My introduction to B.M.C. was B.M.C. BDCD 1 CD PLAYER & DAC 1 DAC

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Cornelius Hines
5 years ago
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1 ON TEST B.M.C. BDCD 1 CD PLAYER & DAC 1 DAC My introduction to B.M.C. was only recent, when I reviewed this company s unique and very interesting C1 integrated amplifier (Australian Hi-Fi Vol 43 No 2), but the company has only been around for three years, so it s really one of the new kids on the block. What I discovered when I reviewed the C1 is that rather than being a cookie-cutter me too brand, B.M.C. s designs are not only visually exciting, but also technically innovative and they don t sound half-bad either! the equipment The BDCD1.1 CD Player and DAC1PRE are cases in point, because straight-away you ll find that the CD player uses a belt drive, rather than the de rigueur direct drive used on most other CD players (CEC being one of the exceptions, but hardly surprisingly, as you ll find if you read the break-out box titled BMC History ) and the digital electrical connections to the DAC1PRE are made not via standard SPDIF, but via a proprietary Superlink standard that according to B.M.C., splits off the audio data from the master clock, bit clock and left-right clock. So on the rear panel you ll find four BNC (not B.M.C.!) connectors labelled MCK, BCK, LRCK and DATA. Unfortunately, neither the manuals nor the B.M.C. website give any useful technical information about the process. I presume the idea is to avoid the conversion from raw data to SPDIF, then back to data that can be used by the DAC, while also avoiding the use of multiple clocks, which is otherwise inevitable and not very desirable. Of course, because the BDCD1.1 is a CD player, you don t have to use the DAC1PRE at all but, as I was to find, there are many advantages of using the DAC1PRE. However, it s apparently possible to buy the BDCD1.1 without analogue outputs, so it s a pure transport. This is where it gets a bit confusing, because B.M.C. uses different model numbers for all its products, depending on where in the world the products are sold, even though the products themselves are identical. The International model of the CD/Transport is the BDCD1.1 (complete CD player) which sells for $6,275, or if it s a transport only, it s known simply as the BD, in which case it sells for $5,227. However, in Europe, the BDCD1.1 is called the CDP101, which is why the sticker on the back of our review sample says CDP101, not BDCD1.1 (as in the photo on page 82). As for the DAC, there are two version of this, too: One version is a straight DAC and the other has a preamplifier stage built in. The International model number for the DAC-only version is the DAC1 (which sells in Australia for $5,883) while the version including the preamplifier is known as the DAC1PRE, which sells for $6,589 in Australia. However, in Europe, the DAC1PRE is known as the DAP101. And if you think you re confused by all this, so was I! One thing I should point out right at the outset of this review is that our photographs don t do justice to the front panels of the BDCD1.1 and DAC1PRE, because the photos make it look like the front panels are gloss black whereas in real life the front panels are mirrored, so when you look at them, you ll see your own reflection. The labels are behind the glass and are completely invisible until after the units are powered up, after which they magically become visible. The effect is fantastic: I really loved it. It s practical and very high-tech. The only thing I didn t like was the dim function provided which didn t really dim the display much at all, so I thought it was a waste of time. Perhaps B.M.C. could look at increasing the level by which the display is dimmed, or providing a multi-level dimmer, so you get to choose between several different levels (but not Off because the effect is so wonderful I d like to have the display on all the time!). 36 Australian HF July12_036 Test BMC.indd 36 26/06/ :13:23 AM

