Beresford DAC

[admin_exported]

Hello,

l have seen many threads that are very complimentory about the Beresford DAC.

A couple of questions:-

1. Generally, what are peoples opinion?

2. l use a heavily modified Arcam Alpha 5 CD, set up as non oversampling, has output transistors removed, fitted wima bypass caps, blackgate electrolytic caps on the audio board & copper shielding (earthed to ground) for the DAC & filter chips.

There is also a Thrichord clock fitted.

Are there any considerations with using the Berersford DAC with this?

 

[Thaiman]

Is your Arcam still fitted with the TDA1541 DAC? If so then, personally, I stick with it.

The Beresford wouldn't be as warm nor will have better bass but will have better details and wider soundstage....try it ! I am sure Stanley will give you a refund if you decide that you don't like Beresford.

 

[Blainetoner]

A general question about the Beresford. They seem very popular on here when used between a pc and amp.I was wondering, I have a good quality soujndcard in my pc, I use the M-audio Audiophile 24/96, which has rca in and out, so I have it on the tape loop of my amp. It also has coaxial digital in and out, would I gain an improvement using the beresford between the soundcard and the amp??

 

[kingnothing83]

I bought a beresford a week ago and cant help with the arcam cd question as i have no experience of it but your m-audio audiophile will be a great match for the beresford dac. If you buy a beresford you will hear a quite dramatic increase in the detail and soundstage as was suggested above, i also find the bass tighter and the whole experience more refined.

So adding a beresford to your m-audio card will give you a dramatic improvement in my opinion. send the optical out from your soundcard to your beresford and see if you agree. I think you might be surprised

 

[Alec]

kingnothing83 - interesting. i asked fr0g the same thing the other day but he wasn sure either way. have you actually tried this, by any chance...?

 

[kingnothing83]

Well frog certainly seems to know his stuff, so i would probably follow his judgment if it was opposite to mine, but as everyone says audio is a personal thing.

If the m-audio is hooked up to an amp by its analogue out then it is doing the processing and even tho it is capable at doing so i would think that the beresford would do a much better job. So i think hooking up the digital out from the m-audio to the beresford would be certainly worth a listen - but never having listened to the m-audio i couldnt say for sure.

Hope this is some help - as a side note, i now struggle to enjoy listening to mp3's below 256k because compared to high quality mp3's and especially flac's they sound quite dull!

 

[Blainetoner]

cheers Kingnothing83. I will look into getting one of these then. £100 doesnt sound too expensive a punt. I have been quite pleased with the M-audio card over the N-vidia that came with the shuttle......and combined ith Apple lossles files, i too cannot go near mp3 that are of a low bit rate.

 

[Alec]

Cheers guys. im working on a new setup and will suck it and see sometime. i didnt mean to imply fr0g disagreed, just that he didnt seem sure. fr0g - apologies for refering to you as if you're not here, and also if ive miss-represented your views at all.

 

[kingnothing83]

Yeah i'd definitely recommend giving it ago, be interesting to hear what you think.

And frog i'll give that a go, i use winamp as my main player (with kernel streaming these days) but use foobar ocasionally

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, it does have the 1541 DAC. l think, as you say Thaiman, l'll stick with it. Thanks.