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AVForums Super Veteran
OK, I've been itching to unpack this and make some sense of it/ have someone in the know educate me, unwashed in digital audio as I am. Bryston has released something they call the BDP-1 or Bryston Digital Player. Reading the literature and listening to the superlatives sprouted one is led to believe that this device is the duck's nuts of digital audio. Unless I'm missing something, so far as I can tell the BDP-1 recognises and decodes (if necessary) a FLAC, AIFF or WAV audio file of up to 24/192 and then passes the resulting PCM WAV file to an external DAC of your choosing through a "high performance dedicated digital AES-EBU XLR Balanced connector or BNC/COAX (SPDIF) output".
According to the brochure "The BDP-1 separates the digital processing side (playing music files) from the data management side (storage, handling, ripping etc) in order to deliver the most quiet, lowest distortion playback option available. The Bryston BDP-1?s single function is to play high-resolution digital music files from any USB storage device without compromise." It also goes on to state "Mated to this robust operating system is a Bryston-modified soundcard of the highest quality, featuring an AES-EBU Balanced and BNC (spdif ) output section for the highest possible performance when connected to the AES-EBU, BNC or COAX input on the Bryston BDA-1 external DAC..."
So, in effect what we have here is a stripped down Linux box in a fancy casing and some or other fancy soundcard that's merely passing through the decoded PCM data to an external DAC, all on the premise that separating the decoding process (in the event you're not using WAV files) from the DAC is going to deliver sonically superior results?
Now, unless I'm wrong (and there's every possibility I am) SPDIF is perfectly capable of transmitting bit perfect data over short runs - which is how the Squeezebox Classic/ Touch, Transporter etc. is able to pass through DTS surround sound to an AVR...all whilst receiving the data via wired or wireless network protocols and decoding the file to PCM. So, in conclusion then, am I correct in surmising that the BDP-1's entire value proposition is therefore predicated on low jitter output?
According to the brochure "The BDP-1 separates the digital processing side (playing music files) from the data management side (storage, handling, ripping etc) in order to deliver the most quiet, lowest distortion playback option available. The Bryston BDP-1?s single function is to play high-resolution digital music files from any USB storage device without compromise." It also goes on to state "Mated to this robust operating system is a Bryston-modified soundcard of the highest quality, featuring an AES-EBU Balanced and BNC (spdif ) output section for the highest possible performance when connected to the AES-EBU, BNC or COAX input on the Bryston BDA-1 external DAC..."
So, in effect what we have here is a stripped down Linux box in a fancy casing and some or other fancy soundcard that's merely passing through the decoded PCM data to an external DAC, all on the premise that separating the decoding process (in the event you're not using WAV files) from the DAC is going to deliver sonically superior results?
Now, unless I'm wrong (and there's every possibility I am) SPDIF is perfectly capable of transmitting bit perfect data over short runs - which is how the Squeezebox Classic/ Touch, Transporter etc. is able to pass through DTS surround sound to an AVR...all whilst receiving the data via wired or wireless network protocols and decoding the file to PCM. So, in conclusion then, am I correct in surmising that the BDP-1's entire value proposition is therefore predicated on low jitter output?