Bryston Announces BDA-3 DAC with DSD 256

[bmoura]

Bryston has announced the new BDA-3 DAC. Features include Stereo DSD 256 and 32 bit PCM playback.

The new DAC uses two of the new AKM DAC Chips. Production of the DAC starts in January.

Price will be $3,195 (U.S. and Canada)

 

 

Mono and Stereo High-End Audio Magazine: Bryston BDA-3 DAC NEW

[Olias of Sunhillow]

That's a lot of scratch... but the HDMI connectivity and SACD decoding have me interested. Current BDA-2 owner.

[lmf22]

I hope that by adding DSD capabilities they're not sacrificing the great PCM performance they have now (I'm using their BDA-2 and love it). I have no need for DSD, HDMI inputs, or SACD decoding, but if there is a significant increase in PCM performance, I will consider upgrading.

[sdolezalek]

As much as I love the Bryston product line, I wish this had gone one step further to enable 5.1 from the HDMI input. Either that or add this DSD 256 and 32 bit PCM capability to the SP-3 as well. For us surround lovers they have an SP-3 that is close (but no DSD) and a great new BDA-3 that does DSD but not surround. And then there's the exeasound e-28 which does DSD surround but no HDMI input.

 

Yes, I know that because of HDMI licensing fees/royalties my wish may simply price that product out of an available market (but that is really HDMI's loss as well). :-((

[Allan F]

Bryston has announced the new BDA-3 DAC. Features include Stereo DSD 256 and 32 bit PCM playback.

The new DAC uses two of the new AKM DAC Chips. Production of the DAC starts in January.

Price will be $3,195 (U.S. and Canada)

 

I wonder if James Tanner of Bryston has changed his tune about DSD, or if this is purely driven by marketing. He has hardly been a booster: DSD - (Don't Stream Digital) - AudioAficionado.org

[One and a half]

I wonder if James Tanner of Bryston has changed his tune about DSD, or if this is purely driven by marketing. He has hardly been a booster: DSD - (Don't Stream Digital) - AudioAficionado.org

 

Indeed. The DSD effort from Bryston is similar to the Joh Siau effort, that is not the full ass. I don't see an FPGA among the chipsets mentioned in the mono stereo article. Either you include one in the front end or just let the chips work it out amongst themselves, which is not the greatest.

 

I would be impressed if the HDMI inputs would reclock the data in some impressive way, other than to match the same protocol somehow from the source from different manufacturers which is kind of difficult.

[CatManDo]

More technical info on this leaflet:

 

 

[Hiro]

Indeed. The DSD effort from Bryston is similar to the Joh Siau effort, that is not the full ass.

 

I disagree. Bryston's D/A converter supports DSD up to 4X (11.2MHz), employs premium 256fs AKM dacs, and even offers DSD over HDMI input for universal players.

 

John Siau's DSD effort with DAC2 was half-assed, to say the least. That I can I agree with.

[trappy]

It may well have been demi-posteriored but it sounded very good, especially considering his distaste for the format.

[Hiro]

More technical info on this leaflet:

 

 

 

 

I believe there's a typo in the marketing material because it mentions DSD-512 support. AFAIK, the new AKM DAC chips support native DSD up to DSD-256/DSD-4x, but (1) quad DSD is already more than 100X faster than 24/96, and (2) it also happens to be the highest sampling rate available on the recording side, so the lack of DSD-512 capability is hardly a downside.

[mav52]

I believe there's a typo in the marketing material because it mentions DSD-512 support. AFAIK, the new AKM DAC chips support native DSD up to DSD-256/DSD-4x, but (1) quad DSD is already more than 100X faster than 24/96, and (2) it also happens to be the highest sampling rate available on the recording side, so the lack of DSD-512 capability is hardly a downside.

 

No typo the NEW AKM chip being used per James Tanner Bryston is the new 4490 AK4490EQ | Product | AKM - Asahi Kasei Microdevices

[Hiro]

No typo the NEW AKM chip being used per James Tanner Bryston is the new 4490 AK4490EQ | Product | AKM - Asahi Kasei Microdevices

 

The data sheet confirms that the AKM DAC doesn't support DSD-512, so it's pretty obvious that the information about DSD-512 in Bryston's marketing material is indeed a typo.

