Bryston BDP-1 for Theta Digital & Aerial Music and Home Theater System!

Steve Bruzonsky

Well-Known Member
May 15, 2010
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I have just ordered a Bryston BDP-1 media player to go with my audio and home theater system (Theta CB3 HD SSP, Theta Gen 8 Series 3 DAC, pair of Theta Citadel 1.5 monoblocks, three Theta Enterprise monoblocks, four Aerial 9s, one Aerial CC5, three Aerial SW-12 subwoofers.) My Theta SSP and Gen 8 DAC both have digital BNC, RCA and AES/EBU inputs – the Gen 8 AES/EBU input is already being used as its connected to the Theta SSP’s digital out card. A number of Theta CB3 HD owners at AVS Forum already have the BDP-1 and they absolutely luv it raving about its sonic quality.

I have an Apple Ipad2 I will use as a remote/media manager. I have a Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV8 i7 quad core notebook I will use for ripping CDs/discs. My home theater system has excellent high speed wireless N and internet access thanks to Monster Cable powerline wireless and Apple Airport base station and several Apple Airport Expresses around my home and theater.

I’d like input on your suggestions on software, cabling, USB drives, etc. to use with this setup:

Ripping Music:

DbPowerAmp to rip redbook CDs to FLAC files, which supports metadata song/album info. Or does anyone think WAV files, which don’t support metadata info, sounds discernably better?

DVD Audio Extractor, to rip/convert audio from DVDs http://www.dvdae.com/dvdae/

I saw something about using Korg Audiogate to rip/convert audio from SACDs
http://www.korguser.net/audiogate/en/index.html I glanced at the website and says you can use software if you sign up on the Twitter account. This sounds too good to be true? Is it? Is there any way to easily rip stereo SACDs to hi rez PCM on a PC?

Its easier for me to simply rip music to my Toshiba notebook’s built-in hard drive initially.
Then copy to external USB drive. But if I do this in this manner, is there an accuracy/jitter problem with the copy on the external USB drive? Or should I rip direct to an external USB drive connected via USB cable to my notebook? Or is there a special program to copy media files from my notebook to an external USB drive?


IPad2 as Remote and Media Manager:

My understanding is that its best to simply download and use MPAD from the i-tunes website for my IPad2 to work as a remote with full access to cover art and album/song info, etc. from the internet. Any info or suggestions in this regard?

Digital Cables/Connections:

An Absolute Sound Review noted that sonics were better using the BNC, rather than the AES/EBU, output from the Bryston BDP-1. Any comments or suggestions in this regard?

For years I’ve been happy using Granite Audio RCA coaxial digital cables 2M. Amir has mentioned that lengths less than 2M will have digital reflections/jitter problems. I need to get a new BNC to BNC coaxial digital cable for the BDP-1. Any suggestions? What if I use bnc-rca adapters, which I have from Radio Shack, will using the adapters have any effect on sound quality?



External USB Drives:

I read in one review that although USB thumb drives are useful, that the reviewer subjectively felt that the external USB hard drive sounded better than the USB thumb drive. Comments in this regard?

Suggestions for external USB hard drive to pair with BDP-1?

And is there any special software to use to make/copy/rip a backup USB hard drive of my media files?

Thanks.
 
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Hello Steve. I am new to this forum and would like to address some of your questions regarding the BDP1.
I have had the BDP1 and BDA1 for about 8 months and am extremely pleased with them. They have opened a whole new world of sound which I am sure you will experience once you start using yours.
DbPoweramp is excellent for ripping and converting files( such as FLAC to WAV). I have converted some FLAC files to WAV and do hear some difference in favor of WAV but not enough to convert my entire library.
I hear no differnce form flash drives vs. HDD. The Western Electric and Seagate external drives work just fine. James Tanner of Bryston suggests 500 to 750 GB drives but it seems that the latger 1 and 2 TB drives are now so efficient that they may work also. Take note that the lower USB connection on the back of the BDP1 has more power and is recomended for the larger drives. The front USB connections are for the flash drives.
MPad works very well and Bryston has it's own controller for the iPad which is called MAX. There is also MPod and Bryston MINI for Iphone and Ipod. There are also interfaces for PCs, Gnome and Minion(w/Mozilla Firefox).
As far the question of AES/EBU vs S/PDIF, I have spent a lot of time comparing the two and briefly, I prefer AES/EBU which to me sounds fuller and more analog-like. THe S/PDIF is also excellent, a bit more detailed but an over all thinner sound (in my humble opinion). I feel everyone needs to exeriment and the final result will depend on each individuals sound preference.
The Audio Cicrcle forum has an entire thread devoted to the BDP1. I would suggest that you go to this sight because there are countless answers to eveything that is BDP1 related.
Hpoe this all helps. Enjoy The Music. I'm sure you will with your new acquisition.
 
Welcome to the forum Binky.

Here is my post to Steve when he asked the question elsewhere:

I saw something about using Korg Audiogate to rip/convert audio from SACDs
http://www.korguser.net/audiogate/en/index.html I glanced at the website and says you can use software if you sign up on the Twitter account. This sounds too good to be true? Is it? Is there any way to easily rip stereo SACDs to hi rez PCM on a PC?
I would ask Bruce Brown about that. He is the expert in SACD rips. And yes, there is conversion software but you need to look at what it does in that process with respect to noise shaping that is used in SACD. See example here: http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?3534-Weiss-Saracon

Its easier for me to simply rip music to my Toshiba notebook’s built-in hard drive initially.
Then copy to external USB drive. But if I do this in this manner, is there an accuracy/jitter problem with the copy on the external USB drive? Or should I rip direct to an external USB drive connected via USB cable to my notebook? Or is there a special program to copy media files from my notebook to an external USB drive?
No problem at all. Files are staying in digital domain in this scenario and you can copy them around freely with zero degradation. Use whatever is convenient.

Digital Cables/Connections:

An Absolute Sound Review noted that sonics were better using the BNC, rather than the AES/EBU, output from the Bryston BDP-1. Any comments or suggestions in this regard?
These things are crap shoots and highly depending on your specific configuration. I would try both and at any rate, would not put much weight on the subjective review of TAS. Measurements are necessary here to know which one is superior.

In case of BNC, do you have that on the output of your source? If not, then conversion to and from RCA will introduce issues. My experience in general is that AES/EBU is superior.

For years I’ve been happy using Granite Audio RCA coaxial digital cables 2M. Amir has mentioned that lengths less than 2M will have digital reflections/jitter problems. I need to get a new BNC to BNC coaxial digital cable for the BDP-1. Any suggestions? What if I use bnc-rca adapters, which I have from Radio Shack, will using the adapters have any effect on sound quality?
Oh, so you do have RCA. If you have AES/EBU, I would definitely go with that option.

External USB Drives:

I read in one review that although USB thumb drives are useful, that the reviewer subjectively felt that the external USB hard drive sounded better than the USB thumb drive. Comments in this regard?
Another crap shoot. Also, you have to consider if all of your music fits on a thumb drive. Mine is hundreds of gigabytes so I go with hard disk. If yours less, then my preference is for flash thumbdrive.

And is there any special software to use to make/copy/rip a backup USB hard drive of my media files?

Thanks.
Per above, you don't need anything special. Just your operating systems copy method to move the files around.
 
Thanks DUDES!!! My BDP-1 is on order to drop ship from Bryston on Dec 6th. I am ripping CDs as we "speak"!
 

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