This is a follow up of my initial impressions of the Bricasti M1 DAC.
I moved the Bricasti to my bedroom system where I have my Stax 727II/SR-009 combo and my Woo WA-5LE. The Bricasti sound was excellent since the beginning but for some time to my ears it showed a small energy peak at the top of the midrange frequencies.
With good recordings this peak was not really noticeable but with older recordings like the ones of some Classic Rock albums I listen it was clearly there and sometimes depending of the recording creating a little bit of fatiguing effect. Basically the M1 is unmercifully transparent and it will show exactly the quality of the recording.
Now the M1 has over 400 hours of burn-in and the HiFi Tuning fuses I put in have also over 250 hours. About the 400 hours mark I noticed a nice change in the sound. That slight peak of energy at the top midrange disappeared, the bass got even tighter and the whole presentation of the sound got very musical.
Over the weekend I finished a project setting up a Mac Mini as a dedicated music server. I bought a used Mac Mini from late 2009 server version. It has a dual Core 2 processor with 2.5 GHz speed, it came with a dual 500 GB hard drive (1T total) and I upgraded the memory to 8GB. I went with this Mini because it is the last model with an external power supply so later I can get a linear power supply to replace the stock one. I performed all the OS mods recommended by Mojo Audio and bought an iUSB form iFi to clean the USB power out of the Mini.
I the bedroom system in addition to my two headphones systems there I also have a Threshold S550e amplifier, a Threshold T2 Pre-amp, a pair of B&W N803 and a Rel Q401 Sub.
The Mac Mini is the dedicated source of the system. It has all the iTunes library (WAV) in one of the internal hard drives and all the Hi-Res files are in the other internal drive. I am using iTunes for file management and I am using Audirvana Plus with iTunes integration for playback. The Mac Mini is feeding the iUSB and from there to the Bricasti M1 which is feeding the 727II, WA5-LE and T2.
This is my first experience with a dedicated music serves connected via USB before I was using my iMac streaming music via a Squeezebox.
So first I started with my speaker system using my modified Teac VRDS-10 to feed the M1 via SPDIF coax (WW Gold Starlight 6). I put in a CD from a blues player that I just discovered. She is a sensational guitar player that remains me Steve Ray Vaughn and with one of the sultriest voices I have ever heard. Her name is Joanne Shaw Taylor.
As soon as the CD started playing my jaw dropped down to the floor. Her voice was so real, so textured, so clean. It was like she was there in front of me. I could hear her fingers going up and down her guitar strings and the bass oh my! It was fast, it was deep and it was impactful. The whole presentation was so not digital that I could not believe it even my wife (who does not care about this hobby) was amazed of the sound.
After that fabulous experience I then switched to the Mac Mini via the M1 USB input.
The first thing I can say is that I did not notice any change in sound quality. What I heard from the CD transport was the same than from the Mac Mini. I went through several other songs and types of music and I could find no fault in the sound at all.
After done with the speaker system then went to a tougher test going to the Stax rig. The SR-009 are so transparent that I am going to be able to hear any little detail for good or bad. The result was exceptional. The music was gorgeous. There was no peak at the top midrange whatsoever. The music was just like through the speakers, very smooth, very neutral, very analog. To put it in two words, very beautiful.
Following the Stax rig I switched the WA-5LE with the HD800 using the Zeus cable. This time I switched out Audirvana Plus from iTunes integration and loaded some Fleetwood Mac high resolution files from HDTracks. Who said the HD800 had no bass??? The bass on Dreams was deep, tight, fast and with great impact. Every single song was a glorious Mac Attack (they are coming out on tour later this year.. yeah!) at its best. A total delightful experience like I have never had before with those same song and HiRes files.
I have not listened to the Meitner MA-1 or the AMR DP-777 or the Berkeley Alpha MkII so I cannot make a comparison to those but I know the Bricasti M1 blew away my PS Audio PerfectWave MkII (with upgrades from The Upgrade Company) and sounds significantly better than my old Wadia 27 and so far my systems have not sound this good ever!
I want to thank Brian Zolner from Bricasti for all his advice, help and patience. He is an exceptional guy and the master mind of an exceptional product. Thanks Brian!
