Thoughts on Beresford Bushmaster Dac

[slice]

I've had this a few months now, and thought maybe some forum users might be interested in my views.

I had been gradually replacing an old stereo system. Changes of amplifier (Marantz pm6002) and speakers (Wharfedale diamond 9.1) clearly improved the sound, but a subsequent purchase of the Marantz cd 5003 and new audio leads did not. I decided to try and improve the sound from the cd player by buying a dac but wasn't interested in taking music from a computer so usb connections weren't important (the beresford has 2xoptical, 2xcoaxial but no usb).

Once you order everything is done very quickly, cost was £192 inc postage. Subsequently I've had a problem with the source selection system, which would have been solved by Stanley Beresford sending me a new chip to install through the post, however Stan gave me the option to return the dac so he could put in the chip himself and replace a component he said he had improved on since the early versions. It only took a few days.

I have no means of comparison with other dacs, but I am very pleased with my purchase. I'm not used to describing audio but the big impovement I notice is in the bass(eg in orchestral pieces), which with my cd player was a bit mushy and uninspired, and is now more focussed/taut. Another unexpected improvement was the built in headphone amplifier, which I think sounds better than the one in the amp and automatically cuts out the speakers when in use.

Hope this is of use to any potential purchasers.

 

[Xanderzdad]

Hi Slice

Thanks for the review. I've heard good things about this DAC but I'm waiting to see a comparison against other DAC's such as the DacMagic, rDAC and MDAC before considering getting one.

 

[slice]

If you google beresford bushmaster review then you will find a forum that has masses of review comments on it, many of the comments are from long term beresford followers. I haven't seen any side by side reviews against the main competition though.

 

[Marie Antoinette]

I too have had my Bushmaster a few months now, and can also say how it compares to at least one other dac that I owned, that dac being the not too cheap Theta Pro ProGeny A, along with its TLC ( anti jitter device) and Goliath PSU, totalling around £1700, or 8 plus times the cost of the Bushmaster.

ill keep it simple, the BM betters the Theta in every way! Nuff said!

 

[SteveR750]

I too have had my Bushmaster a few months now, and can also say how it compares to at least one other dac that I owned, that dac being the not too cheap Theta Pro ProGeny A, along with its TLC ( anti jitter device) and Goliath PSU, totalling around £1700, or 8 plus times the cost of the Bushmaster.

ill keep it simple, the BM betters the Theta in every way! Nuff said!

Are you an employee or distributor for Beresford?

 

[pauln]

Link for above quote:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/383-musical-fidelity-m1dac-m1hpa-and-v-link-async-usb-converter-review/comments2.html

 

[lesmallett]

I'll help this thread out a little bit then as I am certainly not Stanley Beresford.

I bought the Bushmaster to go with my Squeezebox and it made a huge difference. I just started enjoying my music again. A lot of people seem to want to wait and see how it compares to other DAC's but from my point of view it is far cheaper than most mentioned.

From what I know I believe you can try it and return it if you don't like it. I doubt most people would dislike it, especially if you have a Touch like me.

To give Mr Beresford his credit he offers very good customer service so I wouldn't worry too much if his PR is a little off on forums, he is after all mostly just defending a product that he has worked on and represents his livelihood.

 

[pauln]

I was looking at these DACS a while ago and did a bit of research, this post from Computer Audiophile and others like it put me off:

"Dear Sensei - You joined Computer Audiophile a few minutes ago and left a single comment that follows an identical pattern of people with an agenda.

Upon further review it appears I am correct.

1. Your email address is http://whois.domaintools.com/beresford.me

http://whois.domaintools.com/homehifi.co.uk

Now that we've established your real identity as Stanley Beresford, the manufacturer who has been banned from nearly all Internet audio sites not owned by Stanley Beresford, your account has now been banned by Computer Audiophile. Please don't come back.
http://whois.domaintools.com/giftsandbits.com
Perhaps "slice" is yet another pseudonym?

It's a shame really because this DAC may well be a giant-killer but these marketing tactics are just wrong in so many ways.

(Edited to reinstate part of the quote that got "lost" somehow")

 

[slice]

I think it's a shame that after posting a genuine comment about a product I have bought, I have my comment questioned by pauln in this way. I presume the forum partly exists so people can hear about products from other forum members. Pauln, I have no idea about the validity of your main claim, but it's a shame I can't post a review without being jumped all over. Maybe this is an unusual case, but I'll have to think about whether to post any other reviews.

 

[Anonymous]

Beresford Caiman owner here, like to pitch in with a few comments.
At a get together at my house recently a few hifi mates brought over their Dacs to compare.

They were:

Beresford Bushmaster

My own Fully modded Caiman (upgraded Gator board, improved caps, regulators and linear PSU)

Custom build Valve analogue output stage front end Dac

Rega Dac out on loan

This was in the context of an all Rega system, Brio-R amp and RS3 speakers.
The order we all agreed the dacs came in at:

1. Valve Dac

2. Rega Dac (not far behind)

3. Modded Caiman

4. Bushmaster

We were very surprised at the result, the Bushmaster wasn't as good as my Caiman at the low and high ends and the mid was a bit shrill in comparison?
Loads of guys love their Bushmasters and Stan Beresford is a great guy to deal with.
It could have been down to the system it was used in and one of the guys wonderewd if the dac was fully burned in?

