Bryston SP1.7 Bypass or Digital In ????

I have been using both an Sp1 and 1.7 for quite some time now with excellent results on both the passthrough and digital in. In my experience it really depends on the quality of the dac in the player. The Sp1 is used entirely in two channel mode with a Theta Miles and for the most part I prefer the Theta's DAC over the Bryston. I say "for the most part" because some recordings sound better using the Bryston's dac which seems to be a little more forgiving - which may mean a little more veiled than the Theta. At any rate you can hook both up and switch back and forth.
With the 1.7 I have a Denon 2900 hooked up and MUCH prefer the Bryston's DAC to the Denon's in two channel. I have noticed that the quality of the transport makes a much bigger difference than you might imagine. With a cheap DVD player playing as a transport through the Bryston it doesn't sound very good - particularly at the frequency extrems.
Again, just experiment and let YOUR ears be the judge.

Distortion, could you please elaborate on "Analog with DSP (outboard DAC)" part of your post. I understand "Bypassed (outboard DAC)" part.
I'm using SP-1.7 in digital mode currently, since I have TacT before Bryston and did't want to introduce extra D/A conversion (Bryston's DAC sounds better to my ears than TacT's DAC).
While we at it: Is SP-1.7 multichannel path a "true" 6- channel analog preamp?, I mean for SACD/DVD-Audio playback.

Maril, I'll do my best.

Do you mean my 11-29-03 post which says.....

"I am pretty sure the PCM D/A conversion is handled by the Motorola 56367 chip in this unit. It is SOTA for Multi-channel decoding but I think other dedicated DACs may be better at PCM. No problem though, just run Analog ICs and a digital input both. You can setup the input to "default" to the digital input(inboard DAC), Analog with DSP(outboard DAC), or bypassed(outboard DAC), then switch to whichever one you want, whenever you want at the press of a button."

When I say "PCM D/A conversion" I am talking about a digital signal. An Analog signal would have to be first converted to digital (A to D), before the DSP could process it.

It is my understanding, though I could very well be wrong, that the SP1.7 has only the 56367 Processor to concvert all incoming digital signals to analog, including PCM (two-channel 44.1khz/16bit which is the standard output from a CD player). In other words, I dont believe the SP1.7 has dedicated PCM DACs. Though an Email to James Tanner would clear this up.

I am not sure whether the 5.1 input is fully seperated from the Digital like the 2 channel bypass. At first I was assuming (dangerous indeed) that because there was Subwoofer control in 5.1 bypass that the signal must pass through the DSP engine. Thus, not "true analog." Faziod, and then James Tanner, enlightened me that indeed there was a "full analog" summed (full-range) signal output to the sub. So (assuming again), the signal path is present. Therefor it could be a "true analog" 6 channel preamp. Once again I am not sure and I bet James could clear this up right away.

I am sorry I dont believe this post was very helpful.

Thank you, Distortion. Actually, I've asked James this same question ("true analog" preamp), and at best, his answer wasn't explicitly clear, meaning, that I'm still wasn't sure, that there is a completely separate MCH preamp, analogous to BP-25-like analog 2-CH bypass. Well, I'm using it for MCH playback, even though was thinking lately about trying dedicated multichannel analog preamp, like McCormack MAP-1, McIntosh C-45, Bel Canto Pre-6 and separate HT processor, or just Dolby Digital/DTS processing of my player.
BTW, I'm very interested if anyone had a chance to compare Bryston SP-1.7 for SACD with the above mentioned analog preamps and if yes, was there an improvement, that could justify such a switch. Regards.

Faziod, I have my new to me SP 1.7 in the mail and was checking out the post here. What are the hidden codes for?? and would you be willing to share this?

Thanks,