A warm DAC?

James Tanner, big cheese at Bryston, is quoted on the Bryston AudioCircle forum that the BDA-2 and BDA-3 sound identical except for the additional connectivity options on the 3. Some owners said he was wrong. I will go with Tanners judgement on this.

I just bought a used Bryston BHA-1 headphone amp and 2 channel preamp (after some factory mods). I was looking to get a BDA-2 to pair with it, but decided to use the 2 inputs on the preamp to connect a Tuner and SACD player. So the BDA-2 would not have an input to connect to. I had zero interest in the BDA3 after Tanners comments. I will get a used BDA-2 if on the off chance the Tuner and SACD player don't satisfy (doubtful)

You wouldn’t go wrong with a BDA-2 then. And potentially save some $ in the process. 

Mark Levinson No.36 or No.36S.
Both are R2R DACs - if you can find one used.

They also use Class A analogue output stages and are fully balanced. 1995 state of the art. 

Good resolution, definately not 'edgy', nice tight very good bass.
So long you not looking for higher than 16(20)/41(48) DA convertion. 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/mark-levinson-no37-cd-transport-no36s-da-converter-page-2

Basically for CDs, and not for HI-RES streaming/files.
Michélle 🇿🇦 

Hi larseand,
 
I run a PWT with an old ladder DAC, a Theta Pro Basic III. This is with either my Prima Luna Dialogue Premium or CJ 17LS2 as the preamp.

It replaced a Hegel HD25 and slightly rounded off the occasional sharp edge from my Thiel CS5's.

Tested a number of other DACs before I found the Theta.

Thanks for listening,

Dsper

If you can get your hands on an Akiko Audio Squeeze Box, that’s supposed to make any solid state component sound tube like.