Bryston BDA-1

Too bad, sorry you are not that impressed. For me, it's the best digital piece of gear I have owned. I don't use my disc player often anymore, mostly digital files over AppleTV, and to be honest mostly vinyl so not much digital.

But, the Bryston has been the most "analog" sounding by far.

Yo Wig, so how is your DAC now with a good digital cable? I love mine!!

I think this is the warmest, most well rounded DAC I have owned, and I have had a bunch of them (7) in the last year.

I don't believe that there is any breakin period for a DAC, what would need to break in?

It may just not be a match with your other gear, or it could be the cable. I had an MHDT Havana that we excellent, and very warm as an alternative.

Looking at your gear there is no way this should sound bright at all. Your gear tends towards a very nice, clear sound with just a touch of warmth. Very nice set up. As a point of reference my system tends toward brightness, so I always look for warmth from my sources, and after trying many different DAC's(Benchmark DAC-1 USB, MHDT Labs Havana, Bel Canto DACIII, PS Audio dac3, Berkeley Alpha DAC, Tube Audio Design PreDac) to go from my AppleTV to my preamp I choose the Bryston, and I am finally no longer in the market.

But, you are right, you can't use an RCA interconnect for a Coax interface. It's an analog not digital cable and you are not hearing the actual output from the DAC. If you want to find out what your DAC really sounds like, go buy a cheap Toslink cable and run it from your source, you will be shocked at the difference. When your new, good, better digital cable comes, you will be even happier.

Good luck.

Good luck.