Hi Fsmithjack, and others, happy owner of Bricasti M1 for two years now here.
I havent 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 dont like up-sampling! Since up-sampling feature can be engaged or bypassed on this DAC it didnt 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 doesnt 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 wouldnt 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 didnt read all postings in this tread but in the most of Ive read I didnt find single comment on DSD sound through M1?! Ive been puzzled since were comparing M1 to PS Audio DSD DAC which in essence is DSD machine and if Im not mistaken all audio regardless of sampling rate is up-sampled to DSD first and then decoded to analog. Its kind of strange no one is mentioning this that shouldve been natural strength of PS Audio DAC?!
Im asking this since I feel DSD files dont sound as good as PCM on M1. To be clear the best DSD (SACD) Ive 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 Im 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 couldnt match Esoteric either.
Simply, M1 and OPPO DSD reproduction sounds too mellow, it doesnt have a bite and live flesh Ive 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 its 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 its 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 doesnt 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 Im using its 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)
I havent 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 dont like up-sampling! Since up-sampling feature can be engaged or bypassed on this DAC it didnt 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 doesnt 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 wouldnt 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 didnt read all postings in this tread but in the most of Ive read I didnt find single comment on DSD sound through M1?! Ive been puzzled since were comparing M1 to PS Audio DSD DAC which in essence is DSD machine and if Im not mistaken all audio regardless of sampling rate is up-sampled to DSD first and then decoded to analog. Its kind of strange no one is mentioning this that shouldve been natural strength of PS Audio DAC?!
Im asking this since I feel DSD files dont sound as good as PCM on M1. To be clear the best DSD (SACD) Ive 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 Im 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 couldnt match Esoteric either.
Simply, M1 and OPPO DSD reproduction sounds too mellow, it doesnt have a bite and live flesh Ive 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 its 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 its 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 doesnt 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 Im using its 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)