New Bryston CD Player

Finally! It's here!

Right out of the box this CD player rocks. Listening to Melody Gardot as I write this and I'm glad I waited and didn't succumb to other very good CD players.

I'll post pictures shortly, but for now this is a great compliment component to the BDA3 and, I would surmise the BDP2.

it is very very quiet, the tray makes very little noise when opening or closing. The unit is solid and well build much like the other digital components Bryston has recently produced.

For, those of you who stream music and have a digital set-up and are looking for an excellent no-nonsense CD player that will revitalize your red book CD collection, I would have to argue you'd be hard pressed to do better than the Bryston CDP3.
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Rock Hau
 
Bryston BCD-3 CD Player

James you nailed it Perfect!!

Listened to Rush- All the World's Stage (2112, By Tor Snowdog), Kitaro- Enchanted Evening, Dire Straits- Brothers is Arms, outstanding. Then Lp's that I transferred to cd such as Hair by the Cowsills, Ventures- Hawaii Five O, Hugo Montenegro - Spaghetti Westerns, I had tears of joy.

Best audio source on the market!

Mag
 
Hi Folks,

SNEAK PEEK:

First professional review on the Bryston BCD-3 CD Player coming soon.

Got this note today from the reviewer:

The Bryston BCD-3 CD Player is the state of the art, as far as I am concerned.

I have a history in house with many well known exalted players and I can tell you price is meaningless.

This is a home run.
 
Hi, I received my CD player five days ago and a review that is difficult to put into general audiophile terminology.

Very large soundstage, timbre, pace and tonal accuracy. However, this unit is simply musical. I put in my favorite CDs and forget about what I am supposed to hear and enjoy the music.

There is not the in-your-face detail as I experienced with my OPPO 105 but a very truthful and musical experience.

Whit my new BCD-3 my system came to life, both output RCA and XLR sound great. I have upgade the power cord and 1 fuses for now (need 2 fuses 1A 5x20 SB inside) with very nice result, more relaxe and full... Last 30 years I add: Denon 1520, CAL Icon 2, CJ, YBA, AR, Rega Saturn and more before and this Bryston is the most truthful and musical to my ears.

Now, let's play the music! Thanks Bryston! :thumb:

Steve
 
Dear James,

The Bryston BCD-3 CD Player arrived:

I have to add here that, after playing my "test/demo" disc for about 12 minutes, the BCD-3 is impressing me as no other CD player has done, even after hundreds of hours of burn-in.

And among those I've auditioned was one whose list price actually exceeded $20,000.

I can hardly believe what I've been hearing in the last couple of hours.

I haven't begun to list the unexpected benefits.

Cheers,
Richard F.
 
Hi Folks,

Sneak Peak:

Terrific review on the Bryston BCD-3 CD player coming in the August issue of Stereophile.

Here's my 2 favoute quotes from the review:

"This Bryston CD player’s measured performance reveals superb audio engineering."

"I came to regard it as that rarity of rarities: a high-end CD player without apparent flaw."

james
 
MEMO: To All Bryston Customers
SUBJECT: Bryston BCD-3 Stereophile Review

July, 2017

HI Folks,

Excellent review on the new Brytson BCD-3 CD Player from the August 2017 Stereophile Magazine.

Here's my 2 favourite quotes from the review:

• "This Bryston CD player’s measured performance reveals superb audio engineering."

• "I came to regard it as that rarity of rarities: a high-end CD player without apparent flaw."


Full Review Link:

http://www.bryston.com/PDF/reviews/2017_07_Review_Stereophile_BCD-3.pdf
 
HI Folks,

SS Logo.JPG

Terrific review due out September 15th from Soundstage Magazine on the Bryston BCD-3 CD Player.

Some really nice photos of the BCD-3 - this one of the innerds:

BCD-3 Guts.jpg
 
Hi Bryston

Just purchased last week. I now have 1200 new CDs to listen too.

