Announcing The Bryston BR-20 Preamp/DAC/Streamer

[jmpotier]

I acquired a BR-20 in May. I was previously using a BDP-1 player with a BP-26 preamp with integrated DAC.

The BR-20 is easily a much better digital player than the BDP-1 and the DAC can handle 196KHz signals plus DSD, whereas the BP-26 DAC card is limited to 92KHz signals and no DSD (though I have few 196KHz music files and no DSD).

It also sounds great. Compared to the BP26, the BR-20's soundstage is much better defined and more stable; detail retrieval and accuracy are also slightly better. On the other hand, the BP-26 sounds a little more lively, more "present", whereas the BR-20 is more restrained.

My only wish is that the BR-20 could be used as a straight digital player & DAC, i.e. bypassing the preamp section because I also have a BHA-1 headphone amp, and my Focal Utopia headphones sound noticeably better if I play music from my BDP-1 player through the BP-26 than directly from the BR-20, or even with the BR-20 feeding my BHA-1 amp. Don't get me wrong, the headphone output from the BR-20 is very good, but it doesn't sound as good as the BHA-1 for which I also use a really good XLR cable (which I can't use with the BR-20).

Overall, though, a fantastic player, DAC, preamp, or whatever you want to call it!!!