5 WHF stars for the Beresford Caiman DAC in awards issue.

[chebby]

Page 16 of the latest issue finds a nice little 5 star first test of the Beresford Caiman (TC-7520SE).

Good news for them. Second product to get 5 stars from WHF.

I will not be rushing out to get one because it is too close to my own TC-7520 which already has one of the Caiman mods (op-amps) but good information for anyone shopping around for a £200 - £250 DAC to have another choice verified by the WHF staff as a good'un.

 

[Anonymous]

Good news. Do you think the Caiman would improve the sound of my CA 340C which is new?

 

[chebby]

Inter 84:Good news. Do you think the Caiman would improve the sound of my CA 340C which is new?

Well I would have to stick my neck out a bit on that question but my instinct would say yes.

Although the CA 340C is well reviewed as an excellent machine, it is a £150 budget player, and it is very likely that the Beresford Caiman DAC would improve on the internal DAC significantly.

You would also be left with 3 other inputs (the Caiman has 2 x digital Coax + 1 x USB + 1 x optical) for a laptop, Skybox etc.

It has a very capable headphone amp built in too.

 

[Craig M.]

same as chebby, if i had to guess i would say yes.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Chebby, Will think about the Caiman or MF V DAC which is half the price.

 

[Anonymous]

Okay Craig

 

[Anonymous]

This may come as a surprise to people but I have a CA 340c CDP and in my opinion neither the CA DacMagic or Beresford Caiman (of which I have both) make any discernible difference to the sound quality of the CDP. I was quite surprised by this (as one of the previous posters said this is pretty much the epitomy of a budget CDP) but I have done pretty extensive A/B testing using both Optical and Coax interconnects (using a variety of different cables and amps) and quite honestly struggle to tell the difference between the outputs of these external DACs and the internal DAC of the CA 340c.

Both DACs do however make a big improvement in the sound quality of streamed lossless tracks when used in conjunction with Airport Express/Apple Mac. I would recommend both DACs in this scenario but wouldnt expect a great improvement when used in conjunction with a half decent CD player.

 

[jaxwired]

Although it's not a Beresford DAC, my experience with an external DAC is the opposite. I have the 5 star rated NAD C545 budget CDP and I would concur with the WHF 5 star rating of this CDP. However, once I added the Benchmark DAC1 I noticed an immediate improvement. After living with it now for several weeks, I can say that the difference is substantial. My system now sounds better than I thought possible.

 

[Clare Newsome]

chebby:
Page 16 of the latest issue finds a nice little 5 star first test of the Beresford Caiman (TC-7520SE).

Good news for them. Second product to get 5 stars from WHF.

It's a great DAC

(And please take note all cynics who insist we never give five-star ratings to small companies that sell direct

)