Mini-Review of the Beresford TC-7520 DAC

Category: Digital

Looking for a feature-rich DAC with good sound and that won't break the bank? I recently stumbled upon a rather interesting find in this category. The Beresford brand has been popular Britain for the past few years, and there's a new US distributor that now sells their products direct online; a classified ad in Audiogon led me to their website called beresford-dac (along with a dot and a com in there somewhere). The TC-7520 is a 96/24 DAC with (1) USB, (1) Toslink and (2) SPDIF digital inputs (no analog inputs), a Class-A preamp with both fixed and variable outputs, and a headphone amp. Simple but elegant, the housing is a solid and compact black metal box with shiny gold metal soft-touch selector buttons (each with its own blue LED indicator), and incorporates a "dual" power supply (a combination internal and external components which is said to yield overall lower noise).

This unit has been installed as part of a home office system comprised of two-way TAD monitors (sporting built-in EL84 tube amplification) and an older Sony 5-CD changer with a variable line output which had been providing the services of both source and preamp. In comparison, driving the 7520 via the player's digital output offers a clearly audible improvement over the previous configuration; it serves up tight & tuneful bass control, more dynamic presence in the midrange, and a subtle smoothing of the treble. The headphone output's sonic traits are very similar. And as a bonus, a USB cable from my PC to the 7520 allows for a noticeable enhancement in music file playback. Bottom line, a very musical device; for $249, (shipping included), I think this one's tough to beat. (One note; Beresford USA does not offer a money-back satisfaction guarantee on these units, but once you see and hear it, you'll find it's an easy $249 to part with.)

Attention tweakers: The stock dual opamps are socketed, and I'd read on a couple of forums that these may be changed out with compatible devices that can offer further sonic improvement - But, be warned; according to Beresford USA, the unit's one-year warranty will be voided if ya mess with its internals in this fashion - So, best enjoy the TC-7520 in stock form first off, and then after 12 months have fun swapping in new opamps if you find yourself hankerin' for an upgrade.