[Bob Stern]

No typo the NEW AKM chip being used per James Tanner Bryston is the new 4490 AK4490EQ | Product | AKM - Asahi Kasei Microdevices

Did he say that with certainty? Just one hour ago, James said he'd have to check with the engineering dept to confirm that.

Re: BDA-2 DAC and BDA-3 DAC

[Bob Stern]

James Tanner, the Bryston marketing VP, moderates his own discussion forum:

BDA-2 DAC and BDA-3 DAC

 

On Oct 28 he posted that the engineering is not completely finished, so they have a price but not a release date.

 

He also posted that DSD over USB will have lower jitter than HDMI because of HDMI's well known jitter problems.

[Hiro]

He also posted that DSD over USB will have lower jitter than HDMI because of HDMI's well known jitter problems.

 

It seems that the Bryston DAC doesn't support HATS.

[Mir]

Does AKM 4490 chip internally converts DSD-to-PCM like Sabre 9018?

[Hiro]

Does AKM 4490 chip internally converts DSD-to-PCM like Sabre 9018?

 

As can be seen in its data sheet, the AKM chip has native DSD mode that bypasses PCM decimation.

 

From what has been revealed about the Sabre chip, it doesn't subject DSD signal to PCM decimation either.

[EuroDriver]

I hope that by adding DSD capabilities they're not sacrificing the great PCM performance they have now (I'm using their BDA-2 and love it). I have no need for DSD, HDMI inputs, or SACD decoding, but if there is a significant increase in PCM performance, I will consider upgrading.

 

The learning curve with HQ Player converting all PCM sources to DSD256 is not so steep, whilst the sonic results are in my book breathtaking / stunning. You will need a fairly powerful and electrically quiet PC or MAC for best results.

 

if your music is classical, jazz, acoustic, vocals, conversion to DSD 256 is very worthwhile

[mav52]

Did he say that with certainty? Just one hour ago, James said he'd have to check with the engineering dept to confirm that.

Re: BDA-2 DAC and BDA-3 DAC

 

Hi Bob, I asked the question on AC, and James came back with the chipset, but later on AC after I posted that chip here, a friend on AC was looking for the spec, and then James noted he was going back to engineering, So who knows at this point, I'll just wait for his "Final Answer" .

[audio.bill]

The BDA-3 webpage is now on the Bryston site, along with a new product brochure.

[breadvan]

The BDA-3 webpage is now on the Bryston site, along with a new product brochure.

 

Looking forward to read more about its HDMI implementation, eg, connecting to HDMI players that output DSD.

[kp55]

No typo the NEW AKM chip being used per James Tanner Bryston is the new 4490 AK4490EQ | Product | AKM - Asahi Kasei Microdevices

 

The new AK4490EQ does support DSD-512. This is an extract from the data sheet:

 2.8MHz, 5.6MHz and 11.2MHz DSD Input Support

 

Also to clarify, AK4490EQ does not convert DSD into PCM.

 

http://www.akm.com/akm/en/file/datasheet/AK4490EQ.pdf

[matthias]

The new AK4490EQ does support DSD-512. This is an extract from the data sheet:

 2.8MHz, 5.6MHz and 11.2MHz DSD Input Support

Also to clarify, AK4490EQ does not convert DSD into PCM.

http://www.akm.com/akm/en/file/datasheet/AK4490EQ.pdf

 

AFAIK, the AK4490 does DSD256 but not DSD512.

 

Matt

[kp55]

AFAIK, the AK4490 does DSD256 but not DSD512.

 

Matt

 

My mistake. Matt you are correct, AK4490 does not support DSD512 which is a sample rate of 22.5792 MHz (512 times that of CD).

It only supports DSD up to DSD256 (quad rate DSD) up to 11.2MHz.

My apologies.

 

Kris

[Bones13]

Has anyone seen a review of how this unit sounds? All the talk is about connectivity (a positive for me actually). Or do the sonic descriptions of the BDA-2 apply for this unit too?