2 B.M.C. BDCD 1 & DAC 1 ON TEST Because it s belt-driven, the transport of the BDCD1.1 is by necessity top-loading. Once you have loaded a disc on the spindle, it must be kept in place by a large Perspex disc or puck. Whenever you re not using the BDCD1.1, I would recommend leaving both a disc on the spindle, and the puck over the disc. This presence of the disc will prevents the upward-facing laser from collecting dust and grime, while the presence of the puck will prevent the disc from being damaged, and will mean the CD player starts properly if someone unfamiliar with the player s operation attempts to use it. And, once you have loaded a disc, disc control can be managed almost entirely with the large centrally-mounted knob on the front panel, which will switch between play and pause (just push it in) or let you skip forwards and backwards through the disc (turning it to the right or left). Other buttons on the front panel are for Stop, Fast Forward, Fast Reverse and New CD. This last control was a new one on me. What happens is that whenever you put on a CD, a light will flash over the New CD button. Before you can play the CD, you have to press the New CD button, after which the player will read the disc s table of contents (TOC) and display the usual information in the front-panel display, after which you can push the large rotary button to initiate play. What s weird about this is that you essentially have to do this every time you load a CD, because the circuit doesn t remember which CDs you ve played, so for every single CD you load, you ll have to press the New CD button even if you ve played the CD a thousand times before. Once a disc is playing, the DAC1PRE digital-to-analogue converter (if you re using it remember that you don t have to!) will give you many different playback options. Firstly, you can choose between two playback filters, which B.M.C. labels Flat and Pulse. The Flat option is the one that delivers the most extended high-frequency response, and is more-or-less typical of the filters found in most conventional CD players. And, like all such filters, it exhibits both pre- and postringing and, as B.M.C. correctly points out in its manual pre-ringing does not exist within the analogue world. In other words, it s a completely unnatural artefact. If you choose the (curiously-named) Pulse filter you will essentially eliminate all ringing from the analogue signal, but at the expense of the highfrequency response, which will be curtailed severely prior to the usual upper limit of the compact disc format. You can also choose between two different oversampling rates: OVS-L (presumably Low ) and OVS-H. B.M.C gives absolutely no technical information about these two options, saying only that the L setting delivers the most dynamic music with the lowest distortion and the H setting has a slightly smoother and more quiet sound characteristic. There s also a button labelled Direct/ UPS which in the Direct mode, in B.M.C. s words, proceeds the digital signal with its original clock, which can be used when the source has low jitter (such as the BDCD1.1). In the UPS mode, B.M.C. says a 96kHz asynchronous upsampler is added in-line and is the best option if you re using a high-jitter source, such as a DVD player. (Using the Superlink connections disables the UPS option). Also available is a 0dB/+6dB option that toggles the maximum voltage available at the analogue outputs of the DAC. The 0dB setting gives an output of 2V (unbalanced) and 4V (balanced), so I can t see why you d ever need the +6dB option. If you re using a B.M.C. amplifier, you also have the option of connection via B.M.C. s proprietary DIGM terminals, which essentially remove unwanted circuitry from the direct audio signal path. B.M.C. BDCD1.1 CD PLAYER & DAC1PRE Brand: B.M.C. Model: BDCD1.1 & DAC1PRE Category: CDP & DAC/Pre RRP: $6,275 & $6,589 (See Copy) Warranty: Three Years Distributor: National Audio Group Address: 1A, 147 Foster Street Dandenong VIC 3175 (03) (03) info@nationalaudiogroup.com.au LAB REPORT Superlink connections Wheel operation Superb sound Instruction manuals New CD button Headphone socket Readers interested in a full technical appraisal of the performance of the B.M.C. BCCD1.1 and DAC1 Pre should continue on and read the LABORATORY REPORT published on the page 82. Readers should note that the results mentioned in the report, tabulated in performance charts and/or displayed using graphs and/ or photographs should be construed as applying only to the specifi c sample tested. Lab Report on page 82 avhub.com.au 37 HF July12_036 Test BMC.indd 37 26/06/ :13:26 AM

