vlach

It's important to remember that the Dodson WAS more expensive than the Bryston. Recall that the DA217 mkII-D is an older DAC (I think it came out in Fall 2000). Accordingly, as of right now, the Dodson appears to be very close in price to the BDA-1, and probably lower in most cases. However, if the DACs were currently trading at their original MSRPs, then no I don't think I would say that the upgrade would be worth the 2.5x price difference. At a couple hundred bucks, it's a different story. However, one also needs to take into account the fact that Dodson is now defunct, though still supported, and the gear is getting old. While built well, it ain't gonna last forever. As for diminishing returns, it seems to me that you can get a very, very good DAC for $1500 or less (much less in some cases) on the used market. After that, it seems to me (without much support for the following conclusion) that the next "rung" probably starts at $2500, but that's speculative at best. Thank you, those are all very good points. I guess i'm at a point where i'm trying to figure out what is the best way to spend $2K on a DAC...

Thanks for clarifying, and yes, i can see why volume matching was not necessary in your Bryston-Dodson test. As an example regarding output voltage, when comparing my Naim CD5i player at 2.0V against the DacMagic at 2.1V, the audible difference in audio output level was very obvious and required volume matching. Getting back to the Bryston, which is significantly cheaper than the Dodson, would you say the upgrade is worthwhile purely from a cost perspective? Another question would be where to you place the $ yard stick in terms of where the law of diminishing return kicks in for DACs in general?

Hi, I am new to this forum. I own the Cambridge DacMagic and have been salivating at the Bryston DAC ever since it came out. It's been very difficult to find testimonies, descriptions & comparisons from actual Bryston owners and you are one of the very few that i found. Question; i hear the Bryston has a 2.3V output level which is higher than that of other DACs. Therefore, for equal comparison and testing against other DACs this requires proper volume matching. How is the output level of the Dodson in comparison to the Bryston and did you take this into account with your testing? Thanks.