Bricasti M1 DAC vs PS Audio Direct Stream DAC

Fsmithjack, Yes, SOtM is just ordinary PCIe card so you're good to go as long as you have available PCIe slot in your PC. One note tough, make sure you connect internal PSU from PC to card regardless of fact that you're going to use external battery PSU. This will step in ONLY in the case if for any reason card loses external PSU (accidentally un-plugged etc...) and will prevent damage to card itself ( see SOtM manual). For normal operation battery PSU is used all the time and you can hear improvement in sound immediately. Other thing to consider is that you go with Windows 8 (as suggested by Chris from CA) for better driver compatibility. Windows 8 will recognize SOtM card without problems but I would also suggest installing original (Texas Instruments) driver from SOtM website. I think I heard further improvement in sound after I did this.

Bryston BDP-1 or BDP-2 are network/USB players and they act as PC, so you don’t need PC if you’re going to use these, neither you need SOtM card/Battery PSU. So you need to decide which way to go first but since you already have money in SOtM I don’t see any reason giving that up.

Sound wise Bryston players are excellent option since they’re actually customized Linux based PCs for audio. However I prefer PC based source since for it’s far more versatile and future proof. For example I rely on JRiver more than 5 years now, my library has almost 10000 albums. I spent countless hours getting all tags correctly and believe me this is not something that’s get done automatically. I don’t believe that BDP user interface/library capabilities are even close to JRiver. On the other hand I run Steinberg Wavelab and Izotope RX professional software for audio editing and restoration of vinyl rips from the same machine. With BDP player you’re lock to music playback ONLY with limited options for upgrades in the future.

I hope this helps.

Hi Fsmithjack, and others, happy owner of Bricasti M1 for two years now here.

I haven’t been reading a lot on this topic since I bought M1 a year ago, you guess, I was listening to music instead. I upgraded from Bryston BDA-1 and without going into any comments on price differences I would just say M1 put me in the different league. BDA-1 is fantastic DAC for money but I believe (to some extent) that you get what you pay for in the end. BDA-1 taught me one thing tough: I don’t like up-sampling! Since up-sampling feature can be engaged or bypassed on this DAC it didn’t took me long to find out that I always prefer not-up-sampled sound regardless of incoming sample rate. Yes, to me red book (16/44.1) sounds better if played ‘just as is’ without any up-sampling or conversion to DSD like many DACs do internally without even giving you the option to bypass. The fact that M1 doesn’t up-sample or convert but simply get the most out of the native incoming digital format was one of the major reasons I took Bricasti M1 into consideration after reading fantastic review in Stereophile magazine. My unit already came with new power supply and so far I upgraded firmware once to get DSD playback and that was it. I had pleasure to speak with Brian few times at audio shows and we exchanged few e-mails after and I can only say this is the best you can get in terms of customer support and responsiveness overall. Brian is very nice guy to deal with and responds in a matter of hours if not minutes if you have a question or need any help.

On sound I wouldn’t repeat what others already sad but I can say M1 brought me closest to the sound of original studio master, analog or digital regardless…Having worked for some years in music recording industry I was happy enough to hear how ‘original masters’ or ‘live feed’ sounds so I could compare.

I also transferred my vinyl collection to PCM 24/192 format on Tascam DVR-1000 Master Digital Recorder and was surprised when I played these recording first time on M1. Finally difference between original analog sound from turntable and digital copy disappeared. With BDA-1 digital copy sounded very good but it was always ‘something’ that was missing, funny thing is that you can notice this first by focusing on vinyl anomalies like clicks and pops which were slightly muffled and slow comparing to analog signal from turntable. I think M1 does fantastic job recreating timing so transients and everything else sounds just natural.

And since nothing is perfect here is my question to everyone reading this thread:

DSD reproduction??? What is your experience with DSD files playing through M1? I admit I didn’t read all postings in this tread but in the most of I’ve read I didn’t find single comment on DSD sound through M1?! I’ve been puzzled since we’re comparing M1 to PS Audio DSD DAC which in essence is DSD machine and if I’m not mistaken all audio regardless of sampling rate is up-sampled to DSD first and then decoded to analog. It’s kind of strange no one is mentioning this that should’ve been natural strength of PS Audio DAC?!

I’m asking this since I feel DSD files don’t sound as good as PCM on M1. To be clear the best DSD (SACD) I’ve heard so far in my home is from Esoteric DV-50 universal player which I sold when I bought OPPO BDP-105. I thought OPPO will do everything as Esoteric + Blue Ray but in terms of DSD reproduction it never sounded as good as Esoteric. Then I thought I’m expecting $1100 player to sound like $7000 one which is not correct so M1 will fix that. I ripped all my SACDs using PS3 station to DSD files but it couldn’t match Esoteric either.

Simply, M1 and OPPO DSD reproduction sounds too mellow, it doesn’t have a bite and live flesh I’ve used to hear from Esoteric DV-50. Going from DSD 2 to DSD 0 filters in M1 slightly improve experience but nothing significant. SACD played through Esoteric sounded full bodied, extremely fast with top notch transient response and lifelike dynamics while M1 and OPPO give me decent sound to listen to but sometimes I feel it’s even better to listen to CD layer from SACD disc because it sounds faster and more relax then SACD. Possible reason could be that M1 internally converts DSD to PCM before decoding and OPPO is doing the same?! PC Audio does exactly vice versa, converting PCM to DSD before decoding so I would expect it to sound better with native DSD files? Anyone that can comment on this?

