Bryston BDP-1 High Resolution Digital Music Player Preview

Bryston introduced a new product category with their new  BDP-1 digital music player which focuses on performance and ease of use.  The BDP-1 is a companion to the company's award-winning BDA-1 DAC (digital-to-analog converter). The Bryston BDP-1’s sole function is to give music aficionados the ability to enjoy their library of high-resolution digital music files (resolutions of up to 24-bit/192kHz are supported) residing on a USB storage device, which in turn is directly connected via standard USB cable or thumb drive to the BDP-1 digital music player. “The BDP-1’s feature set is unique and we have found that it is most easily defined by clarifying what it does not do,” stated Bryston’s James Tanner. “The Bryston BDP-1 does not contain an internal DAC, a hard-drive, a streamer, a CD player/ripper, noisy fans or switching power supplies. The BDP-1 connects to an external DAC for playback through AES-EBU or BNC digital outputs. Quite simply, the BDP-1 is an ultra high-performance digital music player when connected to an external drive and DAC,” said Tanner.

The face of the ultra-stable Linux-based BDP-1 is adorned with control buttons and a two-line display, making it a fully-functioning digital music player “right out of the box.” Optionally, the BDP-1 can be connected to a home network using a router and Ethernet connection solely to enhance operability via network-enabled devices such as a computer, Apple® iPhone™ or iPad™, which can then provide access to playlists, album artwork, etc. In this scenario, the network is only used to interface with your music library—Bryston’s design philosophy for the BDP-1 eliminates all of the challenges associated with streaming large high-resolution digital files over the home network.  We saw a demo of the BDP-1 directly interfaced with an Apple IPad at CEDIA and it really turned our heads on just how much of an essential tool the IPad is becoming in the home theater market.

"The BDP-1 is a technically sophisticated digital music player incorporating the finest solid-state electronics,” Tanner explained. “The BDP-1 has been designed to operate either all by itself or link up to your home network to be controlled by a variety of graphic interface devices,” he added. “The BDP-1’s graphic interface operates under 'open source' software protocols, ensuring long-term future proofing and compatibility with the widest possible range of user interface (UI) devices. We are also looking into developing our own web-based Music Player Daemon (MPD) client, which manipulates the database of digital files,” Tanner concluded.

The MSRP of the Bryston BDP-1 is expected to be $2100 USD with a delivery date later in 2010. Warranty on the BDP-1 is five years parts and labor.

For more information, visit Bryston

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.