Absolutely astounded by this product.

Thank you.
Mike
 
Hi James,

The BCD3 sounds stunning...I never knew how good redbood CD actually sounds !

With the BCD, I dont miss SACD or any of the other formats we had along the way...

Cheers
Tom
 
MEMO: To All Bryston Customers
SUBJECT: Review From Malaysia

April 2018

Bryston BCD-3 – keeping CD alive and relevant

Logo.JPG

CD Front.jpg


BRYSTON BCD-3 CD player

It’s 2018, and yes, we’re still with the CD format. Just as there are probably trillions of LPs out there waiting/needing to be played (and hence ensuring vinyl’s continued existence despite predictions of its demise as far back as the early 1990s), music lovers and audiophiles have billions of CDs in circulation that will keep the silver disc alive for a while longer. In fact, there is a signification swathe of audiophiles who prefer the completely hassle-free nature of CD playback, shunning vinyl (for its finicky nature) and today’s trend in streamers (for the perceived complexity).

Apart from vinyl, I have music stored in computers, network-attached storage and a hard disk player, yet, a good portion of my listening is reliant on CD playback. It’s convenient and my collection has been built over three decades. While my Sony HAP-Z1ES is increasingly taking up a fair share of my time, I often use the CD player as a reference. And honestly, there’s just more physical involvement than streaming music.

Getting to the point, which is CD playback… the Bryston BCD-3 CD player. We haven’t reviewed a CD player on this website for more than three years. Vinyl and USB DACs have been getting all the attention, but I was curious about the level of progress made in CD playback in recent times. My stalwart Ayon CD-1S a few years old… and something inside was nudging me to browse and hear what today’s technology had to offer.

The BCD-3 caught my attention because, as Bryston states, “universal disc players can play back CDs but certainly won’t resolve the full dynamic range and nuance the medium is capable of; they inherently compromise CD playback to support additional formats.”

The BCD-3, Bryston emphasises, “was engineered explicitly for the purpose of making your Redbook CDs sound amazing.” As you may have guessed, it plays only Redbook CD, and has both XLR and RCA analogue outputs, along with a coaxial (S/PDIF) and AES/EBU XLR output each, should you want to link it to an outboard DAC. The Ethernet and USB-A outputs you see on the rear panel are merely for control purposes.

The Bryston remote handset, the BR2, is an expensive option, but you can use a third-party universal remote. Or hook the player up, via the Ethernet port, to your home network and you can use a smart phone app to control the CD player. The BCD-3, which is available in black or silver faceplates (and with 2U rack-mount option), measures 432 x 85 x 293mm ((w/h/d) with its standard fascia. There’s a longer faceplate available which adds about 50mm to the width.

I took a unit back, ready to be amazed…

SETTING UP
CD players are simply plug-and-play, and this is no different. The decision is whether you want to use the RCA or XLR outputs. I can’t say I found any discernible difference in performance between both, but if you’re using long lengths of interconnects, it is advisable to opt for the balanced outputs.

On powering up, the BCD-3 initialises for a brief second and is ready to accept a disc. The green display is a bit retro and I found it a refreshing visual change.

The sliding tray for the transport is reinforced with slim metal bars at either side, and feels more reassuring than those on cheaper players. The display is a bit bright but can be controlled… but since I operated the player sans remote, I had to make do with the display screen at its brightest always.

LISTENING
Since this was a demo unit, it had already seen some action and didn’t require me to waste too much electricity running it in over weeks. The reference, of course, was my tube-equipped Ayon CD-1s, which has been in my system for more than half-a-dozen years. While I was not expecting to be blown away (let’s not beat around the issue, the Bryston isn’t priced in the stratospheric range, if it were, my expectations would have been sky-high), what quickly drew me to the BCD-3’s performance was its poise and control. If you think CD’s sound is dated and high-res is the way to go, well, the BCD-3 pulls off a few new tricks in the Red Book range.

