bryston bdp-1

Goodbye CD players, hello Bryston BDP-1

I'm seeing fewer and fewer CD players at consumer electronics trade shows; most demonstrations play music from higher-than-CD-resolution digital files or LPs! No wonder CDs are used in less than 10 percent of the demos. So it seems like the CD, even for high-end audiophiles, will soon be an endangered species.

The Bryston BDP-1 High-Resolution Digital Music Player was designed to give audiophiles easy access to music files from USB storage devices. It's purely a player and therefore doesn't have a built-in hard-drive, streamer, or a CD player/ripper. The BDP-1 must be used with a digital-to-analog converter, and I'm sure most buyers will team the player with the company's stellar BDA-1 DAC.

Bryston is based in Peterborough, Ontario, just northeast of Toronto, and sells its products through more than 150 dealers in North America and in 60 countries worldwide.

The Linux-based BDP-1 is a standalone music player, though it can be used with a computer, iPhone, or iPad. The BDP-1's graphic interface operates under open-source software protocols, ensuring compatibility with the widest possible range of devices. Output connectivity options include AES-EBU (balanced) and BNC (spdif) jacks, with electronic isolation of audio components from computers. The BDP-1 supports 16 and 24 bit files with sample rates of 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 176.4 kHz and 192 kHz.… Read more