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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2018 18:36:25 GMT
I heard one of these a few days back, in my system. Fed by a very capable Philips CDP.
I thought it wasn't great. Swapped the PSU for the proper 15v one and it got better but just sounded like something I wouldn't buy. The Bel Canto DAC sounded far better and yes, I know it's far more expensive.
Now, I know Stan is a British designer and manufacturer and I'm happy to support homegrown companies, but have I got something wrong with me?
Everyone raves about them but I just didn't hear 'it'
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2018 18:49:09 GMT
Same with everything - beauty is in the ears of the beholder. I have not heard one but then i lead a sheltered life in the wilds. I respect his direct selling way to market, more should be doing that.
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Oct 13, 2018 19:57:18 GMT
I had a Caiman but only used it with usb feed from a laptop. It was doomed to failure due to my hatred of anything Microsoft/PC related. I never compared it with any other player or DAC, so I don’t know how good or bad it was. Ultimately it was the build quality that I couldn’t hack. It was decent enough, but I didn’t hear anything to get excited about.
Now this is no criticism of Beresford because it’s built to a cost and all the focus is on performance. I couldn’t live with its looks or build. It looked and felt like those Chinese T amps that I loathe.
I should add that the maker seems like a really decent bloke with a lot of ability. Whilst I need to have something more solidly built and “prettier”, there are many who would rather have a bargain priced component. I respect that.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2018 21:45:49 GMT
Same with everything - beauty is in the ears of the beholder. I have not heard one but then i lead a sheltered life in the wilds. I respect his direct selling way to market, more should be doing that. Absolutely and i would love to support him in his efforts. I am not the biggest fan of digital and i accept that. I really want to like digital too as there's loads of bands i ilove who never released on vinyl so i am currently not listening to them. OK, lets rephrase my post..... Is there a way of improving the Caiman which won't cost me an arm and a leg? |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2018 21:47:30 GMT
I had a Caiman but only used it with usb feed from a laptop. It was doomed to failure due to my hatred of anything Microsoft/PC related. I never compared it with any other player or DAC, so I don’t know how good or bad it was. Ultimately it was the build quality that I couldn’t hack. It was decent enough, but I didn’t hear anything to get excited about. Now this is no criticism of Beresford because it’s built to a cost and all the focus is on performance. I couldn’t live with its looks or build. It looked and felt like those Chinese T amps that I loathe. I should add that the maker seems like a really decent bloke with a lot of ability. Whilst I need to have something more solidly built and “prettier”, there are many who would rather have a bargain priced component. I respect that. Stan is a very respected guy and rightly so. He has made all of his own success and charges a pittance for his work. I really respect him and his ethos. Maybe i should get the Caiman here and give it a fair crack. In fact, i will!! |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2018 22:07:50 GMT
Same with everything - beauty is in the ears of the beholder. I have not heard one but then i lead a sheltered life in the wilds. I respect his direct selling way to market, more should be doing that. Absolutely and i would love to support him in his efforts. I am not the biggest fan of digital and i accept that. I really want to like digital too as there's loads of bands i ilove who never released on vinyl so i am currently not listening to them. OK, lets rephrase my post..... Is there a way of improving the Caiman which won't cost me an arm and a leg? Try bypassing the anologue output stage if there is one. If anything shares a regulator with anything else then give it its own reg. Add more power supplies (that might be more expensive) if there are easy ways to do so. Have a search around the internet (especially diyaudio.com) to find peole who have actually modified one. Them peeps on TAS seem to love aBeresford or two. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2018 22:48:32 GMT
They do and there are plenty of fans over on AoS so there must be something in it!! Right?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2018 22:51:33 GMT
Yeah, if they were crap people would be sayin so. Dont feel sad that you are not that impressed. Dont run with the flock. In the words of fleetwood mac......you can go your own way.......
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Oct 14, 2018 7:59:19 GMT
Personally, I’d start with a different maker. I could be 100% wrong but the Beresford I had wasn’t the sort of sound I’d associate with analogue lovers. It was more in the lean, bright, thin, “cardboard” club, along with the vast majority of CD. There’s a CDI with a likely chip failure on eBay right now. In stock form, it’s the most analogue player I’ve heard. God knows what it could be with some mods. Just a thought. I’m sure there are many others out there. Techies maybe?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2018 9:38:39 GMT
Carboard = too much fltering maybe ?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2018 11:56:11 GMT
It depends on what version you are talking about. The latest SEG may be more to your tastes. Also depends on which filter setting is used. For the money it's very good and there are now some upgrades which may or may not make a big difference irrespective of claims on other forums. It certainly is a big improvement over the 90s TEAC DAC I was using previously. Great combination with Cambridge CXC. I can't say it sounds analogue but it lacks any digititis. I will have to do some more comparisons with the DAC in the Oppo 205. On brief test with same transport not a lot in it. Maybe it's not the most detailed by current standards. I'm sure the Oppo 205 used with it's own transport digs out more detail (at more than twice the price + it plays all other disc formats).
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Oct 14, 2018 11:57:53 GMT
Edit: In reply to Stu: Not sure. I had a player with no digital filter and switchable oversampling, but it wasn’t anything special. Still very CD-like in it’s sound. I’d expected it to be a cure for the things I don’t like but the cardboard was still there aplenty.
I’m talking from zero tech knowledge but the only consistent things I seem to have found are that better mechanical build and more/better/bigger power supplies seems to be a better cure for the weaknesses I hear with CD.
