I am interested in Bryston BDP-3 and wonder if it can be connected with Directstream’s bridge card from its ethernet port or i2S port from its HDMI port. Anyone have such experiences?
I doubt so. Ethernet is not a peer to peer connection. The Bryston HDMI is not an I2S connection. Neither will work.
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The BDPs are great devices. I have two BDP-2s with IAD and a BDP-1. The BDP-2s are exceptional digital transports. They are built like a tank. The HDMI output on the BDP-3 is meant for connection to an AVR HDMI input, not an I2s input. The AES/EBU, BNC, and USB outputs on my BDP-2 work well. The BDP-1 works fine in Roon ready mode, but its a bit underpowered in the memory department.
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The HDMI on the BDP-3 works with Bryston’s BDA-3 DAC, and perhaps some others, but it is not PS I2S compatible.
The Ethernet connection is for accessing an external NAS and for networking the unit (such as for uploading files to a USB drive connected to the BDP-3 or to an internal drive if you opted for one). It does not stream via Ethernet.
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Have you installed SSD inside? If yes, how is sound quality?
No SSD inside. I use a small external SSD on each on them for use with MPD. It will also connect via Tidal, Qobuz, and something from Bryston called B-Radio. (ethernet connection).
IMO, Bryston MPD sounds better to me than Roon RAAT. The Manic Moose firmware is much less refined than Roon.
The BDP-2 with IAD is nearly as good sound quality wise as the BDP-3. One catch, you have to buy one made in the later half of 2015 or later, or buy an upgraded one. The early BDP-2s used Juli cards and were souped up BDP-1s with better memory.
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Cleared and thank you for those useful info
@netspecht-2 brought to my attention my reply was a bit ambiguous.
To clarify, the BDP can pulls qobuz, etc. off the Internet and sends it to a DAC via one of the BDP’s digital outs (USB, AES/EBU, etc.). This is equivalent to the BDP’s accessing a NAS via Ethernet.
But the BDP does not stream/push files to a DAC or a PS Audio Bridge via Ethernet.
I hope this is clear, and I am sorry for not doing a better job the first time.
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I also have a BDP-2, but I just never got to set it up ! One of many audio projects never started !
That’s a pricey piece to be just laying around. Does yours have the IAD upgrade?
No, it does not !
it would cost you about $500 for the kit. I bought mine both with the IAD factory installed. Bryston converted to their own setup mid-2015. The non-upgraded versions are similar to the BDP-1, but with better memory available.
Since the topic is the DirectStream DAC and the BDP-3, does anyone know if the issue dealing with 192kHz files has been resolved?
I recently posed this question on the audio circle site and the short answer is no. Below is the response from the Bryston rep on the site:
If you intend to use USB between the two pieces then as far as I’m aware there shouldn’t be any issues. The issue with AES or BNC for that matter is the PS Audio DAC has difficulties locking to the signal sent by the BDP via this method at higher sample rates like 176khz or 192khz.
Chris
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Thanks for the update. I figured that was the case. Since my BDP-1 has no issues with 178kHz and 192kHz files sent to the DS with either AES or Coax S/PDIF the issue has to be in the BDP-3 and upgraded BDP-2s. Thankfully my BDP-1 works great and is built like a tank.
Don’t know the details of the evolution but sometime during the production of the BDP-2, the digital output card was updated. Bryston offered it as an upgrade to older BDP-2 versions. It’s this card, which is used in the BDP-3, where the issue originated. It took the BDP-3 off my list of digital bridge/server upgrades.
I have an old BDP-2 with the old motherboard ready for sale if anyone is interested ! Included from Bryston is a document stating that the unit is authentic !
I connected Bryston BDP-3 to Directstream DAC with an USB 2 cable and it works fine with DSD file within a certain range of sampling rate. Is there any benefit that I change USB cable to 3?
I don’t think you would see any benefit unless you have an internal drive you are copying files to. When I do hard drive backups of my collection copying with USB 3 is way faster than USB 2, but I don’t believe any sound quality improvements would be yielded between the BDP-3 and DSD.
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Mine BDP-3 has an internal SSD drive but with copying files, it depends on speed of network (Ethernet or WiFi) while USB 2 cable is just sending music to DSD. Is that right?
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