Bryston BCD-1 CD player

[Κώστας Φ.]

Bryston has announced the introduction of an audiophile CD player called the BCD-1 ($2395).

The design emphasis of the BCD-1 has been placed on build quality and sonic performance. The unit uses fully discrete Class-A analog circuitry and a 192kHz/24-bit Crystal DAC and 128 times oversampling. Within the digital domain, bit timing errors (jitter) have been eliminated by perfectly synchronizing the player's master clock and drive. The Crystal CS4398 DAC is an advanced generation chip using a combination of several different conversion methods to optimize the processing. Each premium DAC boasts dedicated power supplies — a separate, closely regulated and filtered digital power supply as well as a heavily regulated and filtered analog power supply with carefully routed electrical grounds. Finally, careful trace routing throughout the complete circuit architecture of the BCD-1 eliminates potential noise via capacitive coupling, which delivers those critical extra dBs of noise and distortion reduction marking only the most outstanding equipment. The Bryston BCD-1 uses discreet operational amplifiers after the DAC instead of the commonly used integrated circuits. The use of discrete devices enables Bryston engineers to exactly match the needs of the DAC and allow for a more robust output than IC-based amplifiers. The use of discrete devices also allows Bryston to select components with carefully matched input and output impedances based on specific in-circuit requirements. The BCD-1, like all Bryston products, is hand assembled and individually tested before leaving the factory. Both RCA and XLR analog outputs are provided as are transformer-coupled SPDIF and AES/EBU digital outputs.

Πηγή: enjoythemusic.com

 

[Κώστας Φ.]

Απάντηση: Bryston BCD-1 CD player

Σελίδα Κατασκευαστή

 

[myrtoula]

θελω να δω αν στα ψηφιακα θα συνεχισει την πολιτικη της 20ετους εγγυησης.Χλωμο μου φαινεται....

 

[Κώστας Φ.]

Απάντηση: Bryston BCD-1 CD player

Απο το επίσημο site:
Warranty - 3 Years Parts & Labor

:happy_6:

 

[myrtoula]

Σιγα μην εδιναν 20 χρονια....

 

[Κώστας Φ.]

Απάντηση: Bryston BCD-1 CD player

Έτοιμο και το review...
Ξεκινάει με κάποια σχόλια για τα SACD/DVD-Audio που δεν τα βάζω εδώ αλλά προφανώς μπορείτε να τα διαβάσετε στο link που δίνω στο τέλος.


"No surprises here. The BCD-1 is classic Bryston. Clean, simple, functional and built to last through several more format wars. On the rear, balanced and unbalanced analog outputs using well spaced, high quality connectors and three digital outs: AES/EBU, Toslink and SPDIF (coax). On the front, a very small but brightly lit display, a row of buttons with all the basic controls, and the (fast moving and quick to respond) disc drawer at middle. The remote, like other Bryston remotes, is a beautifully machined, satisfyingly hefty hunk of aluminum. This one, however, is a full function unit with all the controls you could wish for, which will also control volume and mute functions on other Bryston gear. Those prone to fumbling around in the dark for remotes will be pleased to know it lights up at even the slightest touch.


No revolutions inside either, for the most part. Tried and true digital bits carefully and sensibly implemented. The BCD-1 takes advantage of its single-box design to reduce digital jitter to what the company claims is a “negligible” level, below what they can measure with their test equipment. The trick, they say, is synchronizing the CD drive and master clock. “If the clock signal of the drive is not synchronized with the clock signal from the DAC,” opines Bryston’s product literature, “then jitter develops. In external DACs the digital input must be re-clocked in order to reduce the jitter… With the Bryston CD player the master clock and the drive are synchronized perfectly to eliminate any possibility of jitter affecting the sound quality of the player.”

The DAC in question is the Crystal CS4398, an updated version of the 192 kHz, 24 bit DAC found in the BP-25DA I reviewed two years ago. It’s a “hybrid multi-bit delta-sigma DAC” which “uses a process to over-sample the digital input 128 times. Over-sampling is when the samples are re-read (2x, 4x, 8x, etc.) to create a new sampling frequency. The new samples are then run through an interpolation filter to create a more analog-like waveform.” Since this is a single box player with no digital input, Bryston felt no need for upsampling, which would be helpful for a DAC confronted with a variety of possible input sampling rates. With only 44.1 kHz coming off the CDs in this case, the DAC could be optimized for nothing but a 44.1 kHz source.

It should come as no surprise that, being a bunch of power-amp guys, Bryston has taken great care with the BCD-1’s power supplies. Digital and analog power supplies are completely separate and both are closely regulated and filtered. “Careful trace routing eliminates [noise] problems and provides the extra dB’s of noise and distortion reduction which separates good from outstanding equipment.” While Bryston claims the careful power supply implementation is one of the major factors in its sound, it’s arguable that the BCD-1’s analog output stage is really what sets it apart from so many other CD players. “Once the signal leaves the DAC it is buffered and increased in strength by operational amplifiers. In the Bryston BCD-1 CD Player these are constructed from discrete devices (individual transistors, resistors, and capacitors) instead of the commonly used integrated circuits… The use of integrated circuits always involves compromises since they are designed as general purpose devices.”

Bryston has earned an enviable reputation over the past twenty odd years for power amps and preamps featuring vanishingly low levels of distortion. All the knowledge gleaned during that time has been poured into the layout and design of the power supplies, digital circuit layout, and analog output stage of the BCD-1. The player is then hand assembled using high end parts (1% metal-film resistors, polystyrene capacitors, hand selected and matched transistors etc.) in Bryston’s Peterborough, Ontario factory. Even without considering the final sonic results, this is “high end” through and through, and goes a long way in justifying the BCD-1’s not insignificant price tag.

...

The BCD-1 didn’t embarrass my digital front end, but it did demonstrate that good old Redbook digital is still evolving after 25 years. What’s even more encouraging is that you can get bleeding edge sound from a BCD-1 without the bleeding edge price. There may be better sounding players available, but I suspect the cost of doing any better than this will cut very deep indeed."

Full Review: AIG