Over on ArtofSound forum (Where the review was posted) a couple of guys had reported their Bushmaster ounded great from early on, so that eliminated burn in for me.

The Bushmaster is a very good dac, it was only when compared directly with (admittedly) more expensive dacs that we got a feel for its sound.
My Caiman is now doing great service in the bedroom system, have a Rega Dac now.

Yuu wont get a better dac for the money, though if your of the DIY bent its worth taking a look on Ebay for chinese dac boards.
The valve front end dac was based on a board that cost less than £30!!

 

[pauln]

I think it's a shame that after posting a genuine comment about a product I have bought, I have my comment questioned by pauln in this way. I presume the forum partly exists so people can hear about products from other forum members. Pauln, I have no idea about the validity of your main claim, but it's a shame I can't post a review without being jumped all over. Maybe this is an unusual case, but I'll have to think about whether to post any other reviews.

If your review is genuine then I apologise.

It seemed strange to me that someone would join a forum and that their first post would be one like yours; given the number of similar first posts on other forums that have been shown to have been posted by Mr Beresford.

I have seen many excellent reviews of this DAC on other forums and websites that I have no doubt are genuine, including What HiFi and I don't doubt that the DAC is very good value for money and an excellent product. That's why I said that I thought it a shame that Mr Beresford finds it neccessary to resort to such marketing tactics when really, he has no need to.

Honesty and integrity matter IMHO.

 

[slice]

Pauln, thank you for your latest post. I hadn't seen a review of the bushmaster on this forum, so it didn't seem strange to me to post a review, as I just thought people thinking of buying a dac would be interested. Anyway, others are giving their own opinion on the thread now, so people reading the thread can make their own mind up about the bushmaster. It would be interesting for what hifi and/or other mainstream hifi magazines to review it, there don't seem to be any such reviews around at the moment.

 

[pauln]

My error - it is the Beresford Caiman and Beresford TC-7510 DACs that have been reviewed on What HiFi

 

[fr0g]

Just to add... No idea about the Bushmaster, but I have a 7510 and a 7520(gator). Both superb VFM and both in daily use. The headphone amp on the 7520 is excellent.

It's possible SB tries to self-promote in a slightly uderhand way, but then he isn't a large company with oodles of cash for advertising...I would do the same thing.

In the end his products (the ones I have at least) are at least as good as anything in the same price range, and the customer service is excellent.

And quite obviously, I am not Stanley Beresford.

 

[chebby]

Had a couple of year's of good service from a 7520 (with op-amps upgrade). Cost £180. Sold it a month ago to a friend for £80. He is enjoying it too.

The DAC in my Marantz sounds better in the applications I use (ALAC or 320K AAC VBR iTunes, or BBC internet radio/iPlayer up to 320K AAC, or up to 320K stations from TuneIn Radio Pro via AirPlay). That was evident from the day I retired the old system. It also sounds better from TV/BD/DVD/PVR (connected with optical).

However, I am sure the 'Bushmaster' is a big progression from my old 7520. Give it a go.

My (brief and few) dealings with Stanley on the phone at the time were very amicable and he is a nice chap to deal with.

His product is reliable and well made and it is back in daily use again with no complaint from my friend.

 

[DavieCee]

I am not Spartacus, and I am not Stanley either.

Just another satisfied Caiman 7520 user here who wanted to add to the point that all the positives do not come from Stanley direct. I am mostly surprised that there doesn't appear to be a current USB version.

Other DACs are available.

 

[daveg56]

After reading the positive reviews around the place I ordered last week and took delivery of a Bushmaster yesterday. I must admit though that I started to get cold feet while reading some of the less positive reviews I discovered over the weekend which got quite personal towards SB.

I needed to make up my own mind so I continued and am now running it in. Using a SBT as source, first impressions out of the box is that it's very, very good, it has a little more detail and space, and more extended bass than either the SBT analog out or my Resolution CDP DAC. At this stage there is not a huge amount in it.

Going to live with it now for a couple more weeks and see if/how it changes. Without a doubt though it's very good value for money.

Will provide an update.

 

[Anonymous]

I've had my Bushmaster DAC 5 weeks.

I'm impressed with it and I think it represents good value for money.

Excellent stereo focus, fine detail, instrumental isolation/ separation.

large and firm bass. well articulated and non grainy treble. good vocal deliery.

Not harsh. Neutral sound.

PLaying cd quality files I Find myself hearing backing instruments and backing vocals etc

I've not heard before,i.e. Hearing things I've never noticed on my 2007 Marantz Cd 6002 CD player.

To my ears, its a device that's designed to give you whats on the disk,

rather than deliver a "sound" of its own.

