Bryston BDA-1 used V/S Wyred 4 Sound DAC 2

I have heard both of these Dacs at length in my, and other's set ups. I preferred the Bryston by a large margin, and so did everyone else. I know the W4S is the hot Dac right now, and surely you're going to get a lot of feedback about how great it is, but that is what I found.

I'm just going to state up front this is all in my experience. Others may have different experiences and that's OK but these are mine.

I/We compared the W4S Dac 2 and Bryston using toslink, spdif, and USB with a Mac and PC as source. The Bryston USB is not it's strong suit but then it came out 2 years ago so that's to be expected. If you are committed to connecting your Dac via USB I would not suggest the Bryston; however I have never heard a USB Dac, asynchronous or otherwise I thought was terrific compared to any other connection method. Everyone keeps touting their new USB module but I have not heard one yet that I think is any good, and I have heard a lot of Dacs in the last 6 months. I strongly believe USB robs the music of emotion, and dynamic range.

Next in my experience using a Dac without a built in volume control and without a preamp will work fine. Just use the digital volume control in your music player software.

However I recommend using a preamp.