3 ON TEST B.M.C. BDCD 1 CD Player & DAC 1 DAC/Pre-amp As you ve probably gathered, I was not impressed by B.M.C. s manuals because of the scarcity (and complete absence!) of technical information therein. However, the manuals are also littered with spelling and grammatical errors and seem to be photocopied (poorly) onto standard A4 copying paper. It s really not what I d expect from such highpriced, high-end products. The manuals even lack the mandatory address and contact information for the manufacturer, particularly regarding the CE Declaration. I was, however, taken with suggestion in the B.M.C. manuals that if I wished to dispose of a unit that was functioning perfectly, I should donate it to a charity shop! Sure, like that s ever going to happen! In Use and Listening Sessions The one great advantage of top-loading CD players (and transports) is that there s no damn disc tray! My experience is that the tray is one of the most pesky and unreliable devices on a CD player, and it s also caused more damage to discs themselves than I care to remember. Top-loaders don t exhibit any of these failings. The downside with toploaders is the fairly involved disc load/unload process, involving multiple steps to remove the puck, put it somewhere, then remove the disc, put it back in its case, find another disc, load it onto the spindle, replace the puck, press the New CD button and finally the play button. I found when using the B.M.C. BCCD1.1 that the disc stuck to the bottom of the puck whenever I removed it, and often then dropped off before I could get my hand underneath the puck to grab the disc, so I got into the habit of grasping both the disc and the puck and removing both at the same time. I have a fairly large hand, which made this easy, but someone with smaller hands might need to use both hands at once to B.M.C. History B.M.C. is a relatively new brand, both in Australia and on the world stage, but the people behind it aren t. The company says the three letters B.M.C. stand for Balanced Music Concept, but well-known German hi-fi reviewer Otwin Maas has pointed out that the letters are also co-incidentally the first initials of the three founders of the company: Bernd Hugo, Manfred Penning and Carlos Candeias. The three founded the company on January 30, 2009, in Kassel, Germany, but only Juan Carlos Candeias is listed as the Managing Director. Hugo had previously founded Restek, a well-known German high-end hi-fi manufacturer ( more accomplish this manoeuvre. Once you finally have a disc loaded, I found the player took around six seconds to initialise, then a further two seconds to start play after I d pressed the play button, so you wouldn t want to be in a hurry to listen to your music! I started off listening simply to the B.M.C. BDCD1.1 CD player on its own, with its analogue outputs connected directly to my system. Joy! I was listening to music. Music pure. Music unadulterated. Music that didn t sound even remotely digital. It s not often I can say this about a CD player. In fact I got so carried away with listening that I completely forgot about the DAC1PRE, which was still upstairs in its carton, not even unpacked. And when I say, completely forgot, I am not kidding I was having so much fun listening to the BDCD1.1 that the presence of the DAC1PRE skipped my mind entirely. It wasn t until several months later, when the good folk at National Audio Group ed to ask when they might be getting their equipment back that I realised that I had forgotten it entirely. Once I had the DAC1PRE installed in my system, I realised I might have a slight problem, because while looking through the notes I d scrawled while listening to the BDCD1.1 (yep, I am still a pen-and-paper guy when it comes to listening sessions I ve tried using a laptop to take notes during listening sessions, but