Bricasti M1 DAC vs PS Audio Direct Stream DAC

I went from a PS Audio Perfectwave DAC II to the PS Audio DSD to the Bricasti M1. Digital is moving at a fast pace and there is no doubt that there are better/different sounding DACs coming out every couple of months. Reading post have become part of the hobby and it's a joy to read about new components. It feels great to read and not want!

If I have learned anything on this thread, and I have learned a lot its that the Transport is so very important to how the DAC performs.

I have seen the performance of my Bricasti improve with every transport change / upgrade / tweak I have made.

I really had no idea of the true significance the transport's role plays with supporting the DAC until I started this thread and all you guys opened my eyes to it and educated me and gave me great idea's.

Take any two DAC's and the transport many times is the difference between them when heard in different systems.

That said the Bricasti with a nice Transport solution in a digital system that is nice and revealing is where its at for me.

I have learned a lot form this thread and I want to give back and offer some advice and show some of the things I have done that have worked great for me.

Here is some of the transport changes and improvements I have made that I am very happy with. These changes now has my system and my Bricasti performing at a very high level and I thought you guys may want read this. I certainly can highly recommend them...

I started with a computer as a transport and was using JRiver and added JPlay and then after I added the great USB Cable the Tellurium Q Black Diamond and that was a nice bump in SQ.

I then went with the SOtM SMS-100 Ethernet to USB unit and that was a nice bump in SQ.

I then went to a Audiophilleo AP2 and that was another nice bump in SQ.

Then I added the Audiophilleo Pure Power Battery pack to go with the AP2 that was a huge bump in SQ. HUGE... It actually blew my mind. It made my Bricasti so much better it was really an eye opener for me.

I was then running my Audiophilleo AP2 w/Pure Power Battery connected directly to the BNC input on my Bricasti because one of the benefits of the AP2 is there is no need for an extra Coax digital cable as it can connected directly to the DAC with no cable needed. My friend told me no way, not to do that. That a decent coax cable with be a nice improvement. Even though it can connect direct to the DAC a BNC to BNC digital coax cable will offer nice improvement because that will help attenuate the noise from the BNC Connectors. Sure enough he was right and here was another real nice bump in SQ. I went with the very reasonably priced Black Cat Silverstar 75 BNC to BNC digital coax cable and it is excellent in this application and offered definite SQ improvement and more than I would have ever thought.

The next step was to take it to another level. I now went with the versatile, evolving and ever improving Auralic Aries w/ dual Femto clocks and streamed via Ethernet from the files that are on my computer. So I ran my great Tellurium Q Black Diamond USB Cable from the USB out on the Auarelic Aries to my Audiophilleo AP2 w/Pure Power Battery. Then from my AP2 w/PP I ran my Black Cat Silverstar 75 Digital cable from the BNC out of the AP2 to my BNC in on my Bricasti. The combo of this Aries, TQ USB Cable, AP2 w/PP, BC-SS75 Coax to Bricasti has been very impressive and this transport solution is great and has made my Bricasti much better.

Oh but there is more. I bought a desktop HD computer monitor replacement power supply. The power supplies on computer monitor screens have very good filtration so as to not affect the pixel quality. I used this to power my FIO's internet modem and wireless router. This was another bump in SQ.

I realized streaming via Ethernet was not the way to go with the Auralic Aries after some reading. Too noisy even with the PS upgrade for modem/router. The Aeries has a USB out to connect to an external hard drive but there are 2 problems with this. 1.) if you use a self powered External Hard Drive the power of the hard drive will corrupt the usb bus and degrade SQ. Better solution but still not great is get an external hard drive powered by the 5V from the USB cable of the Aeries. Even though this is a better solution it is still not the ideal solution because the power from the Aeries liner power supply is not as clean as we would like it to be and that affects the sound from the External Hard Drive. Here is where a creative solution comes in that works great.

I ordered a custom made USB cable that splits the cable in two. One leg is for the 5V power and the other is for the Data that carries the delicate music file. I run the data files from the Solid State External Hard Drive and the power leg to unit that is made to re-charge cell phones via 5V cell phones. This will run the hard drive for hours and even when its plugged in and recharging its still super quiet.

I have clean battery power on both ends book ending the Auralic Aries. The Auralic Aries being wireless and offering many streaming options and being plastic for the wireless can by a little noisy and that is where AP2 w/pp takes up the slack and cleans that up nice. There maybe better streamers or servers out there but doubtful for this money. This is a genuine / high tech / high performing solution that works outstanding and pushed my DAC to a level that I didn't think was possible. The thing reflects clearly every little change or update I have made and hopefully it can help you too.

I just wanted to share this with you guys as it is our DAC thread and it has improved my digital performance 10 fold and if it can help you in one way or another than my taking the time to share all this was worth while. Just trying to help my other fellow digital comrades and as always comments, criticism and feedback are not only welcome they are solicited.

Another former Directstream owner here, I really don't have anything good to say about it.... Other than I owned it 5 months too long.

Coli - curious to know what you replaced your DS with. TIA

Hi, I am evaluating the Benchmark DAC2 right now, I will also have a Metrum Pavane "soon"...