanese analog section (the DAC 2.6 uses Burr-Brown OPA134s
instead of 5534s. While the 5534s have better noise figures (4nV/root Hz vs
8
nV/root Hx for the OPA134s), the latter have 20V/ns slew vs 13V/ns and much
better power supplies (one for each channel). * *I *kept the matching
Assemblage D2D-1 sample rate converter in the system and fed its output into
both the DAC1 and the TC-7510. This up-converts any sample-rate to 48, 88,
or
96KHz. I have it set to 96 KHz. *

Compared to the DAC1, the TC-7510 has a cleaner top end, and images better
(at least on my symphony master tapes) and has slightly better bass than
does
the DAC1. Some discussion groups on the internet have said that the TC-7510
has to "burn-in" (for about 10 hours To say that I'm impressed (especially
for the price) would be an understatement. Sure, it doesn't have the DAC-1s
build quality or its looks, but when it comes to performance, this cheap
li'l
bugger rocks.

I haven't A/B it with the DAC 2.6 yet, But when I do, I'll make my decision
as to which to keep. Finding that my Assemblage was true 24-bit, and used
the
exact same DAR and DAC chip as the TC-7510 was a real revelation to me, and
while I have always thought that it sounded great, I was concerned because I
was under the impression that it was only a 16-bit unit. *

Irrespective of whether I keep the TC-7510 or not, *this is still the value
of the year. Don't pass it up. Go on E-Bay and look for DACs. This one is
sold by Specialty Audio Video Inc. and they list it at $119 and invite the
buyer to make an offer. I offered them $99 for it and they accepted. Do not
hesitate. Go directly to E-Bay and buy yourself one of these. You won't
regret it!

Thanks for the tip. *I purchased the DAC this morning from Specialty
Audio/Visual. *I should receive it in a week's time. *I paid $99.00
for the unit and $25.00 to ship it to Toronto, Canada. *Shipping cost
were a little high given it was being sent by USPS. *I will let you
know how the unit compares to my Sonic Frontiers MKII...I expect it
will outperform.

Cheers, Ron

I wonder how the Sonic Frontiers compares, circuit-wise with the Assemblage
DAC 2.6, since Assemblage was a subsidiary of Sonic Frontiers. I wonder if
the DAC 2.6 and subsequent DAC 3.0 weren't merely kit versions of Sonic
Frontier products? I have been listening to the TC-7510, and as good as it is
(and it is VERY good) it doesn't sound quite as refined as my 8-year old DAC
2.6. One thing that I'm about to do is replace the Burr-Brown OPA134 op amps
in the Assemblage unit with the new, very high performance National
Semiconductor LME49710MA Op Amps. They have better noise figures, higher slew
rates, wider gain-bandwidth, symmetrical slew, and orders of magnitude less
distortion and wider dynamic range than the OPA134. Whether or not these
differences will make a marked improvement in the sound of an already very
good sounding product is is yet to be found-out, but the DAC 2.6 has each
channel's Op-Amps socketed, the pin-out is the same for both op-amps so the
swap is easy and the LME49710MAs were certainly cheap enough from Digi-Key to
risk it.

I don't know about Canadian delivery, but I ordered my TC-7510 last Wednesday
and received it via USPS priority mail on Saturday morning. USPS is certainly
faster at delivering packages this size than is UPS, and cheaper too!- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I have never taken the hood off my Sonic Frontiers MK2 to know what is
under it. Since I am not a EE I probably wouldn't even know what I am
looking at however, having a keen interest in music I expect I will be
able to hear the discernable differences between the two dacs. When I
get a chance I will take a pic of the circuitry for you to have a
look. Cheers!

[[email protected]]

On Mar 5, 10:25*am, RoninTO wrote:
having a keen interest in music I expect I will be
able to hear the discernable differences between
the two dacs.

Why?

What if you don't?

[dave a]

wrote:
On Mar 5, 10:25 am, RoninTO wrote:
having a keen interest in music I expect I will be
able to hear the discernable differences between
the two dacs.

Why?

What if you don't?



Or what if there are no "discernable" differences?

[Sonnova]

On Fri, 6 Mar 2009 14:57:42 -0800, wrote
(in article ):

On Mar 5, 10:25*am, RoninTO wrote:
having a keen interest in music I expect I will be
able to hear the discernable differences between
the two dacs.

