This is a review and detailed measurements of Bryston BDA-2 DAC. I believe it retails for around $2,700. I had access to a loaned unit during the time I was testing the Schiit Yggdrasil and Berkeley Alpha DACs.
Unfortunately I did not have time to run full suite of measurements on it but there is enough data here to draw a decent conclusion on its performance.
All my testing was done using its S/PDIF input.
As always if you have a question about my measurements, please read about the setup and what they mean here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/understanding-audio-measurements.2351/. And if you want to know if I am qualified to make such evaluations, see my background here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/a-bit-about-your-host.1906/
Measurements
Let's start with looking at jitter and noise and compare the BDA-2 to Schiit Yggdrasil DAC and that of Berkeley Alpha:
As we see the Bryston BDA-2 DAC has a lower noise floor than the other two DACs. There is no mains related leakage as we see in Schiit Yggdrasil either. There is however a peak around 1.7 kHz or so. It is audibly benign though at such low amplitude.
Next let's look at linearity:
Linearity is very good with 17 bits of clean output before 0.1 dB of error. Importantly even going past that, the degree of error remains small unlike the Schiit Yggdrasil which goes wild.
Last test I had time to run was the SMPTE intermodulation test:
The Exasound E32 continues to be the king here but the Bryston does a good job of coming second. It outperforms both Berkeley and Schiit Yggdrasil.
Conclusions
There is no question that the Bryston BDA-2 DAC is a competently designed DAC. It has no warts and no anomalies that stand out. That is to be expected from Byrston which is a "proper engineering company" with significant resources in audio design.
The price is a bit high but is fitting in the market segment they are after and luxury audio dealer distribution channel.
I see no reason to not recommend the Bryston BDA-2 other than the cost.
Special thanks to our audiophile society member who loaned the unit to me for testing.
As always, questions, comments, corrections, etc. are welcome.
-----
If you like this review, please consider donating funds for these types of hardware purchases using Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview), or upgrading your membership here though Paypal (https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054).
Unfortunately I did not have time to run full suite of measurements on it but there is enough data here to draw a decent conclusion on its performance.
All my testing was done using its S/PDIF input.
As always if you have a question about my measurements, please read about the setup and what they mean here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/understanding-audio-measurements.2351/. And if you want to know if I am qualified to make such evaluations, see my background here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/a-bit-about-your-host.1906/
Measurements
Let's start with looking at jitter and noise and compare the BDA-2 to Schiit Yggdrasil DAC and that of Berkeley Alpha:
As we see the Bryston BDA-2 DAC has a lower noise floor than the other two DACs. There is no mains related leakage as we see in Schiit Yggdrasil either. There is however a peak around 1.7 kHz or so. It is audibly benign though at such low amplitude.
Next let's look at linearity:
Linearity is very good with 17 bits of clean output before 0.1 dB of error. Importantly even going past that, the degree of error remains small unlike the Schiit Yggdrasil which goes wild.
Last test I had time to run was the SMPTE intermodulation test:
The Exasound E32 continues to be the king here but the Bryston does a good job of coming second. It outperforms both Berkeley and Schiit Yggdrasil.
Conclusions
There is no question that the Bryston BDA-2 DAC is a competently designed DAC. It has no warts and no anomalies that stand out. That is to be expected from Byrston which is a "proper engineering company" with significant resources in audio design.
The price is a bit high but is fitting in the market segment they are after and luxury audio dealer distribution channel.
I see no reason to not recommend the Bryston BDA-2 other than the cost.
Special thanks to our audiophile society member who loaned the unit to me for testing.
As always, questions, comments, corrections, etc. are welcome.
-----
If you like this review, please consider donating funds for these types of hardware purchases using Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview), or upgrading your membership here though Paypal (https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054).
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