 

[Anonymous]

hi dave, just noticed you also have a Synology nas drive i too am considering a beresford bushmaster or the older usb caimen, i would be plugging the dac straight into the synology via the rear usb my question is ( that no one else can seem to clarify) does the synology recognise the Beresford as an output option? i would be using the synology DS Audio app via a tablet to control the content.

hope you dont mind me asking

regards Oozle

 

[Anonymous]

I am not Spartacus, but I am StanleyB .

To correct some statements written by at least one perosn: NO, I have not been banned by numerous sites for alleged product placement etc. If you have any evidence to the contary then produce it. . I have only been banned by one site for refusing to pay the extortionate advertising fees. A number of other people were swept up in the ban because they were also on Virgin broadband like me. As it is a Candian site that executed the ban they are obviously unaware that the UK broadband service is mainly in the hand of about five big players.

As for the ban on Audiophile: let's face it, to accuse a poster of having an agenda because they comment on a subject like async USB is not short of a closed shop mentality. I don't even sell a USB DAC these days so for the webmaster to ban me for writing about it is a sign that he had an agenda. Maybe his sponsors are async USB DAC retailers who are afraid that my comments would carry a lot of weight.

 

[Anonymous]

Speaking as someone else who is not Stan Beresford, I can vouch for this nice little Bushmaster DAC.

Now let me see: I've tried the latest DacMagic, Matrix Mini; in the old days I used a Micromega MicroDAC, Audio Alchemy DDE v1.1 (still have them); built TDA1545 DACs from kits; I even had a couple of Flying Calfs (Calves?). As you can tell I've always been looking for a cheap miracle. All that's happened is I've got older, disatisfied with digital coldness and massed strings that sound like nails scraped down blackboards...

Well, now at last something has come along in my budget bracket that has genuinely sweet treble and good articulate bass to boot.

Cautionary warning though (since I thought I saw a reference to a digital interface processor above): I have been using a Monarchy DIP for years. No DAC I ever used appeared to complain - until the Bushmaster: it intermittanly and momentarily dropped the signal. Eventually, by process of elimination, I found the fault lay in the DIP. I'm certainly never using that again.

The Bushmaster does something slightly different. This is what Stan said:

"the Bushmaster is a direct conversion DAC. There is no memory buffer or error correction. There isn't even an analogue output circuit that would smooth over any minor drop outs in the signal. What you get is just the raw digital to analogue data.
This differs from many other DACs. So if there are minor blips in the conversion process the Bishmaster is likely to decode it as an empty signal instead of filling it in with an alternative string of data.
So if you can hear any drop outs there isn't anything that I cna think of to solve that problem. Digital music is full of drip outs which is why they use the Reed/Solomon error correction to fill in the errors. But I don't use anything like that."

Now there's a warning for us all. The DIP is presumably been giving all my DACs a hard time, distracting them from the actual job of getting the decoding correct. Oh well, you live and eventually learn.

Not only has Stan provided a much more listenable sound, but clarified a problem I've probably been living with (musically speaking) for a decade!

By the way my musical taste is big overblown symphonic music (think Mahler's 8th). This little DAC has put some emotion back into the music. I was beginning to despair of that. Thanks Stan.

 

[Anonymous]

Unfortunate duplicate entry. Sorry guys!:read:

 

[slice]

Your comment about putting emotion back into symphonic music is one I agree with, my dissatisfaction with the "flatness" (sorry, not very musical term) when playing this type of music from my previous cd player was the main reason for me buying thedac.

 

[Anonymous]

A nice new DAC, but now I'm again concerned about the SPDIF controversy.

I confess that, along with my restless experimentation with DAC after DAC, I've also worried about the connection to the transport. Hence that Monarchy Digital Interface Processor that I've now abandoned.

Yes, as an objective fact, the Bushmaster is sweeter and tighter than all my other DACs. But now that I've found out that the Monarchy DIP wasn't the last word on the SPDIF issue, my thoughts are back to the nature of the connecting digital lead. Particularly as Stan Beresford talks about the Bushmaster streaming in the digital data without massaging it in any way (Reed/Solomon interpolation).

The best thing I've achieved on my slender budget was by Thorsten Loesch: http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/diyce.html.

His so called X-1.5 cable to my ears is the least 'obstructive' to the SPDIF signal of any cable that I can afford: http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/diyce2.html.

Mind you, there does appear to be a cheap, very well regarded commercial cable which may be a winner: http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/shopbycable/LV77S.htm.

I shall make another version of Thorsten's X-1.5 (I gave the other I'd built to my friend because he was so delighted about the difference it made in his system, ahhh...); order the above Canare cable, and do tons of pathetic A/B testing (again?!?... )

 

[Marie Antoinette]

Update : the Beresford Bushmaster mk2 is now out, and actually sold out until later in the month, and before anyone asks, no, I'm not Stan Beresford , but this new version is an amazing device, a good deal superior to the mk1 !

My battery is running out, so all I will say is try one if you are in the market for an upgrade to your system!