Bryston BCD-3 CD Player

Description

MY TAKE: Bryston of Canada offers a range of outstanding products that offer not only outstanding sound quality but exceptional reliability and customer support. In business for over fifty years, you know they’re doing something right. Highly recommended! – Galen Carol

Note: Display options are:
Blue Display / Blue LED
White Display / Blue LED
White Display / Green LED
Please call us with your preference after placing your order

Who says CD playback is dead? Although high-resolution digital downloads dominate the attention of audiophiles, many music lovers have hundreds or thousands of CDs that require the finest playback equipment to sound their best. Though universal disc players or DVD players can playback CDs, they certainly won't resolve the full dynamic range and nuance the medium is capable of. Such players inherently compromise CD playback to support additional formats. The BCD-3 was engineered explicitly for the purpose of making your Redbook CDs sound amazing.

Digital audio read from the CD is sent to a dual-balanced DAC chipset where it is converted to analog. The output stage is built with Bryston's proprietary fully balanced class-A discrete operational amplifiers. A professional-grade optical disc transport reads the discs, and an ultra-precise master clock synchronizes both. Zero jitter, superb linearity, and the best sound quality CDs have to offer are hallmarks of the new Bryston BCD-3. Connect the BCD-3 to your home network to control it with our web-based user interface, or with a home automation system. You can also control it via IR with a Bryston BR-2 or universal remote control.

REVIEWS:

The Absolute Sound - Editor's Choice 2023: “If I were choosing a CD player that wouldn’t break the bank but was unflinching in its musical and sonic generosity,” the BCD-3 would be at the top of my list.” - Alan Taffel

Stereophile: "It's not enough to say that the BCD-3's sound was well balanced from bottom to top: Its treble performance, in particular, proved sufficient to let a bright recording sound bright, yet the quality of that treble was such that the player never used brightness as a tool to pry unnatural information from natural-sounding discs. For a listener such as I, who has enjoyed a number of digital source components whose musicality results from discarding or spackling-over treble information, this sort of sound is remarkable.

I'll take that a step further: Now as always, some if not most of the playback products I most love are those that work in mysterious ways: the artisanal, the antique, the natural, the rare, the intuitively rather than the merely logically designed. But sometimes—perhaps especially as an addition to a system comprising such products—there's something to be said for a product whose designer's apparent goal was simply to reduce distortion. As here.

But you could forget all that: In today's parlance, the Bryston BCD-3 simply is what it is—an apparently well-designed and exceptionally well-made CD player that succeeded in connecting me with most of the music I asked it to play, and that offers very good value for the money. I could easily, happily live with it, and can just as easily recommend it." - Art Dudley

The Absolute Sound: "I began this review process wondering if a player like the BCD-3 is even relevant in today’s digital world. I discovered, to my surprise, that it is. My next discovery was just how good the BCD-3 sounds, and how much of an improvement it represents over even excellent last-generation CD players. Then, the Bryston went toe-to-toe with one of the best CD players available—without embarrassing itself in the least. Lastly, I discovered that the BCD-3’s upgrade path, which consists of turning itself into a transport to work with future or more expensive DACs, really works.

Put this together and you really do have what could be your last CD player. The BCD-3’s single-minded design and functionality delivers CD performance that doesn’t come along every day. And, as we’ve seen with the BCD-1, there’s no guarantee such a player will be here tomorrow. If I were choosing a CD player that wouldn’t break the bank but was unflinching in its musical and sonic generosity, the BCD-3 would be at the top of my list." - Alan Taffel

FEATURES:

• DACs and transport slave to single master clock for jitter-free performance
• Dual balanced AKM digital to analog converters based on BDA-3 design
• Fully discrete class-A operational amplifiers form the analog output section
• Formats: CD, CD-R, CD-RW.

OPTIONS:

• Available with silver or black faceplate
• 17” or 19” faceplate available
• Rack-mountable option available (2U)
• BR2 remote control available

DIMENSIONS:

• 17” W x 3.325” H x 11.53” D (17" Faceplate)
• 43.2cm W x 8.5cm H x 29.3cm D (43.2cm Faceplate)
• 19” W x 3.325” H x 11.53” D (19" Faceplate)
• 48.3cm W x 8.5cm H x 29.3cm D (48.3cm Faceplate)
• 8.8 lb/4 kg

SPECIFICATIONS:

• Analog outputs: 1 balanced (XLR), 1 single-ended (RCA).
• Digital outputs: 1 AES/EBU (XLR), 1 S/PDIF (RCA).
• Output voltage: 4V balanced, 2V single-ended.
• Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, ±0.1dB.
• Noise: –140dB.
• Intermodulation distortion: <0.0003%.
• THD+noise, 20Hz–20kHz: <0.001%.
• Stereophile's test and measurement Guru, John Atkinson writes: "This Bryston CD player's measured performance reveals superb audio engineering"