2. pc-audio
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experience with Bryston BDA-1 ?

I recently bought a brand new Bryston BDA-1. It's connected to my pre-amp on one side and PC one the other side. From the PC, I have Lynx AES16 sound card connected to BDA-1 with Lynx cable snake AES. I am using mediaMonkey to play wave files riped from CD or hi-res files.
After playing for 2 weeks, I found that BDA-1 indeed outputs warm music but i) the sound is rather flatten or not as dimensional, and ii) the bass seem to be easily saturated or dull - as compared to the same music played from
my CD player (which is also connected to my preamp).
Am I missing anything , or
any suggestion to improve it to surpass CD music ?
ps: I played some Jazz and vocal (new or old recordings). Also, I turn the volume to 'mid low' level on mediaMonkey.
Thanks.
so_armonk

Showing 3 responses by pkubica

pkubica
134 posts
 
On the front panel there is an "Up Sample" button. Try it both ways... I like the sound better with the Up Sample Off.
Paul
pkubica
134 posts
 
Also, have had a better experience with Media Center player software. Are you using a dedicate "music only" computer? With the Lynx card and Bryston it should sound as good as a $5-10K CDP. Something is definitely wrong!
Paul
pkubica
134 posts
 
Davide256... you are exactly correct on your analysis if he was using the normal SPDIF output of a computer. That generally comes right off the motherboard and you are correct that it has crazy levels of jitter. But then again what can we expect. The entire digital output was designed for computer games and probably has 50 cents worth of parts to do the whole job.

He is coming out of a Lynx audio card using AES/EBU. That's an $800 dedicated 24/192 studio audio card with Mac and PC OS spicific drivers, about as good as you can do. It has its own internal word clock and the jitter out of the card is very, very low. If you peek inside a $10K+ Sooloos you'll find a Lynx. OK, now it goes into the Bryston which also reclocks and reduces jitter. IMHO probably not a jitter issue.

I would more suspect that the Player software is not setup correctly and is being influenced by the OS drivers. I would uninstall MediaMonkey and then do a fresh install of either it or J.River Media Center. There are step by step installation guides on the manufacturers site or on Computer Audiophile... follow them exactly!

You have the correct pieces, keep at it!
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