To be clear even if this is drawback of M1 I would still keep it considering as minor flaw since the way it’s does PCM is much more important to me, I have maybe 5% of my music in DSD format but I want to hear from other M1 owners if they noticed the same?

However I would like to know if there is any DAC in the market that does PCM and DSD in native manner, all the way through, without converting from one to another format and of course doesn’t cost arm and leg?:).

My system:

1. Customized Zuma design finless PC / SOtM tX-USBexp Audiophile PCIe to USB Audio Card / SOtM mBPS-d2s Intelligent Battery Power Supply / Wireworld Platinum Starlight USB Cable
2. JRiver Media Center 19 (Playback from Memory, dsd over pcm dop)
3. Bricasti M1
4. Mark Levinson No.326S Pre-amplifier (0 dB gain set internally, preamp acts only as buffer as I’m using it’s analog ladder volume control instead of using M1 digital one). Besides I have other analog source components (turntable, Tuner, DSD analog playback from OPPO and Tascam) so I need preamp in my system.
5. Mark Levinson No.436 mono-block power amplifiers
6. Revel Ultima Salon2 loudspeakers
7. Audience Au24e Speaker cables (Bi-Wire)

Fsmithjack,

Let’s not mix up-sampling with oversampling. Oversampling is always performed in synchronous mode and keeps original signal intact, at least every 8th sample (8x oversampling) will be original.

Up-sampling is in most cases implemented in asynchronous mode where resulting signal doesn’t contain any of original samples but only mathematically interpolated samples.

Oversampling only adds values with approximation, the originals are unchanged.

Regarding DSD comparison, you can’t send DSD signal from either OPPO or Esoteric through SPDIF connection. OPPO can do that through HDMI but DAC with HDMI input is needed. My comparison refers to sound coming out of balanced XLR analog outputs of Esoteric and OPPO when SACD played comparing to DSD file ripped from the same SACD and played from JRiver over Dop to M1 usb input. And while I certainly agree that Esoteric has far superior transport than OPPO that shouldn’t be the reason SACD is sounding better. For example I always preferred regular CDs and DVD-A ripped to wav files and played from PC through USB/M1 comparing to sound coming from Esoteric transport over the SPDIF. So, I’m quite sure it’s about decoding of DSD signal itself because experience with PCM material is opposite and same transport is used.

For DSP in JRiver I don’t use anything except stereo mix-down to 2ch for movies which shouldn’t affect regular stereo signals. I’ll try suggestions you mentioned but this means that DSD will be converted to PCM in JRiver internally and sent to M1 as PCM correct? So looks like we’re comparing who does better job converting DSD to PCM, M1 or JRiver?

Shsohis, I’m using DSD1 filter for DSD and Minimum0 for PCM. I played with filters for a week or so and settled down on these. Some of my friends prefer Linear6 in my system/room which is pretty much neutral. Filters are great feature on M1 and will be very useful to compensate for the overall sound of your system, so it really depends of system you have and your preferences for sound in general. Also you can smooth out not so great recordings if you will.

Coli, I didn’t have a chance to hear any of modern NOS designs although I remember well sound of the first CD players from 80s that were NOS by nature. They were bright and narrow sounding but it was something about speed and immediacy in the way they sounded.

Filter 0 is no filter at all according to Bricasti...I prefer it also but is it safe, since all hi-frequency noise which can be louder that signal itself on DSD is passed downstream to pre/amp/speakers. This could potentially damage the tweeters or even our ears especially if listening loud. This kind makes me uneasy to use filter 0 so i settled for best compromise which is filter 1.

1. Try SOtM tX-USBexp Audiophile PCIe to USB Audio Card / SOtM mBPS-d2s Intelligent Battery Power Supply. This is the best USB playback I have heard and it works flawlessly. I am using this for about a year now and never had a dropped connection. You can go without battery power supply if you want but since Bricasti needs 5v from USB this is the cleanest way to deliver it.

2. Other option, if you are willing to give up native DSD playback, would be Lynx AES16 audio card going AES connection to M1. This is what I used before and switched to USB only in order to have native DSD playback.

From Sonore web: PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
The Sonore Sonic Orbiter is an audiophile PCM, DSD/DoP and native DSD capable music renderer with Ethernet input and SotM USB or SPDIF/analog output.

Your PC (you already have PC correct?) has Ethernet input and will have SotM USB output when you buy card.

JRiver is PCM, DSD/DoP and native DSD capable music renderer.

You're going to use USB to M1 connection so you don't need SPDIF/analog outputs.

You don't need this Sonic Orbiter save yourself some money and spend on something else you need.

BTW, nice alternative to PC is a good laptop, Brian is using this himself on audio shows. For critical listening you can always run it from batteries and charge overnight...It's silent as well, or almost silent:)

Cheers,
N