"The Sound of the Bryston BDA-3.14 Was Fantastic." – Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity
Powerful Bit-Perfect Digital Playback Meets the Industry-Leading DAC
Bryston's digital audio systems just keep on getting better and better, and there seems to be no end of excellence in sight. That's because Bryston has just combined the powerful bit-perfect digital playback engine found in its award-winning BDP digital players with the best DAC that Bryston has ever built. And the internal player is coupled to the high-resolution DACs by I2S, the ideal interface for digital audio.
"The sound of the Bryston BDA-3.14 was fantastic," reports John E Johnson Jr. in his review for Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity. John praises the 3.14 for its "excellent clarity, clean, and dynamic. High-resolution adds detail and dynamics." He goes on to say, "(1) There is no loss in quality of the music that Qobuz serves; and (2) the Bryston BDA-3.14 DAC re-clocks the bitstream beautifully."
"Clearly, the BDA-3.14 is a great DAC with a truly excellent streamer section on board," notes Christiaan Punter, hifi-advice.com, February 1, 2020. "When used as a standalone DAC using its SP/DIF input with any source, it holds up strong, even in comparison with much more expensive DACs."
Punter goes on to say, "The BDA-3.14 has a solid and immediately likable sound with great resolution, perfect natural timbre (no artifice) and lively dynamics and without any hardness or edge. Along with the propulsive liveliness, it also has a subtle smoothness and fluidity that makes the end result revealing yet forgiving."
Advanced Multi-Function DAC
The BDA-3.14 multi-function DAC adds an array of impressive features to Bryston's much heralded BDA-3 DAC platform. The BDA-3.14 delivers the performance and unmatched build quality that music aficionados have come to expect from Bryston.
The Bryston BDA-3.14 keeps all the same features as the award-winning BDA-3 while adding streaming flexibility via a built-in Raspberry Pi. Essentially, combining the features of the BDA-3 and the BDP-Pi to provide a fully functioning DAC capable of operating as a standalone unit for streaming your favorite audio content.
The BDP section of the BDA-3.14 can play high resolution music from all of your favorite sources including Qobuz, Tidal, USB attached drives, network attached storage, and even Roon. With support for hi-res PCM up to 192/24, your tunes will never sound clearer and more detailed. And the digital volume control provides preamp functionality.
Exceptional High Performance
"Bryston is excited to be able to deliver the exceptionally high performance of our digital music player and our DAC merged into a single chassis solution,” notes Bryston's Gary Dayton. “Now music enthusiasts can enjoy a sleek, easy-to-use ultimate performance streamer/DAC combo as centerpiece of their digital entertainment system."
The BDA-3.14 offers streaming capability via a built-in BDP music player that delivers access to network-connected storage and USB drives as well as streaming services such as Qobuz, Tidal, Roon and Internet radio. Digital connectivity between the internal music player and the DAC is managed using the I2S protocol, a premium interface standard used for connecting digital audio devices together that preserves audio and clock data with virtually zero error.
Easy Control and Integration
The BDA-3.14 also features a digital volume control, enabling users to drive an amplifier directly. An updated version of Bryston’s Manic Moose user interface for phones, tablets and computers provides users with intuitive control over all functionality.
Player firmware has been updated to provide full control over the whole system including playback of the internal player, input switching for access to other connected digital sources, and even volume control so you can integrate the BDA-3.14 into your system without a separate preamplifier.
Award-Winning Bryston DAC Technology
The multi-award-winning BDA-3 DAC can decode up to 384 kHz / 32-bit PCM music and up to DSDx4 natively. Each format is processed in its native resolution, preserving absolute bit-perfect signals all the way to the analog outputs. Additionally, Bryston’s ultra-precise re-clocking circuit reduces jitter to nearly unmeasurable levels. Bryston’s proprietary analog section is completely free of integrated circuits (ICs) that limit the bandwidth and dynamic range of so many competitive DACs.
Use diverse audio sources such as Bryston's BDP digital music players, computers, music servers, and CD players to get the most accurate and superb sounding digital playback currently available. The BDA-3.14 delivers superb sonic performance through re-sampling and re-clocking of the digital input signal.
For maximum flexibility, the BDA-3 has an astonishing ten discrete inputs including four two-channel HDMI, asynchronous USB, AES/EBU, TOSLINK, and digital coax. It also includes Bryston’s network module, which facilitates control via TCP/IP and RS-232, which is a must for integration with modern smart home platforms.
