I took the plunge and got a near-new B100 DA. The fellow who sold it found it too bright for his speakers (I forget the brand now, never heard of them before). I think he might have used it for a few weeks max before selling -- the build date is late April.
Do I find it too bright? Not at all. It's freaking sweet. The sound is everything I was looking for. Even the wife said: "Wow, it's worth it!" She actually surprised me with her enthusiasm.
The BR2 remote is also quite the piece of techology. Aside from all the many other buttons, it has a button to switch upsampling on/off, though I haven't experimented with that much yet. The remote also senses the lighting conditions and will backlight the buttons if you pick up the remote in a darkened room. A nice toy.
Congrats Frank! The B100 is an excellent integrated. The DAC option is great to have too. I don't think you can turn the upsampling on and off though. The remote is basically a universal remote the Bryston uses for every product. It's an excellent remote that'll probably easily outlive it's 20 year warranty. But at $300 or so, it ain't exactly cheap. I wouldn't pay that for a new one, but it would definitely help making up my mind if I were buying second hand.
I don't wish to disagree, my friend, but the BR2 remote that comes with the B100 DA is different from the no-dac BR1. Take a look at the pic below; you can see the upsampling button at top left. Check out the BR2 manual on the Bryston site if you're interested, as the BR2 apparently comes in different configs for different hardware.
And yes, I agree it's ridiculously expensive to buy it separately, but I got a great price on this amp /w remote, so no worries.
The DAC is built differently than the BDA-1, I know, but not sure how. Maybe the chipset only, but the power supply for the device is shared, that much I know.
The B60, as you well know, is a very clean-sounding amp. The B100 sounds similar, only even more transparent. The noise floor just disappears.
Probably the most immediate difference is in the bass. The B60 bass is tight and I was always happy with it; however, the B100 bass is tight but fuller, with more presence and authority.
My wife likes bass and was a bit disappointed when I bought the smallish PMC DB2i speakers, but after hooking up the B100 the speakers have lots of bass (for our smallish place) and she marvels at how great they sound. (Which is a very good thing.)
I was very happy with the B60 and will always have fond feelings for that amp. I'd keep it if I could afford to, but part of the cost of the B100 will be offset by selling the B60.
I'm very happy with the system I have now and don't see myself upgrading much if at all. I know I've said that before (and I mean it every time), but the equipment I have now is pushing the envelope of diminishing returns and I'd have to spend more money than I'm comfortable with to get marginally better sound than what I have.
Now I'm just going to kick back and listen to the music.
Thanks Frank. Very helpful. I've been contemplating going to a B100 with internal DAC, but the funds aren't there right now. I'd have to get a great price for my B60, Apollo, and old Theta DAC to bring one within reach. I've been keeping an eye on B100s on Audiogon, but haven't come across one that had a price I couldn't refuse, especially one with a DAC and phono stage.
One of these days, not that it would be difficult to live with my B60 for the rest of my life.
This BS economy isn't helping at all either. I was supposed to get a raise on Jan 1, and it got pushed back to July 1 (supposed to happen today). Got an e-mail today that it's getting pushed back to September 1 so that the college I work at can better evaluate how much they'll have after everyone is enrolled and actually pays.
Contractually supposed to get 4% on Jan 1, now hopefully I'll get 2% on September 1. I know I'm lucky I still have a job - lots of people elsewhere would have taken a pay cut to keep theirs - but it still stings a bit.
I've always said - the worst run business are government and colleges. Neither one has any true accountability. Whenever they mess up, they'll raise taxes or tuition and no one can do much about it. I'd complain, but who's going to listen?