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Post by antonio on Oct 14, 2018 14:51:34 GMT
I had a Caiman but only used it with usb feed from a laptop. It was doomed to failure due to my hatred of anything Microsoft/PC related. I never compared it with any other player or DAC, so I don’t know how good or bad it was. Ultimately it was the build quality that I couldn’t hack. It was decent enough, but I didn’t hear anything to get excited about. Now this is no criticism of Beresford because it’s built to a cost and all the focus is on performance. I couldn’t live with its looks or build. It looked and felt like those Chinese T amps that I loathe. I should add that the maker seems like a really decent bloke with a lot of ability. Whilst I need to have something more solidly built and “prettier”, there are many who would rather have a bargain priced component. I respect that. Stan is a very respected guy and rightly so. He has made all of his own success and charges a pittance for his work. I really respect him and his ethos. Maybe i should get the Caiman here and give it a fair crack. In fact, i will!! Loads of info on The Audio Standard forum. Members on there think it's the bees knees. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2018 17:20:59 GMT
Stan is a very respected guy and rightly so. He has made all of his own success and charges a pittance for his work. I really respect him and his ethos. Maybe i should get the Caiman here and give it a fair crack. In fact, i will!! Loads of info on The Audio Standard forum. Members on there think it's the bees knees. I know mate, I just didn't hear it that way. The Bel Canto was way out in front. It reminded me of the Vinyls ability for depth and width but didn't quite match it. The Beresford didn't Remind me of that at all. I think I need to get it here again and give it a good run out. |
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Post by antonio on Oct 15, 2018 5:04:57 GMT
I've never heard one, so cannot comment. A friend, who's ears I trust, was also underwhelmed by a Bel Canto. Are you interested in getting a new dac?
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Oct 15, 2018 7:50:23 GMT
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Post by antonio on Oct 15, 2018 9:11:27 GMT
Treat yourself and start a new thread.  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2018 10:48:33 GMT
Treat yourself and start a new thread. Yeah go on.  Is it a class A cd player though ? That's what I wanted to know |
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Oct 15, 2018 12:38:57 GMT
I think my time for such stuff has passed. Would still love to hear one though, but unlikely to ever happen now. Buying stuff has really lost its appeal for me. These days I get more frustration from having kit hanging round than I dompleasure from snapping it up.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2018 10:45:38 GMT
It depends on what version you are talking about. The latest SEG may be more to your tastes. Also depends on which filter setting is used. For the money it's very good and there are now some upgrades which may or may not make a big difference irrespective of claims on other forums. It certainly is a big improvement over the 90s TEAC DAC I was using previously. Great combination with Cambridge CXC. I can't say it sounds analogue but it lacks any digititis. I will have to do some more comparisons with the DAC in the Oppo 205. On brief test with same transport not a lot in it. Maybe it's not the most detailed by current standards. I'm sure the Oppo 205 used with it's own transport digs out more detail (at more than twice the price + it plays all other disc formats). The Beresford was a Caiman II i believe. The unit has had a new clock fitted which has fleshed things out a little, I'm told anyway. I've asked for another listen to it so hopefully, I can get it on loan for a few days. I'm not giving up on the Beresford just yet but I would agree with the comments here that the SQ was a bit thin and lacked some dimension. Hopefully the modded version (the clock was £3 apparently) will win me over. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2018 10:46:00 GMT
Treat yourself and start a new thread. Yeah go on. Is it a class A cd player though ? That's what I wanted to know 😂😂 |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2018 10:50:23 GMT
I've never heard one, so cannot comment. A friend, who's ears I trust, was also underwhelmed by a Bel Canto. Are you interested in getting a new dac? The Bel Canto I heard was a 3.0 I think. Next to the Beresford it sounded fantastic but against the Vinyl it lost any appeal it had very quickly. I have a lot of music in Hi-res files that I can't get on Vinyl and due to my digi-phobia, I'm not listening to a huge chunk of my music collection. I would prefer a simple plug and play Laptop to DAC arrangement, even though I know it's not ideal in SQ. I think I'm just gonna go cheap and cheerful for non critical digital listening. Any suggestions? |
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Oct 16, 2018 19:24:24 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2018 19:38:27 GMT
Not sure I'm convinced enough to throw any money in just yet. I'll wait until the modded one is available for a review here.
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Post by antonio on Oct 17, 2018 5:09:23 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2018 5:28:34 GMT
Looks like an interesting dac in the link.
Anyone got a view on the TDA1540 ? The original 14 bit chip as found in phillips cd104. Supposed to sound very good.
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Post by antonio on Oct 17, 2018 5:48:01 GMT
Stu, it was GeorgeHincapie who purchased on and I had it on loan, was a very easy listen. Was bettered by my Calyx, but these were £1500 when new.
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Oct 17, 2018 7:46:15 GMT
Looks like an interesting dac in the link. Anyone got a view on the TDA1540 ? The original 14 bit chip as found in phillips cd104. Supposed to sound very good. I had a spin of one again recently in a CD54, It was enjoyable but I dunno how good ultimately. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2018 8:57:24 GMT
I've tried one of those. It wasn't quite as transparent as the XiangSheng DAC01 I had here at the time. I think it was sold for £50 which is about what it cost to buy it, used. Price seems very excessive now. |
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Post by antonio on Oct 17, 2018 10:25:25 GMT
Yes it does.
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