Why?

What if you don't?



You will. They all image somewhat differently, some have better
high-frequency extension than others. Some like the Benchmark DAC1 sound more
than slightly dark, etc.

[[email protected]]

On Mar 6, 8:06*pm, Sonnova wrote:

On Mar 5, 10:25*am, RoninTO wrote:
having a keen interest in music I expect I will be
able to hear the discernable differences between
the two dacs.

You will. They all image somewhat differently,

You will. We all imagine somewhat differently.

bob

[RoninTO]

On Mar 6, 7:43*pm, dave a wrote:
wrote:
On Mar 5, 10:25 am, RoninTO wrote:
having a keen interest in music I expect I will be
able to hear the discernable differences between
the two dacs.

Why?

What if you don't?

Or what if there are no "discernable" differences?

I expect there will be some discernable differences otherwise how can
they justify the 20x price tag. Just a minute while I put that one
back in Pandora’s box.

I’ve been buying high end audio for over 10 years now. Some of my
components have set me back the price of a small car. I am a computer
engineer by training and high end audio allows me to meld my interest
in technology with my love of music. This is the first time I have
purchased an item in this price range for my audio system more as a
lark than the expectation of better sound. I plan to do blind AB
testing with this new DAC against my Sonic Frontiers. Sonos, Bryston
DAC, and Esoteric CD player. Should there be no discernable
difference between this $100 DAC and the others I will need to rethink
my entire approach to high end audio. If I prefer the sound of this
DAC over the others I again will need to rethink my approach to high
end audio. I still cling to the belief the market eliminates bad
products and we ultimately get what we pay for. Perhaps I will prove
myself wrong.

On another note, I just heard an Esoteric setup with Transport, Clock,
Mono DACs, etc... selling for more than $100,000....the sound was
different.

[Sonnova]

On Sat, 7 Mar 2009 16:26:27 -0800, RoninTO wrote
(in article ):

On Mar 6, 7:43*pm, dave a wrote:
wrote:
On Mar 5, 10:25 am, RoninTO wrote:
having a keen interest in music I expect I will be
able to hear the discernable differences between
the two dacs.

Why?

What if you don't?

Or what if there are no "discernable" differences?

I expect there will be some discernable differences otherwise how can
they justify the 20x price tag. Just a minute while I put that one
back in Pandora’s box.

I’ve been buying high end audio for over 10 years now. Some of my
components have set me back the price of a small car. I am a computer
engineer by training and high end audio allows me to meld my interest
in technology with my love of music. This is the first time I have
purchased an item in this price range for my audio system more as a
lark than the expectation of better sound. I plan to do blind AB
testing with this new DAC against my Sonic Frontiers. Sonos, Bryston
DAC, and Esoteric CD player. Should there be no discernable
difference between this $100 DAC and the others I will need to rethink
my entire approach to high end audio. If I prefer the sound of this
DAC over the others I again will need to rethink my approach to high
end audio. I still cling to the belief the market eliminates bad
products and we ultimately get what we pay for. Perhaps I will prove
myself wrong.

On another note, I just heard an Esoteric setup with Transport, Clock,
Mono DACs, etc... selling for more than $100,000....the sound was
different.


I agree. I have just finished comparing the TC-7510 (the one you recently
ordered) with several other DACs, including my own Assemblage (Sonic
Frontiers) DAC2.6 and a new Benchmark DAC1-pre (more than $1500). While I
can't say that the DAC1 was 10X better than the $100 TC-7510, it is
different. One can easily hear differences between the two via headphones and
most of those differences correlate to speakers as well. The DAC1 is quieter
through the headphone amp, images slightly better through speakers, and gives
a darker presentation than the TC-7510. The DAC1 also is much more extended
sounding on top and on less than excellent CDs or master recordings (where
the extension of the top adds "air" and feeling of palpability and excitement
to the performance), actually can sound somewhat harsh. The TC-7510, OTOH,
with its slightly attenuated top is much kinder to older, ear-bleedingly
strident CDs and overall would be easier, IMHO, to live with as a general
purpose DAC.

I might have mentioned this already, but I am awaiting delivery of some new
National Semiconductor LME-49710 DIP op-amps to replace the 10-year old
Burr-Brown op amps in my DAC 2.6. I expect the sound to change, but I don't
know by how much.

