Mr Pig
9th May 2010, 15:41
Beresford DAC Review.
Bit of an accidental review this, bear with me. I've never used a stand-alone DAC as I've never needed to but this one fell across my path so I had a play with it.
My son listens to music mostly via his computer and to improve the quality he recently bought an old Cyrus One integrated amp off Ritchie/Jazzy. Whilst at Ritchie's I mentioned that we also planned on getting a DAC to improve on the computer's built in effort and Ritchie lent us a Beresford TC-7510 to try. It obviously was a huge improvement to the sound coming out of the computer but I couldn't resist trying it on my CD player too.
My CD player is a Micromega Leader. For those who don't know it was an eighties single-box player, the cheapest in the French manufacturers range, and sounds almost exactly the same as the Naim CD3.5 I had before it. So it's an upfront, rhythmic player probably on a par with players in the £1500 range today. That's a guess but it's not the best in the world but not junk! Thankfully, unlike the Naim, it has a digital out.
So the little Beresford box was plugged into the Micromega and popped onto the shelf next to the turntable PSU. About a week later it's still there!
Initially I have to say it sounded less than great. It was harsh, thin and as nasty as you'd expect a budget product to be so my first thought was 'oh well, no big deal' but thankfully I know better than to draw conclusions too quickly. Just as well because once fully warmed up it's a different entity.
The worst you could say about the Beresford is that it's at least as good as the Micromega's DAC. Truthfully though, it's better. It is cleaner and seems tonally more accurate making notes easier to identify. They are certainly better defined and better separated from each other. I did get some of those 'not heard that before' moments.
The surprise was that this extra refinement did not come at the expense of dynamics or rhythmic impetus, it often does with CD. The Beresford displays an exceptionally fine balance of attributes with no glaring weaknesses at all. It's a very musical device that encourages longer listening.
However the two most important things to remember here are the price and the fact that this 7510 is not as good as Bereford can get. Their DACs seem to be constantly improving so the DAC you buy today will probably be better than this example. Plus they supply a higher spec one called the Caiman and there are lots of upgrades available for the Beresford DACs too.
Which brings you back to the price. As these Beresford DACs can take a digital signal out of just about anything and re-clock it, in theory you should get good quality out of any old digital source. A CD player, DVD player or computer and you're in business with sound quality to rival a decent CD player ten-times the price!
In short this is a fantastic little product which delivers real Hi-Fi at a bargain price. Add in the fact that it's incredibly versatile and even has a headphone amp built in and just how big a bargain becomes clear. Just a pity I have to give Ritchie this one back! ;0)
LINK to Beresford (http://www.beresford.me/main/main.html)
http://www.beresford.me/images/TC-75106/TC-7510F.jpg
Bit of an accidental review this, bear with me. I've never used a stand-alone DAC as I've never needed to but this one fell across my path so I had a play with it.
My son listens to music mostly via his computer and to improve the quality he recently bought an old Cyrus One integrated amp off Ritchie/Jazzy. Whilst at Ritchie's I mentioned that we also planned on getting a DAC to improve on the computer's built in effort and Ritchie lent us a Beresford TC-7510 to try. It obviously was a huge improvement to the sound coming out of the computer but I couldn't resist trying it on my CD player too.
My CD player is a Micromega Leader. For those who don't know it was an eighties single-box player, the cheapest in the French manufacturers range, and sounds almost exactly the same as the Naim CD3.5 I had before it. So it's an upfront, rhythmic player probably on a par with players in the £1500 range today. That's a guess but it's not the best in the world but not junk! Thankfully, unlike the Naim, it has a digital out.
So the little Beresford box was plugged into the Micromega and popped onto the shelf next to the turntable PSU. About a week later it's still there!
Initially I have to say it sounded less than great. It was harsh, thin and as nasty as you'd expect a budget product to be so my first thought was 'oh well, no big deal' but thankfully I know better than to draw conclusions too quickly. Just as well because once fully warmed up it's a different entity.
The worst you could say about the Beresford is that it's at least as good as the Micromega's DAC. Truthfully though, it's better. It is cleaner and seems tonally more accurate making notes easier to identify. They are certainly better defined and better separated from each other. I did get some of those 'not heard that before' moments.
The surprise was that this extra refinement did not come at the expense of dynamics or rhythmic impetus, it often does with CD. The Beresford displays an exceptionally fine balance of attributes with no glaring weaknesses at all. It's a very musical device that encourages longer listening.
However the two most important things to remember here are the price and the fact that this 7510 is not as good as Bereford can get. Their DACs seem to be constantly improving so the DAC you buy today will probably be better than this example. Plus they supply a higher spec one called the Caiman and there are lots of upgrades available for the Beresford DACs too.
Which brings you back to the price. As these Beresford DACs can take a digital signal out of just about anything and re-clock it, in theory you should get good quality out of any old digital source. A CD player, DVD player or computer and you're in business with sound quality to rival a decent CD player ten-times the price!
In short this is a fantastic little product which delivers real Hi-Fi at a bargain price. Add in the fact that it's incredibly versatile and even has a headphone amp built in and just how big a bargain becomes clear. Just a pity I have to give Ritchie this one back! ;0)
LINK to Beresford (http://www.beresford.me/main/main.html)
http://www.beresford.me/images/TC-75106/TC-7510F.jpg