Bryston BDA-1

Looking at your gear there is no way this should sound bright at all. Your gear tends towards a very nice, clear sound with just a touch of warmth. Very nice set up. As a point of reference my system tends toward brightness, so I always look for warmth from my sources, and after trying many different DAC's(Benchmark DAC-1 USB, MHDT Labs Havana, Bel Canto DACIII, PS Audio dac3, Berkeley Alpha DAC, Tube Audio Design PreDac) to go from my AppleTV to my preamp I choose the Bryston, and I am finally no longer in the market.

But, you are right, you can't use an RCA interconnect for a Coax interface. It's an analog not digital cable and you are not hearing the actual output from the DAC. If you want to find out what your DAC really sounds like, go buy a cheap Toslink cable and run it from your source, you will be shocked at the difference. When your new, good, better digital cable comes, you will be even happier.

Good luck.

Good luck.

Thanks for the good information! I guessed the loss of richness on acoustics guitar music was due to the cable but had no idea an analog cable was that inferior to the digital cable. I really can't wait for this cable to come in now to do some serious listening. Also, the system is not bright at all, it just doesn't have the bloom due to your explanation of the coax cable :o)

Wig

Macdadtexas

Took your advice and bought a $20.00 toslink until my coax come in and you were absolutely right! More bass and a more realistic soundstage and detail. So, It's going to get better with a digital coax?

Thanks,
Wig

Yo Wig, so how is your DAC now with a good digital cable? I love mine!!

Macdadtexas,

The digital cable did make a huge improvement but I was expecting more from he BDA-1. I would say an increase of 10% in performance and if I had to do it all over again I would have bought another Belles 150A Ref amplifier which would have given better results than the BDA-1.

Wig