Beresford TC-7510 DAC

[Dorking Bob]

Has anyone purchased this amazing piece of kit? I did about a month ago on the advice of a friend and was amazed at the improvement in sound from my hifi system. More detail and a bettter soundstage.

My system has at its heart an AVI Laboritory Series amp. My music is stored on PC in wav. format. Changing from a well known make of soundcard to this is the best thing I have done to my system since buying the AVI amp. I would recommend this to anyone with a decent set up - you will be amazed.

Would love to hear from anyone else who has tried this.

Bob

 

[Anonymous]

My query would be at what level of CDP DAC does this compare? Somebody has claimed that it improved their Kandy III, although I think that was more about taste. Another has claimed they couldn't hear the difference over their cheaper CDP. Not sure what to make of it. For the 100 notes it costs I'll probably get one for the TV anyway, but I don't know quite where to place this bit of kit.

 

[Dorking Bob]

Thanks for your reply - my first response as I only joined the forum a few hours ago!

Its a a fair question and one I am not in a position to answer. Perhaps our friends at the magazine could put it through its paces one day.

The sound quality from the wav. files on my PC is marginally better than the sound from my AVI cd player which is pretty good anyway. I really am surprised and delighted at the difference for such a small price. Let me know what you think if you buy one.

Bob

 

[John Duncan]

[quote user="Dorking Bob"]The sound quality from the wav files on my PC is marginally better than the sound from my AVI cd player[/quote]

Whoa. Really?

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="JohnDuncan"][quote user="Dorking Bob"]The sound quality from the wav files on my PC is marginally better than the sound from my AVI cd player[/quote]

Whoa. Really?[/quote]
That was generally my response too...

 

[John Duncan]

[quote user="igglebert"][quote user="JohnDuncan"][quote user="Dorking Bob"]The sound quality from the wav files on my PC is marginally better than the sound from my AVI cd player[/quote]

Whoa. Really?[/quote]
That was generally my response too...[/quote]

(Checks eBay.......)

 

[John Duncan]

[quote user="JohnDuncan"]

(Checks eBay.......)[/quote]

(Finds lots of Wombles memorabilia.........)

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="JohnDuncan"][quote user="JohnDuncan"]

(Checks eBay.......)[/quote]

(Finds lots of Wombles memorabilia.........)[/quote]
I'll give you a better price off eBay...

 

[John Duncan]

[quote user="igglebert"][quote user="JohnDuncan"][quote user="JohnDuncan"]

(Checks eBay.......)[/quote]

(Finds lots of Wombles memorabilia.........)[/quote]
I'll give you a better price off eBay...[/quote]

Give you ten quid for an Uncle Bulgaria (as they say down my way)

 

[John Duncan]

Anyway, back on thread. I can see how a standalone DAC would work wonders on an average CD player, and I'm a firm believer in hard-drive based audio, because I think it has inherent advantages over other media, but I'm surprised your results are *this* good. What precisely is your setup again? I mean from PC downstream.

 

[Anonymous]

Nobody's seen him recently. Last I heard he went on holiday to Amsterdam...

 

[John Duncan]

[quote user="igglebert"]Nobody's seen him recently. Last I heard he went on holiday to Amsterdam...[/quote]

By canoe.........

 

[Anonymous]

Apparently he tried a CD but found it sank very quickly. He's on a 12" instead...I hear he's paddling with a Tarantula mains lead bound to an Isotek Neoway but it doesn't seem to make any difference...perhaps he needs granite platters on the ends...

 

[Anonymous]

bought the DAC bout two weeks ago and if a product could get 7 stars this should...the results weren't mindblowing its only a DAC....but better seperation and the sound has moved slightly further to that nice "warm analogue" sound of vinyl. Trouble is I have a £600 amp and cdp but £200 speakers...so whether when i upgrade the speakers to better more transparent ones I will hear an even greater improvement because of the DAC we will have to wait and see. But I am very happy with it, the price is just rediculous. Also bear in mind the DAC in my cdp is meant to be awful so whether improvements would be lesser with a cdp with a better DAC...

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="joeparnell"]
bought the DAC bout two weeks ago and if a product could get 7 stars this should...the results weren't mindblowing its only a DAC....but better seperation and the sound has moved slightly further to that nice "warm analogue" sound of vinyl. Trouble is I have a £600 amp and cdp but £200 speakers...so whether when i upgrade the speakers to better more transparent ones I will hear an even greater improvement because of the DAC we will have to wait and see. But I am very happy with it, the price is just rediculous. Also bear in mind the DAC in my cdp is meant to be awful so whether improvements would be lesser with a cdp with a better DAC...
[/quote]

I'm with you there all the way, and I also have a pair of £200 speakers which I will of course upgrade in due course due to my upgradeitis. Sound really is a personal choice but for 100 quid you can't go wrong and he offers a no questions asked return and refund policy...I was just narked at the time after spending £550 on the CDP that I had to buy something to improve it...

 

[Anonymous]

Yes I can see why you're a bit annoyed! Mine wasn't so bad as I got the cdp second hand for £300... To be honest though I'm not surprised it has improved your system I've read some guy saying it outperformed his Cyrus X-Dac (is it X DAC?? I can't remember!) (the £600 one!), and not by a little bit...

Hoping to upgrade to B&W 685 (until something else takes my fancy I'm sure!) and as I said it will be interesting to see then how much difference the DAC makes.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Joe, I tried those B&Ws too and I really liked them with the Kandy but then I heard the Pro Acs Studio 100s and thought these were well worth the extra 250 quid - not that I bought them, but I dream...

 

[Anonymous]

I've got one on order.
To my ears my system can sound a little forward in the mid-range and a little harsh at times, I emailed Stanley at Beresford and told him this and he's going to mod my unit a little to push the mid-range back slightly. The mods (2 resistors) can easily be taken off if it pushes it back too far.
He really is a great bloke and very helpful, I'm looking forward to getting the unit later this week when the mods are done and tested.

 

[Dorking Bob]

John

I have an M-Audoi Delta APS/PDIF souncard in the PC and am using the 'digital coaxial out' to feed the Beresford DAC some 10metres away (digital coaxial cable only cost around £50). From the DAC it goes via Profigold phono leads (about .75metre long) into my AVI Laboritory Series Integrated amp. The amp feeds two rather old B&W 600 Series i floorstanders. These speakers still perform well and I reckon still stand up well against some of £1500 -£2000 makes I recently auditioned!

I was very apprehensive when I moved the PC out of the living room about the effect of long interconnects on the sound. I was advised by a well known company to use long phono leads - a very expensive mistake. However the long digital coaxial and short reasonable quality phonos works extremely well.

That is my basic set up.

Good to hear from you.

Bob

 

[Anonymous]

im thinking of buying one of these beasts as well!

source is a PC/creative x-fi card, and the DAC would be feeding £200 active monitors (Audioengine A5)

with my low-end kit in mind (i hate saying that!), would this still be a shrewd purchase? im under the impression that (after looking at other posts) the source doesn't effect the overall sound as much as, say, the amp/speakers?