B.Audio B.DAC EX digital converter

My initial attempts at combining the B.dac EX with a Melco N10 music server and controlling the process with UPnP apps didn’t prove very successful, rather late in the day, I discovered the problem which was not with the DAC. In the meantime, Roon proved as flexible as ever and soon had the B.audio streaming music from my collection. Latterly, Sebastian Bermann suggested I try the UPnP approach with a USB drive plugged into the back of the unit, this also bore fruit with the DAC providing access to the music files via mConnect which showed the B.audio server among the options in its ‘play to’ list. The hot news is that B.audio plan to release their own UPnP control app in future, and while this will probably be a version of an existing piece of software, it might enable the adjustment of parameters within this DAC’s feature list in an easier way than via simple display. This only shows the text, and let’s face it, there is no need to have album artwork or other info on a streamer when this is available on the device in your hands.

Using the B.dac EX with Roon and streaming local media from the Melco N10 is a plush experience; you get a lot of refined energy and rock-solid timing from the very first notes. This much as apparent with Mike McDonald and Phoebe Snow’s rendition of ‘Knock on Wood’ [New York Rock And Soul Revue Live At The Beacon, Giant] as was the phenomenal quality of both voices from a concert which is something of a treat for fans of Steely Dan. Chesky made a great job of Macy Gray’s Stripped, in the B.audio’s capable hands the song ‘Annabelle’ has so much air and depth it really opens up the room. This piece also reveals the streamer/DAC to have very low noise, you don’t get so much fine detail with lesser converters, nor do you get such engaging music. This isn’t just technical refinement, it’s musically sophisticated too, or at least as slick as the music you choose to play. I put on an older recording by Bill Evans, ‘Waltz for Debby’ (Take 2) [Waltz for Debby, Riverside] and here there was more of the lively audience-filled room than usual behind the restrained, yet captivating rhythms produced by Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian, there is no doubting the live nature of the recording despite the relatively crude quality of the stereo recording.

Keith Jarrett’s solo performance recorded several decades later at Carnegie Hall [ECM] produces a rather more realistic picture of a piano on a stage; its full-bodied scale and tonal range make a distinct impression on the air in the listening room. His yodels and groans do nothing to undermine the effect that the piece produces. Bass is superb on the B.dac, as finely rendered and distinct as any other frequency range with a great nimbleness when required. It’s not the dry and slightly grainy bass you get with many D/A converters but the full, juicy, ripe low end that reflects the nature of whatever instrument it’s producing with ease.

I didn’t have a similarly priced DAC for comparison during the test period (such devices are lodged in my ear’s ‘muscle memory’) but what I did have made the B.audio sound totally effortless. And not in a limp, overly smoothed manner either, it has all the dynamics and speed you could desire thanks one suspects to the efforts that the company has put into dealing with jitter. It loves a good recording of course and Marcin Wasilewski’s En attendant [ECM] is just such a thing. The way that the musicians appear in front of your ears is almost magical, close your eyes and it really does transcend the barrier between listener and performers. I got very similar results using the USB input connected to the appropriate output on the Melco, you lose some of the transparency this way because streamers usually have an advantage over this approach but it’s pretty close. Spatially it remains extremely strong, Christian Scott’s ‘Angola, LA & The 13th Amendment’ [Yesterday You Said Tomorrow, Concord Jazz] has intensity and superb dimensionality, with the various instruments placed precisely in a soundstage that is alive with energy.