Media Servers
Bryston BDP-1 Music Server and BDA-1 DAC
- Written by John E. Johnson, Jr.
- Published on 27 June 2011
In Use
I transferred some 24/88.2 and 24/96 music in FLAC format as well as conventional CD tracks, which are 16/44.1 WAV files, to a USB thumb drive, and plugged it into one of the USB ports on the front. The BDP-1 loaded information about the music, and then was ready to go to work. It does take considerable time to load the information the first time you plug in a USB drive with your music files on it. But, after that, on some different occasion, should you connect the same USB drive to the BDP-1, the ready state occurs much more quickly. All the files played perfectly, regardless of the sampling rate.
The opening track on this classic Buddy Rich album (16/44.1) shows why Rich is generally considered the greatest jazz drummer of all time. It sounded just as detailed and full bodied through the BDP-1 (the track listing is shown in the iPad screen shot on the previous page) as it does through my reference system. The bench test results will show you why.
Van Halen is a rock group from my era, when you could follow the melody and the lead singer was not screaming about death and suicide. I play along on my drumkit with most of the songs on this Van Halen Best Of album. I usually do my play alongs using the music stored on my iPod, but in this case, I used the BDP-1/BDA-1 combo with my reference power amplifiers (Classé CA-M600) and speakers (Carver Amazing Mark IV). Again, it sounded pretty much as if I were playing the CD on my reference CD player (OPPO BDP-95). The music files for this album and the one below were in WAV format.
On the high resolution front, this 24/88.2 album, downloaded from hdtracks, is in FLAC format, and it played beautifully. Stringed instruments are a good test, and I didn't sense any harshness that would have resulted from excessive harmonic distortion.
This album, also downloaded from HDTracks, is 24/96 FLAC. It contains music from some of the best classic jazz artists, and it all came through with expert handling by the BDP-1. At this point, I need to remind you that I was using the venerable Bryston BDA-1 preamplifier for my listening tests, so it had a lot to do with the terrific sound that I experienced.
