At the Bristol Sound & Vision show, which opened today and runs until Sunday, Bryston is launching its BDA-2 DAC and BDP-2 digital music player.
Both models are based on existing Bryston products – the BDA-1 and BDP-2 – , but each features significant improvements.
In the case of the £2500 BDA-2, the changes run to the use of new 32-bit AKM digital-to-analogue converter chips, and the provision of an asynchronous USB input for direct connection to a computer alongside its conventional digital ins.
In addition the DAC has selectable synchronous upsampling to 176.4kHz or 192kHz, and electrical digital inputs on two S/PDIF phono sockets, one AES/EBU and one BNC, alongside a two optical inputs.
The electrical inputs are transformer-coupled for impedance matching, to provide an optimal interface for incoming signals, thus reducing jitter.
The power transformer has separate windings for the digital and analogue sections, power for each section of the digital chain is independently regulated, and a discrete Class A output stage is used to drive the single-ended RCA and balanced XLR outputs.
Finally, the BDA-2 is firmware upgradable, allowing any future developments to be incorporated
The BDP-2 digital music player, also £2500, moves on from the BDP-1, which was designed to be used with USB drives and memory devices alone: the new model has multiple USB inputs, dual Gigabit Ethernet networking ports and even an eSATA drive connection.
Or, if you'd rather, a SATA drive can be fitted internally by Bryston UK distributor PMC Loudspeakers.
Powered by an Intel Atom motherboard for faster file load times and the handling of larger music libraries, the BDP-2 has six USB 2.0 inputs, with a future upgrade planned to eight USB 3.0 inputs, that eSATA input and pair of Ethernet ports, and two RS-232 serial ports for control.
As well as playing music from connected hard-drives, it can act as a DLNA/UPnP server, providing music to other devices on the home network, and can also be connected directly to a NAS.
There's a range of control options: you can use the front-panel buttons or Bryston's BR2 remote handset; the Bryston-MAX web app for PCs or Bryston-MINI on iOS or Android devices; or third-party options such as the Minion add-on for Firefox web-browsers or the mPod app for iPod Touch and iPhone.
Output from the BDP-2 is on BNC S/PDIF and AES/EBU electrical digital connections.
Both units are available this month.