I hate it!) I turned page after page of my scribbled notes and could not find a single session where I had done anything but praise its sound quality. Basically, it was superlative city: Great bass. Extraordinary dynamics. Superb high frequencies. Glorious midrange. Channel separation is exceptionally good. On and on it went, and continued across every musical genre: blues, folk, jazz, orchestral, solo classical (cello, piano ), a cappella, rock even the spoken word! (The performance of Dylan Thomas play for voices, Under Milkwood, at Sydney s than 25 years ago, while Penning had been an engineer at Restek. Candeias himself had previously founded a company known as Candeias Audio Electronics (CAE), whilst he was still studying electronics engineering at Berlin Technical University. In 2001 Candeias moved the company to China where it became the Candeias Electronics Co., Ltd. and grew to an industrial-sized company with its own development and manufacturing divisions, and specialising in highend audio electronics sold under the C.E.C. brand name. C.E.C. also has a relationship with the German company AQVOX, which is currently owned and managed by one Suzanne Candeias. Opera House reminded me that I had a BBC version on CD then, when I finally found where I d filed it, I re-discovered a stack of CDs that has famous poets reading their own work.) The problem with all this was that if I couldn t find any faults at all with the sound of the BDCD1.1, what could I possibly find to say about the sound now that I had added the DAC1PRE? Only one way to find out, so I bit the bullet and opened a whole new can of worms! In this case the can was that not only did I have to compare the sound of the BDCD1.1 solus against the sound of the BDCD1.1/DAC1PRE combined, but I had to do it in each of the various different operating modes on offer in the DAC1PRE: oversampling vs. no oversampling pulse vs. flat and, of course, the various combinations of the modes, not to mention the various different interconnection methods Superlink, SPDIF coaxial, SPDIF optical Frankly, dear reader, it all became a bit too much particularly since as Arlo Guthrie sings in his song Alice s Restaurant I didn t have much time, see But, in the interests of this being a complete review I gave it my best, but rather than give a blow-by-blow (or, rather, a disc-by-disc) run-down, I will instead give my general impressions. And my first impression was that, despite my previous pessimism, I thought the combo sounded better than the BCCD1.1 on its own. In other words, the DAC inside the DAC1PRE is a step up from that inside the BDCD1.1. What I could not decide was whether it was a $6,589 improvement. But my overwhelming impression was that the huge advantage of having the DAC1PRE in my system was that I could tweak the digitalto-analogue decoding process to suit different CDs, because different settings worked differently with different CDs, so I was able to get great sound from CDs that I had previously written off as being badly recorded. Conclusion If you already have a good CD transport, I d unhesitatingly recommend you purchase a B.M.C. DAC1Pre, because it s a superb DAC and its pre-amp facility means you won t need to buy a pre-amp. And if you don t already have a power amp, using a B.M.C design with DIGM circuitry with it will deliver significant sonic (and operational) advantages. If you don t already have a good CD transport, and cost is no object, I would recommend that you purchase the transport version of the BCCD1.1 (the BD) and combine it with the DAC1Pre. Finally, if cost is a factor, I d be perfectly happy to recommend the B.M.C. BCCD1.1 for use all on its own. I enjoyed it immensely, and I can t say better than that! greg borrowman LAB REPORT ON PAGE Australian HF July12_036 Test BMC.indd 38 26/06/ :13:26 AM