I moved the Bricasti to my bedroom system where I have my Stax 727II/SR-009 combo and my Woo WA-5LE. The Bricasti sound was excellent since the beginning but for some time to my ears it showed a small energy peak at the top of the midrange frequencies.
With good recordings this peak was not really noticeable but with older recordings like the ones of some Classic Rock albums I listen it was clearly there and sometimes depending of the recording creating a little bit of fatiguing effect. Basically the M1 is unmercifully transparent and it will show exactly the quality of the recording.
Now the M1 has over 400 hours of burn-in and the HiFi Tuning fuses I put in have also over 250 hours. About the 400 hours mark I noticed a nice change in the sound. That slight peak of energy at the top midrange disappeared, the bass got even tighter and the whole presentation of the sound got very musical.
Over the weekend I finished a project setting up a Mac Mini as a dedicated music server. I bought a used Mac Mini from late 2009 server version. It has a dual Core 2 processor with 2.5 GHz speed, it came with a dual 500 GB hard drive (1T total) and I upgraded the memory to 8GB. I went with this Mini because it is the last model with an external power supply so later I can get a linear power supply to replace the stock one. I performed all the OS mods recommended by Mojo Audio and bought an iUSB form iFi to clean the USB power out of the Mini.
I the bedroom system in addition to my two headphones systems there I also have a Threshold S550e amplifier, a Threshold T2 Pre-amp, a pair of B&W N803 and a Rel Q401 Sub.
The Mac Mini is the dedicated source of the system. It has all the iTunes library (WAV) in one of the internal hard drives and all the Hi-Res files are in the other internal drive. I am using iTunes for file management and I am using Audirvana Plus with iTunes integration for playback. The Mac Mini is feeding the iUSB and from there to the Bricasti M1 which is feeding the 727II, WA5-LE and T2.
This is my first experience with a dedicated music serves connected via USB before I was using my iMac streaming music via a Squeezebox.
So first I started with my speaker system using my modified Teac VRDS-10 to feed the M1 via SPDIF coax (WW Gold Starlight 6). I put in a CD from a blues player that I just discovered. She is a sensational guitar player that remains me Steve Ray Vaughn and with one of the sultriest voices I have ever heard. Her name is Joanne Shaw Taylor.
As soon as the CD started playing my jaw dropped down to the floor. Her voice was so real, so textured, so clean. It was like she was there in front of me. I could hear her fingers going up and down her guitar strings and the bass oh my! It was fast, it was deep and it was impactful. The whole presentation was so not digital that I could not believe it even my wife (who does not care about this hobby) was amazed of the sound.
After that fabulous experience I then switched to the Mac Mini via the M1 USB input.
The first thing I can say is that I did not notice any change in sound quality. What I heard from the CD transport was the same than from the Mac Mini. I went through several other songs and types of music and I could find no fault in the sound at all.
After done with the speaker system then went to a tougher test going to the Stax rig. The SR-009 are so transparent that I am going to be able to hear any little detail for good or bad. The result was exceptional. The music was gorgeous. There was no peak at the top midrange whatsoever. The music was just like through the speakers, very smooth, very neutral, very analog. To put it in two words, very beautiful.
Following the Stax rig I switched the WA-5LE with the HD800 using the Zeus cable. This time I switched out Audirvana Plus from iTunes integration and loaded some Fleetwood Mac high resolution files from HDTracks. Who said the HD800 had no bass??? The bass on Dreams was deep, tight, fast and with great impact. Every single song was a glorious Mac Attack (they are coming out on tour later this year.. yeah!) at its best. A total delightful experience like I have never had before with those same song and HiRes files.
I have not listened to the Meitner MA-1 or the AMR DP-777 or the Berkeley Alpha MkII so I cannot make a comparison to those but I know the Bricasti M1 blew away my PS Audio PerfectWave MkII (with upgrades from The Upgrade Company) and sounds significantly better than my old Wadia 27 and so far my systems have not sound this good ever!
I want to thank Brian Zolner from Bricasti for all his advice, help and patience. He is an exceptional guy and the master mind of an exceptional product. Thanks Brian!
