[James Tanner - Bryston]

Here is another review on the BDP-2

Notes from The Old Audio Guy
Thoughts on the Bryston BDP-2

My initiation into the digitized music world has not been an easy one. Growing up with vinyl LPs and cassettes ifyou can believe it – digital for me was really just the skill set required to put a record on the turntable or push theplay button on the Akai 760D. After a disastrous and costly fling with a batch of pricey British streamers that just never sounded “right” to me, Idecided to “think globally but shop locally” and was introduced to the Canadian engineered and manufacturedBryston BDP-2. I will save you the trouble of looking at the end of this review by telling you now that the Bryston does sound rightto me. In fact it sounds “more right” than any of my vinyl (we will leave cassettes for another time) and better thanmy CD oriented front end of $15k components.

The BDP-2 hits all the notes. It is eminently affordable (by audiophile standards it is a bargain) but nowhere canone see any evidence of cost cutting. The casework and controls are beautifully made and everything works at thelevel of an Omega watch. The BDP-2 does not flaunt itself and is not really “audio Jewellery” but is quietly elegantand totally reliable in operation. Bryston’s record of reliability is unmatched in the audio world.
Music played through the Bryston sounds natural and encompassing. It sounds like music and not like Hi-Fi eventhough all of the Hi-Fi triggers are there. It images better than anything I have had in my system. Tonality isaccurate and unforced – the control over the bottom end of things is especially tight and tuneful. There isabsolutely no indication that this piece is “digital” in any way. The sound is organic and is easily as good andholistic as anything I have heard from a class A turntable.

The BDP-2 reminds me of another smartly engineered, self –effacing item that is likely better than it needs to beand seems built to work forever – the Swiss Army Knife. The Bryston has outputs (SPDIF, AES/EBU, Optical) that will accommodate themselves to pretty well any DAC onechooses to use it with- though the matching Bryston BDA-2 is a natural choice. The front mounted USB inputsmake playing music from a USB stick easy. In the rear more USB inputs allow connection of USB sticks or portablehard drive devices. It has 2 Ethernet inputs rather than one (I still have not figured out if using both of themimproves anything – I will have to ask Mr. Tanner from Bryston) – and in keeping with its timely updating from theBDP-1 the Ethernet is now Gigabit rather than 10 Base 100. This is a huge improvement as the BDP-2 not only playsmusic from an attached hard drive but will stream from a NAS across your network. With Gigabit bandwidth thestreaming is as good as the playback from attached drive – there are no latency issues - and uploading operationsare much faster than anything I have tried before.
Accessing it on your Apple device – either iPad or Pod is convenient and elegant using an inexpensive app calledMPad. If you are PC centric Bryston has their own PC based access to the BDP2 which while not as mature andswooshy as the Apple based software is functional and reliable. It also works with the stand alone Bryston remoteor from the front panel controls on the BDP-2 itself.

I love this piece and I have purchased my demo sample, replacing the pricey British streamers and the tuneful butinput restricted Moon 180 Mind in my system. It has changed the way I interface with my music and makes theplayback process transparent and easy leaving one’s mind open to appreciate the music. Which is the whole pointof Hi-Fi in the first place.

FIVE STARS!