LAB REPORT CONTINUED FROM PAGE 36 test Results bench-tests revealed high levels of performance from both the BCCD1 and the DAC1, irrespective of whether they were used individually, or together.

For example, I ve chosen to show B.M.C. DAC1 (AES-17 Standard using 48kHz/24-Bit) Digital Section Result Units/Comment Out of Band Spurious Components 94.914dB Suppression of Imaging Components 95.

2270dB 41Hz/7993Hz 4:1 Ratio Low Level Noise Modulation +3.561dB Worst Case Idle Channel Noise 117.367dB CCIR-RMS weighting Signal-to-Noise Ratio 118.312dB CCIR-RMS weighting Power Line Products 105.

4 LAB REPORT CONTINUED FROM PAGE 36 test Results bench-tests revealed high levels of performance from both the BCCD1 and the DAC1, irrespective of whether they were used individually, or together. For reasons of space and clarity I have therefore selected only some of the more than 60 graphs that depict performance. It s because of this that the graphs are not numbered consecutively. For example, I ve chosen to show B.M.C. DAC1 (AES-17 Standard using 48kHz/24-Bit) Digital Section Result Units/Comment Out of Band Spurious Components dB Suppression of Imaging Components dB (Worst Case) Level Dependent Logarithmic Gain 9.707dB Intermodulation Distortion (1) dB 18kHz/20kHz 1:1 Ratio Intermodulation Distortion (2) dB 41Hz/7993Hz 4:1 Ratio Low Level Noise Modulation dB Worst Case Idle Channel Noise dB CCIR-RMS weighting Signal-to-Noise Ratio dB CCIR-RMS weighting Power Line Products dB 50Hz Non-Linear Interchannel Crosstalk (a) dB 3kHz (2nd-order ref 17kHz/20kHz) Non-Linear Interchannel Crosstalk (b) dB 6kHz (3rd-order ref 17kHz/20kHz) Non-Linear Interchannel Crosstalk (c) dB kHz (2nd re 40Hz/10kHz) Non-Linear Interchannel Crosstalk (d) dB kHz (3rd re 40Hz/10kHz) Absolute Phase Non-Inverting Normal/Inverted B.M.C. BDCD1 & DAC1 (44.1kHz/16-bit Test Signals) Analogue Section Result Units/Comment Output Voltage / volts (Left Ch/ Right Ch) Frequency Response See Graph db (20Hz 20kHz) Channel Separation 131 / 126 / 125 db at 16Hz / 1kHz / 20kHz THD+N 0.01 / 0 (Pulse/Flat) Channel Balance 0 Channel Phase 0.53 / 0.35 / 6.5 degrees at 16Hz / 1kHz / 20kHz Group Delay / 5.08 degrees (1 20kHz / 20 1kHz) Signal-to-Noise Ratio (No Pre-emph) 96 / 102 db (unweighted/weighted) De-Emphasis Error Not Fitted at 1kHz / 4kHz / 16kHz Linearity 6dB / 7dB 0.03 / 0.01 db (Test Signal Not Dithered) Linearity 80.59dB / 85.24dB 0.09 / 0.18 db (Test Signal Not Dithered) Linearity 89.46dB / 91.24dB 0.12 / 0.16 db (Test Signal Not Dithered) Linearity 80.70dB / 90.31dB 0.01 / 0.02 db (Test Signal Dithered) Power Consumption / BDCD1 / DAC 1 Mains Voltage During Testing (Minimum Maximum) Digital Section Units/Comment Digital Carrier Amplitude 259mV Audioband Digital Carrier Amplitude 1.41 / 1.58V Differential / Common Mode Audioband Jitter 22.9 / ns (p p) / UI (p p) Data Jitter 24.7 / ns (p p) / UI (p p) Deviation ppm Frame Rate Eye-Narrowing (Zero Cross) 25.2 / 0.18 ns (p p) / UI (p p) Eye-Narrowing (200mV) 26.6 / 0.15 ns (p p) / UI (p p) Absolute Phase Normal Normal / Inverted 82 Australian HF July12_036 Test BMC.indd 82 26/06/ :13:32 AM

5 B.M.C. BDCD 1 CD Player & DAC 1 DAC/Pre-amp LAB REPORT distortion by starting at the 10dB level, which was Graph 3. You can see that only second and third harmonic distortion components are visible, and both are more than 100dB down (1%). (Ignore the signal up near 16kHz, it s a test artefact.) I ve then selected Graph 6, which shows performance at 60dB (without dither), and you can see there are no harmonically-related distortion components, and the noise floor is essentially more than 120dB down. Superb performance! We then skip to Graphs 8/9 which show performance at around 90dB to show the effect of dither on the DAC. Since all music CDs will be dithered, Graph 9 is the one to be looking at, and you can see a noise floor close to 130dB down. The spike at around 2.8kHz appears to be a DAC artefact: it s non-harmonic. Graph 13 shows THD vs. Frequency at 0dB for the DAC1 alone, while Graph 14 shows the frequency response of the BCCD1 and the DAC1 for the Flat vs. Pulse positions. You can clearly see that in the Pulse position, the frequency response rolls off rapidly above 15kHz. The effect of the two filters also shows up clearly on the four oscillograms, which show the effect on both 1kHz square waves and discrete impulses. The test results tabulated in the two tables show generally excellent performance. Noteworthy is the fact that B.M.C. has not fitted a de-emphasis circuit, so if you play discs manufactured prior to 1985 you may hear an incorrect frequency balance. Other than this, the only other result that stood out as being anomalous was that 6.5 inter-channel phase error at 20kHz. Although this would be completely inaudible, it s a little higher than I might have expected. Steve Holding Hz Hz Graph dB recorded level. (Pulse OVS-L) [B.M.C. CDP101 & DAC 1] Graph dB recorded level. (With dither) [B.M.C. CDP101 & DAC 1] Hz % 2 Hz Graph dB recorded level. (Pulse OVS-L) [B.M.C. CDP101 & DAC 1] Graph 13. THD vs Frequency 0dB recorded level. [B.M.C. CDP101 & DAC 1] Hz Graph dB recorded level. (No dither) [B.M.C. CDP101 & DAC 1] Hz Graph 14. Frequency Response 0dB recorded level. Pulse vs Flat [B.M.C. CDP101/DAC 1] avhub.com.au 83 HF July12_036 Test BMC.indd 83 26/06/ :13:33 AM

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