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In the Forum: Didital Things
In the Thread: The Museatex Bidat pages.
Post Subject: The Bidat stories...Posted by Romy the Cat on: 2/11/2008

 mark wrote:
i currently am in the process of obtaining a bidat,so this new thread is very timely for me.i currently use a highly modified audio aero capitole mkII se and modified 47 labs progression dac.i plan to work with john wright to take the bidat dac to a level that will give a result that will give me most of the best of what these 2 dacs do well and hopefully with a minimum of the shortcomings of these 2 dac methods.to touch briefly on the priority strengths of first the 47 labs progression dac.i have had some of the most enjoyable involving musical experiences with this dac;it does such a good job with rhythem and transients,very quick and lively.it is very direct and communicative,however in some system setups and some recordings it sounds a little to raw and brutal.the audio aero is very smooth lush and detailed,it seems to get all the detail out in a musical way with out rawness and brutality.it is very intimate especially in the midrange.it is not as good at rhythem and transient quickness as the 47 labs,if it was i would probably not be motivated to venture a change.i think that the adaptive filter in the bidat could be a key to getting me the results i am looking for(a starting point anyway).

I am not quite following why you need another DAC, Bidat for instance, if you are not experiencing any clearly-identified problems with your current DAC.

 mark wrote:
could we try to begin to explore what is difference between bidats? what physical implementations(changes) in production(A) or in (B)subsequent upgrades and what results they produce.

It is hard to say. I have seen two manufactures who made Bidats. As I understand Meitner had ADS and somebody else (I do not remember who it was) who made Bidat for him. I had both and I did not see a lot of sonic difference. However, the original Bidat was not very well sounding DAC and it had a number of issues that had to be address by modifications. Some of them were very simple and hugely effective – like removing the idiotic power entry module with common mode filter – the filter killed sound (I have no idea what was in Meitner head what he put the thing in – did he ever listen his unit?!!!) Some of them were more technical and had to be performed by qualified technicians who know what they do. Many people did many things on Bidat and some of them did the bad things. So as a result any unit might sound different, deans of it’s history, or perhaps the production vintage. I really do not know the true reasons but I know that I have heard Bidats that sounded like crap.

BTW, my the most beloved and the best sounding Bidat I bought in 1999 from a local guy who hated how the DAC sounded and who then made comments to people I know laughing  “Romy paid $700 for this horrible DAC”. This DAC however sounded much better then my other 3 Bidat s I owned at that time and it is still, after all John’s  modifications sounds very-very nice.

Then Cat

PS: I have to warn that Bidat is quite far in very upper-bass and lover mid-range. It would not be useful in all cases but only where it is needed.

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