Great What HiFi review of my fave budget DAC - Beresford

I've been a long-time fan of Stanley Beresford's TC-7510 DAC, first coming across it in mk2 form several years ago, and then being well and truly wow-ed by the mk3. Finally, now there's a mainstream magazine review of the device, in mk6.3 form, by What HiFi.

http://whathifi.com/Review/Beresford-TC-7510/

Five stars! - well done Stanley - I hope this brings you the broader audience you have craved and the success you deserve.

 

What is Stanley's actual role , the dacs are made by TEC in Taiwan, and various rebadged ( re silk screened ) versions are sold by resellers all over the place, like this version.
http://www.avartix.net/english/TC-7510-DAC.html
Does Stanley just buy them in or does he have any design input at all, genuine question thanks.

 

The circuit design is pretty much his own, he used the TEC kit as the original basis for the Mk1, but later versions have become substantially different ... I've seen him in action designing new layouts on his PC. The power supply is especially clever - sort of like the Trichord Never Connected idea so the circuit is well isolated from the vaguaries of the mains.

 

Thanks Jerry so if I bought the avartix version it would be substantially different?

 

Yes. In fact, the current Mk6.3 was developed with substantial input from a member of another forum to tune it more to a Chord DAC64 type of sound, iirc.

 

Oh dear!

 

Wow, in depth review.

 

Lets hope this forum doesn't have the same kind of "appreciation" that was instigated on head-fi.

 

What happened on 'head -fi', I should add I bought a beresford ,and it was a dac ,completely ordinary, but cheap enough.

 

5 stars in what's hifi?



...must be good then...

 

I am considering something like this, how would it compare to the DAC in the M Audio 24/96 and the Marantz PM6000 OSE LE?

 

I wouldn't bother if I were you. Your M-audio can be upgraded though, you know. You can take the output directly from the DAC and simply run it through a couple of good quality caps to remove the DC. It would be quite simple to do. The regulator can also be replaced with a drop in 3 pin type like Burson offer. It would kick some arse then

 

Or wait and try out the new Cambridge Audio DAC.
It says available on the CA web site so I phoned my local (Belfast) Richer Sounds yesterday to get a price and acutal date for availability. They asked me to hang on then just left me hanging there listening to shop noise for 20 minutes till I hung up.

 

I meant the CD6000 OSE btw but I assume you knew that .

I best not touch my M Audio . I do have a very high quality Emnermax 600W power supply though which may help matters as the voltage it provides the components is supposed to be very very stable.

 

Unfortunately there was probably the most over the top attempt at promotion of a product that I've ever seen by someone who supposedly has "no ties" to the producer.
Things seem to have gone quiet more recently, I'm guessing the poster in question was banned.
The key point is that it's actually quite a good DAC, particularly so for the dosh. The problem is that said poster was trying to make it out to be some incredible giant killer. Whilst it's good, it really isn't THAT good.

 

I bought one ,because of the hype surrounding it, did the thread on 'head-fi' ever dscover whether it is just a re-badge?

 

Frankly I never really cared. My only interest was whether it did what some people claimed it did. I owned a mk6 for a few months. For the dosh, pretty good, and with a shed load of inputs, rather versatile. Unfortunately, whilst good, it certainly isn't the uber giant killer that some people were trying to suggest.

 

The Beresford certainly seems very system dependent - I sold a pair of Kharma Ceramique 3 speakers (sale price £1350, RRP about £4.5k) on the basis of a demo using only the Beresford Mk3 DAC - in fact the buyer then went on to buy one for himself and then sold his £2k Linn Ikemi CDP! A real ear-opener of a sound.

But I've also heard it substituted into a system (Roksan electronics and Opera speakers, using the very same Beresford unit) where it sounded drab and ordinary.

Most strange, but at least with Beresford's money back guarantee you can try it out in your own system.

 

it's a rather average sounding DAC, nice and cheap, clean sounding but nothing out of the ordinary.

 

My experience is very limited regarding Dacs: to burn in my DIY speakers I use my laptop and an admittedly old QED digit and Sugden A48 and it sounds quite reasonable but when I substituted the Digit with a mate's Beresford 6/3 it improved really quite noticeably so although I don't doubt there will be better ones out there, I would take "rather average" sounding as a bit misleading, the sound was far from the average I am used to hearing from Cds. ; I have also heard a modded Mk.3 (very simple - cut a couple of tracks and solder in a couple of links - Stanley will advise) and the change is really quite remarkably transformed for the better when used with a Sugden CD21