[Rob Tweed]

As is often the case, here in the UK this device costs a lot more -
104 UK pounds which, at current exchance rates, is approx 145 USD.
See http://www.beresford.me/UK/Digital_Audio_1.html

Also there's no impression given in any of the forums where this
device has been discussed that it is, in fact, a Tiawanese product -
eg see http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/1/290370.html where the
device is described as having been designed by Stanley Beresford - I
guess perhaps Tiawan is where it's assembled?

Also there's a USB version coming out very soon:

http://www.beresford.me/products/TC-7520.html

On 1 Mar 2009 16:28:16 GMT, Sonnova
wrote:

I just bought From Specialty Audio/Video Inc. in FL, via E-Bay (Thanks Arny)
a new TET TC-7510 MKIII (also sold as a Berseford TC-7510 MKIII DAC). This
unpretentious little box sports a Burr-Brown PCM-1716 DAC chip and a Crystal
CS8414 Digital Audio Receiver and dual 5534 op-amps for output. It only cost
me $100 (+$13 shipping) and I got it in three days via USPS priority mail. It
sports 4 inputs, two TOSLINK and two RCA AES/EBU inputs. Sorry, but no
FireWire or USB at this price. It also has a more than decent headphone
output which drives both my Koss Pro-4As and my AKG 340 hybrid electrostatics
very well.

This is easily one of the best sounding DACs I've ever heard, easily besting
the Benchmark DAC1 that I borrowed from a friend (boy was he embarrassed -
especially after spending a grand for the thing! ). I bought it because I was
under the impression that my Assemblage DAC 2.6, which, while beautifully
made, was only 20-bit. After taking it out of my system to install the
TC-7510, I opened the Assemblage up only to find that It too used exactly the
same chip set as the TC-7510, except for the analog section which is better
than the Tiawanese analog section (the DAC 2.6 uses Burr-Brown OPA134s
instead of 5534s. While the 5534s have better noise figures (4nV/root Hz vs 8
nV/root Hx for the OPA134s), the latter have 20V/ns slew vs 13V/ns and much
better power supplies (one for each channel). I kept the matching
Assemblage D2D-1 sample rate converter in the system and fed its output into
both the DAC1 and the TC-7510. This up-converts any sample-rate to 48, 88, or
96KHz. I have it set to 96 KHz.

Compared to the DAC1, the TC-7510 has a cleaner top end, and images better
(at least on my symphony master tapes) and has slightly better bass than does
the DAC1. Some discussion groups on the internet have said that the TC-7510
has to "burn-in" (for about 10 hours To say that I'm impressed (especially
for the price) would be an understatement. Sure, it doesn't have the DAC-1s
build quality or its looks, but when it comes to performance, this cheap li'l
bugger rocks.

I haven't A/B it with the DAC 2.6 yet, But when I do, I'll make my decision
as to which to keep. Finding that my Assemblage was true 24-bit, and used the
exact same DAR and DAC chip as the TC-7510 was a real revelation to me, and
while I have always thought that it sounded great, I was concerned because I
was under the impression that it was only a 16-bit unit.

Irrespective of whether I keep the TC-7510 or not, this is still the value
of the year. Don't pass it up. Go on E-Bay and look for DACs. This one is
sold by Specialty Audio Video Inc. and they list it at $119 and invite the
buyer to make an offer. I offered them $99 for it and they accepted. Do not
hesitate. Go directly to E-Bay and buy yourself one of these. You won't
regret it!

---

Rob Tweed
Company: M/Gateway Developments Ltd
Registered in England: No 3220901
Registered Office: 58 Francis Road,Ashford, Kent TN23 7UR

Web-site: http://www.mgateway.com

[Sonnova]

On Wed, 11 Mar 2009 07:32:29 -0700, Rob Tweed wrote
(in article ):

As is often the case, here in the UK this device costs a lot more -
104 UK pounds which, at current exchance rates, is approx 145 USD.
See http://www.beresford.me/UK/Digital_Audio_1.html

Also there's no impression given in any of the forums where this
device has been discussed that it is, in fact, a Tiawanese product -
eg see http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/1/290370.html where the
device is described as having been designed by Stanley Beresford - I
guess perhaps Tiawan is where it's assembled?

The box for the TET version (which is EXACTLY like the Beresford in every way
(even the model number is the same) - except for the name on the front panel)
says "made in Taiwan".