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Havana DAC vs Bryston BDA-1

post #1 of 8
7/7/09 at 5:37pm
Thread Starter 
Hi,
Simple question:
Which one will you choose if you can afford both ? and why?
Thanks
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post #2 of 8
7/7/09 at 6:46pm
I would choose the Bryston. With it, you have option of selecting upsampling or no upsampling. It has more digital inputs. It comes with a 5 year warranty honored by a North American company with great customer service. Best of all, it sounds great. I compared it to CD players and DACs costing a lot more and it was on par. It has a balanced, non-digital, and full bodied sound. Hard to do better unless you buy a Berkeley DAC which costs about 2.5Xs as much
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post #3 of 8
7/7/09 at 8:36pm
Havent heard the Bryston but I must say that the Havana using LM Ericsson 2c51 tubes sound very very good!
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post #4 of 8
7/7/09 at 11:06pm
It's apples and oranges I think. The Bryston, although it can do NOS, will still sound very different from the Havana because the Havana has a tube output. It depends what you want, I'm pretty sure the Bryston will be more detailed and neutral sounding (don't quote me on neutral, just basing off other DACs with the same chip, could be implemented differently) while the Havana will sound very natural and analogue sounding (compared to my Cary 306 SACD). If inputs matter to you as well, then the Bryston has the upper hand, although you MAY be able to order a havana with BNC instead of spdif. Also, it will depend if you need 24bit, since the Havana will take it but down-convert it to 16bit and neither does HDCD I think. So it really all depends what you're looking for, and if you like the sound of tubes or not
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post #5 of 8
7/8/09 at 1:04am
Bryston cant do nos cant it? Just upsampling or no upsampling but it always has oversampling.

Heres what I read from here http://www.cinemaexperience.co.uk/bryston.php

"This DAC uses a process similar to the previously detailed upsampling process where it oversamples the incoming signal. The CS-4398 operates in one of three oversampling modes based on the input sample rate. Single-speed mode supports input sample rates up to 50 kHz and uses a 128x oversampling ratio. Double-speed mode supports input sample rates up to 100 kHz and uses an oversampling ratio of 64x. Quad-speed mode supports input sample rates up to 200 kHz and uses an oversampling ratio of 32x. This again allows for filtering that is safely out of the audible range. The output of this process is a sensitive analog signal. The timing of this process must be very closely controlled by a low-jitter clock. "

So no Non-oversampling mode as far as I can see
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post #6 of 8
7/8/09 at 2:12am
Ah I missed that part, it's even more apples vs oranges then.
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post #7 of 8
7/8/09 at 5:08am
The bottom line answer to the original question is that it depends on personal taste and system matching. upsampling modes on the bryston may help with some system tuning while with the havana its tube rolling
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post #8 of 8
7/8/09 at 5:25am
Thread Starter 
Well actually i got no DAC at all, i "only" have a Marantz SA8003 but soon or later i'll take a DAC to use it with my PC and maybe even with the SA8003 itself. Reading your answer both DACs seems to stay in the same "category" of performance, even if they sound different. If i got it right is a taste and features choice more than "This one is high end and this is not" matter
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