Bryston BCD-3 CD player Specifications

Sidebar 1: Specifications

Description: CD player. Formats: CD, CD-R, CD-RW. 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%.
Dimensions: 19" (483mm) W by 3.325" (85mm) H by 11.53" (293mm) D. Weight: 8.8 lbs (4kg).
Finishes: Black, silver.
Serial number of unit reviewed: 00140.
Price: $3495; BR2 remote control, $375 ($150 when purchased with BCD-3). Approximate numbers of dealers: 295. Warranty: 5 years, parts & labor.
Manufacturer: Bryston Limited, PO Box 2170, 677 Neal Drive, Peterborough, Ontario K9J 6X7, Canada. Tel: (800) 632-8217, (705) 742-5325. Fax: (705) 742-0882. US: Bryston Service USA, 30 Coventry Street, Newport, VT 05855. Tel: (802) 334-1201. Fax: (802) 334-6658. Web: www.bryston.com.

COMPANY INFO
Bryston Limited
PO Box 2170, 677 Neal Drive, Peterborough
Ontario K9J 6X7
Canada
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
mrkaic's picture

Just look at the measurements!

Axiom05's picture

It doesn't play SACD's or DVD-A discs. Is a CD-only player really competitive in 2017? For less than half the price I can buy a top of the line Oppo (UDP-205) that plays every 5" disc in existence, plus uses the ESS 9038PRO DAC (and I bet it comes with a remote control at no extra cost). Something just seems wrong with this picture...

johnnythunder's picture

while not inexpensive, based on AD's review and JA's measurements, this seems to be a very well made and great sounding CD only player. I'm sure the Oppo is a good machine. I've only read great things about its blu ray capabilities. Enjoy it. But it's not a proper comparison.

watchdog005's picture

The point is if it can play CD audio better then a modern day SACD or DVD machine can play CD audio then it's worth owning even if it cannot play SACD or DVD audio. They made these and tuned them specifically for CD audio.

hnickm's picture

Ah, I remember - those are the hard media things you used to rip so you could store AND FIND the songs and play on a music player, like the excellent Bryston BDP P1 (less than $1,500). Or if you want to go all out, the BDP 2 (less than $2,500). Either of these solutions seem superior to the silver LP solution.

johnnythunder's picture

of the future or even the present for that matter, it's a review of a cd player - which, considering how many companies are still investing in new state of the art players and considering how many people still have massive cd collections - is still a viable and often great sounding format for reproducing music.

jmsent's picture

... and the specs of the individual components, you'll see that the transport and all the digital processing circuitry are all fully capable of reading and decoding far more formats than Redbook CD. It comes as no surprise that the CD measurements are going to be great, as modern transports and DACS designed to decode 24bit/192kHz files and greater are not even breaking a sweat when it comes to CD playback. It's not as though they've employed some "super special CD only components" to make a machine that will outperform every multi format player. It's more like they built a high quality multi-format player and programmed out the "multi". At least, that's how I see it . YMMV.

johnnythunder's picture

Hegel is doing the same thing w their Mohican CD player. Over-engineered and optimized for purely redbook cd playback. Not another piece of electronics wasted for anything other than that. I get your point but it's a little like criticizing a $35000/ 100 lb. PASS amplifier for only being a mono block and not being for that price and size a maasive home theatre amplifier.

smileday's picture

Looking at the owner manual of Bryston BCD-3 CD player, I found that the program function is missing. Why?

$499 Marantz CD6006 and $1499 Onkyo C-7000R have the feature.

It is just a little bit of coding, but Bryston skipped it for their $3495 CD player?

Or omitting the programming feature leads to better sound quality?

johnnythunder's picture

Once again, criticizing a feature that has no direct impact on SOUND QUALITY is missing the point of this review and the product and others like it.
Another analogy - it's like someone criticizing a $10,000 turntable/cartridge/arm combo for only playing one record at a time. Yes, back in the 60s you could buy $69.00 turntable that could stack record after record!

smileday's picture

Single record playing turn tables are designed that way to achieve better sound quality.

By skipping the programming feature on a CD player, do they achieve better sound quality?

Allen Fant's picture

Nicely done- AD!

have any of guys compared this new BCD-3 to the older BCD-1 spinner?

Ortofan's picture

[ https://www.stereophile.com/content/marantz-cd5004-cd-player-marantz-cd5004-cd-player-measurements ]
its intrinsic resolution is better than is needed by the CD medium, then what does the Bryston unit do for about 10 times the price?

Fleschler's picture

I have tried over 100 CD players in the past 35 years. The Marantz CD5004 is a smooth and generously rich sounding player. I also suped it up with new power and filter caps, etc. but it still sounded lacking in resolution to start with and just okay. A Denon 1500 and Kyocera 310x wipes it out. I now use a radically altered Benchmark HDR1 Synergistic Research Atmosphere X Euphoria cable and a suped up Arcam Delta 250 transport with high end power cables. It KILLS the Marantz. The Bryston uses the same or similar transport used in the Project RS2T ($3.2K) 1Aqua Audio Diva II (Current version) about10K 2 Acustic Arts Drive II about 17K 3 Gryphon ETHOS CD player 35K. Stream Unlimited transports. I'd like to hear it.

X