 I've had a fair amount of experience with Bryston gear. I've owned a 3B, BP-20, BP-25, PowerPac 120's, still have a 2B, and have heard almost every piece of gear in the entire Bryston line multiple times.
It was a natural progression for me to give the BDA-1 a go. If you are a fan of the Bryston sound, I think you will like this DAC.
What is the Bryston sound? To me, Bryston is fast, precise, detailed with lots of bass. And very solid state sounding. Sound people like this. Does it sound good? Well, since this is my review, I will offer my opinion. It does what its supposed to do. It plays music. Ultimately though, I did not find the BDA-1 musical. I A/B'd my significantly less expensive Cambridge Audio 650C up against the BDA-1, and the BDA-1 was better sounding, but certainly not 1500 dollars better sounding. I even found myself toe-tapping with the 650C. With the BDA-1 it was a much more clinical, "wow, that's detailed" sort of experience.
This is a relatively expensive DAC (and just got more expensive this past summer). At around 2200.00 CDN before taxes, this may be just a financial stretch for the average audio nut. I'm gonna guess that a lot of the price of this DAC (like other Bryston gear) takes into account the warranty.
I give it a solid B based on price to performance ratio.
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