Bryston BDA-3

I just got one in about a month ago. I was auditioning various DACs and the BDA-3 interested me because it features the new AKM4490 chip. I did critical listening comparisons with a Sabre DAC, proprietary R2R DAC, and casual comparisons with some other DACs. I decided the BDA-3 to be the best choice among those, and am now using it in our reference 2-channel system and applied to become a Bryston dealer because of my decision on the BDA-3.

I feel the Sabre DAC has a little more distortion, and the R2R DAC is too laid back (not as punchy) with slightly worse transient response. The BDA-3 is clean like the R2R DAC but has the quick transient response of the Sabre DAC. I think there might be further improvements possible if I could select the AKM4490 filter, but that's not possible and I don't know if Bryston will make it possible. In the meantime, I am using Dirac Live RCS to help with that a little.

I have not tried DSD over HDMI myself, however I know people are successfully doing that from the OPPO BD players. I am primarily using the USB, coaxial, and TOSLink connections.

Thanks nekoaudio.   I'm also interested in the BDA-3, but its hard to find much on it.    I've been interested to hear how it sounds vs some of the Chord products and the yggdrasil.  

Your description helps a lot as I also am interested in keeping some of the quick transient response of my current sabre dac.

mahler123 ,
Two links for you:

http://www.hifistatement.net/tests/item/1708-bryston-bda-3

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=otcv5gm25aa6k1a3umaam6slp5&topic=138471.380

The first link is in German. So you might want to use Google Translate.

Thanks milpai  The first link is actually referencing the second.  the google translator doesn't seem to work to well for me, but thanks for the link.