Museatex Bitstream vs Bidat

Where's Chiggy when we need him? Chirag's got both and would have some good insight. He's the one who turned me onto the Museatex units. When I asked his opinion back in July, he said "the bitstream is close. just a slightly different flavor. bidats are going for just too much money
these days."

Jon did the full-on mod with my Bitstream 5 months ago including Black Gates, Cardas rca jacks, and some other tweaks. I run it into the matching Museatex/Melior CD-D. It is extremely detailed without being etched or hard. Smooth with being soft or blurred. Musical as all get-out. Pretty much does it all for my tastes.

I asked the orginal question, AFTER mods how close is it?

Skushino: I disagree, you should read the original question.

Jtinn - The subject refers to modified Bitstream and Bidat, not stock. I own one (Bitstream) and have listened to both. They are very, very close, after mods.

In a phone call last week, John told me he prefers listening to his modified Bitstream more than modified Bidat. He describes the Bitstream as sounding fuller, more like vinyl, while the Bidat brings slightly more resolution and detail to the table.

I have a fully modded Bidat with the 2004 level including BlackGates. Simply stunning for digital playback. Allows me to enjoy at least 80 to 90% of my CD collection like never before.. The other 10 to 20% are done so poorly, you know that if they sound good on a system, then there is some sort of compromise for the rest of your collection.

This modded Bidat walks that fine line between warmth, detail, top & bottom frequency extension, neutrality, transparency, resolution, musicality, smoothness etc etc. I no longer do any critical listening. I just enjoy.

I got a good deal on it and was pleasantly suprised to see one go for $3K used last year.

A better transport does help this Dac, like any other, but is not super critical because of Meitner's C-Lock system.

John just emailed me, he said he's working on a brand new DAC, totally designed by himself from the ground up. No idea when he's releasing it, but he did suggest any bitstream user should wait if they are considering an upgrade to a modded Bidat.

Completely modified Bitstream and Bidat are very close, and in my opinion it takes a VERY high-resolution system to fully enjoy the difference. For most (again, in my opinion) the decision comes to need for balanced connectors and volume control.

I trust your ears Jonathan so I'm always interested in your observations. I don't doubt that the bidat by itself is better but if I understand things correctly, a lot of what we're hearing from these units are the mods done to it. Except for the original circuit board, pretty much everything has been changed. So I believe it's similar but nevertheless, the price difference between the two units is about as big as the difference between the Bidat and a used Dac6.

Maril, I have not made comparisions but the unit sounds good to me. But I do use Jena Labs cabling that cost more than the unit itself, which I believe help maximize the capabilities of my Bitstream. I'm maxed out in terms of my budget so I haven't looked too hard in terms of upgrades. I may look into doing some comparisons with some midrange units in the future, but I dream of the Meitner gear and this setup may be good enough until I can afford what I really want, which may be never. I don't know how good the bitstream is compared to others, but it's enjoyable to listen to and I feel the bitstream is good enough that I can concentrate on improving other parts of my system. For the price I paid for it, if I find an upgrade, I'll just keep it for some future use in another system anyways so I'm not worried. I simply didn't want to spend several thousand dollars on a CDP that may be a bit better than the Bitstream but not really up to the standards of what I really want, especially since I want SACD capabilities as well.

The Bidat is substantially better. It is not a fair comparison.

Howie, I have Jon Wright modified Bitsream in my system. So far I have only directly compared it with AckDacK- not even close ( Bitstream is better). Would be very interested in your comments on it's performance in your system. Regards.

Performance wise, I'm think there's probably very little difference. I've been wondering about John's comments myself, and can only guess that single ended vs balanced operation is accounting for the slight difference. I'll take John's word for it that the bitstream sounds more musical but less detailed. That sounds quite plausible to me. But the Bidat does offer features such as a volume control (which I care very little about but some people do) and balanced operation (which I do care about). I ended up with a Bitstream because the Bidat (at the recent going rates) is not worth that many times the money strictly in terms of performance. Balanced operation is really the only thing that I want that the Bidat would give me over the Bitstream but I'll live without it for now.

Isn't a Bidat one of those squirters in a French bathroom? That would certainly give me a big jump! Talk about a bitstream.