There’s well defined deep bass (as much as my speakers/room will give me) and there’s the same level of definition and clarity across the reproduced audible frequency spectrum – natural and smooth, and no “warm-ish” glow in the mids or highs, unlike the Ayon. The BCD-3 is clear in its brief of delivering exactly what is on the CD – no additions or omissions, you get the details, warts and roses, ie, whatever has been laid down on the recording.

It had a superior grasp of spatial information, as in the space around each instrument and voices, than the Ayon, and no colouring of timbre or tone. Lest you think it may be leaning towards a sterile or clinical approach, this is not the case – it shows up the nature of the recordings in all its glory (or not), so you can lay the blame on the recording/mastering process if some music reproduced is cooler in energy or vibrancy. If there’s a whole lot of pizzazz in the performance, the BCD-3 lets you hear it.

Among my regular reference CDs for assessing a system are Dire Straits’ eponymous debut album, Diana Krall’s Love Scenes and a test disc called Dynamic Experience containing some challenging bass, drums and blues tracks (Victor Wooten, Jim Keltner and Stevie Ray Vaughan respectively) and on these, I found the BCD-3 pulling ahead in some areas, revealing certain nuances better than the Ayon, while never fazed by hard-hitting kick drums or the biting knife’s edge tonal texture of a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar.

Some CD players can give you all these, but sound a tad too relaxed or laidback… not the BCD-3. It conveys the inherent excitement or aggression without going over the top and risk sounding in-your-face or brash. Listening to jazz recordings was sheer pleasure, the player conveying the ambience and mood with a cool and comfortable ease that made you forget you were sitting in your listening room.

While the Ayon has a more forward and bolder presentation, the BCD-3 is more balanced in the depth of its stage, drawing the listener in especially with the better recordings. It also had a wider stage, and this allowed a smoother fleshing out of detail, with the darker backdrop exposing nuances to a greater degree.

THE LAST WORD
There’s really no reason not to recommend this CD player… if you’re in the market for one at this price. Yes, I do feel Bryston has painted itself into a bit of a corner by delivering a purist player like the BCD-3… at the price, there would be expectations of a digital input – at least a USB one – to allow external media to be played, too. However, this would have meant needing DSD compatibility, at the least. My guess is that since Bryston already has other digital player/DAC options in its range, the company didn’t want to cannibalise that market by making the BCD-3 more versatile and “beyond” Red Book.

That said and done, this is a very fine CD playback machine that will ensure its owner years of fine musical enjoyment, and is an especially great investment of you have a vast collection of CDs and don’t see yourself parting with the format anytime in the near future. The only reason I didn’t put my money down on it was that my current player works just fine. If yours doesn’t and/or you’re looking to upgrade or put together an impressive high-end CD-based system, the Bryston BCD-3 is a great proposition.

PLUS: Sonically captivating, with a detailed and solid presentation; impressive build quality; gets to the heart of the recording in the right system; very honest.

MINUS: Nothing much other than my grouse that the Bryston remote is a costly option (important if you don’t like using apps or independent units).

Performance: 9/10
Value: 8/10


Gear
Sources: Ayon Audio CD-1s CD player, Sony HAP-Z1ES HDD audio player, VPI Classic Signature turntable-3D tonearm/Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC cartridge/VPI ADS power supply / Amplification: Vitus RI-100 integrated, Audio Flight Phono, Crayon Audio CIA-1 / Speakers: Spatial Audio M3 Turbo S / Wires: Paul Speltz Anti-Cables speaker cable, interconnects and power cords, Nordost Red Dawn interconnects and power cords, Purist Audio interconnect s / Supply: AVIA balanced power transformers, Frank Acoustics PB15000 power bank storage.
 
Hi Folks,

There will be a review on the Bryston BCD-3 CD Player in the December issue of Absolute Sound Magazine. :thumb:

james
 
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