Steve - I bought my Border Patrol DAC not long after reading your original review in 2018. It's since been upgraded to the SE-i version. My experience with this DAC is much like yours. The presentation is less an audiophile extravaganza than what seems to me to be a natural rendering of the music. Some have said it's veiled and rolled-off. That is not at all what I hear. However, a few months ago I got curious about the Denafrips DACs and purchased a Pontus 2. I know, I strayed, what can I say? I can understand why so many like the Pontus. Bass is tighter, there's more detail and the sound is a little cleaner. There are clear and obvious differences. But after a while I noticed that I just wasn't listening as much. My attention wasn't really on the music. After a month I sold the Pontus. I'm still using the BP. You nailed the differences between the two.
@@m_DT The upgrade didn't change the nature of the sound. It simply provided more of what was already there. It wasn't a night and day improvement. But it was definitely audible. The impression I got was a slightly warmer and more organic sound. I don't like using the word "organic" to describe sound but it fits what I hear from this DAC. There was more of it after the upgrade. I heard it as a fuller, warmer sound without losing the degree of detail that was previously presented. I'm glad I did it.
I was looking forward to Denafrips Pontus. But a recent incident caught my attention. I am using the Elac Navis ARB - 51 Active speakers. The speakers sounded warm, but lacked clarity at the beginning. After some burn in they started sounding bright, so much so that I could no longer stand its high frequency response. I was using a ESS Sabre based Topping DAC. I was becoming frustrated at my system. I reduced HF extension down to -1 on the back of the Elac speakers. That helped a little making the overall presentation a little warmer, it wasn't enough. Out of desperation, I started trying out different DACs and even 15 years old computer sound cards from Creative. And voila, a Creative X Fi XtremeAudio sound card destroyed my Topping DAC completely. The Topping DAC has better imaging, sharp percussions, but music is sterile, lacks soul, the instruments sound edgy, overall sound has a hollow emptiness, as if signal has some vacant areas, midrange is terrible, music doesn't have body. With X Fi music has more body and detail in a different way, percussive detail is less prominent, but instruments sound real, have more emotions, signal has more weight, midrange is strong, bass is less strong but seems more like part of the instrument not a separate entity. Overall I just keep on listening more and more. Now coming back to my original point. Initially I wanted to upgrade to Pontus from the Topping DAC that I have. Now I am hesitant. More because of your comment. I expected the Pontus to sound like analog, less edgy, more midrange prone. Now I am so much in love with my creative soundcard, I am worried that Pontus might mess things up. I expect a rich tonality, lush midrange. What do you think should I stay away from Pontus? I do not live in the US, but I can ask a friend to bring the BorderPatrol DAC for me.
@@momtazularefin I didn't mean to suggest that the Pontus 2 is a lean, thin-sounding DAC. It isn't. It's sound leans more towards warmth than cool. When you add to that better bass response and better detail and clarity (as compared to the Border Patrol) you end up with a very good DAC. At first it seemed to me to be an upgrade. But more time revealed that something was missing. That something was the degree of musical engagement the BP DAC presents. I just think about the music when I'm listening. I don't think about the format or the resolution. That was not the case with the Pontus 2. If you're happy with your current sound, why not just stay with it?
I bought one a few years ago. Recently, I was wanting to buy a CD transport as I have become less enamored with streaming. I took my BP to the local stereo salon with some of my CDs. Just regular CDs and some of them were rips. At first we were listening my CDs on a pretty expensive transport with the built in DAC in a reasonably high end preamp. It sounded good, all the notes were there and you could hear them fine. I then plugged in the BP. All the conversations in the store stopped at that moment. The sales person asked to take a picture of it. Music was happening. No one asked about its resolution or whether it played Hi-Res or DSD. No one said much of anything at all while it was playing. This was a graphic demonstration of what you were talking about.
What people need to know is that the Lite DAC Ah Chinese DAC (about $250), based on the same TD1543 DAC chip than the BP, sounds at least as good (and *better* in my opinion) than the Border Patrol DAC. How do I know? I had both at the same time and was shocked at what I heard with the lite DAC Ah. Plenty of threads on this DAC on the forums.
DAC-AH is a great DAC for modders as it has a solid PCB and can be tweaked to the Nth degree. Btw it has 8 paralleled 1543 chips which lowers the noise floor and decreases distortion.
Yes - exactly my experience too - I have the Lite DAC, and the BP and they sound identical to me. Having said that, the Topping D70s is much, much better than both, and better at the presumptive 'R2R' sound than most R2R DACs I own, even though the Topping D70s is D/S.
I’ve owned a few very good DACS. All had their strengths but none involved me in the music like the Border Patrol. For pure emotional engagement, the BP is the best DAC I’ve heard, measurements be damned. A tip, I’ve also found it sounds best with 16/44, not 24/96. I spent years chasing hi res and my end game is CD quality with an old school chip. Go figure!
I've since bought this SE-I dac version, and have compared to my other-prior R2R chip (tube and non-tube) dacs. I AGREE with this particular review and comments, and especially about the ability to simply sit and listen to a "music first", "natural" dac again.
It’s really cool you take time to give more niche vendors some daylight on your channel. Waldorf isn’t too far from me and I just found out Conrad-Johnson isn’t either. I used to think of some of these audiophile brands as big companies, but many are not, which is very cool. Love your work here Steve, thank you.
@@keplermission4947 Well said, sir. We wouldn't want the peasantry to enjoy music, would we ? Frankly, we should expel them, their highly regarded £4700 PrimaLuna amp, Cambridge Audio Alva (Arcam my ass) turntable and very possibly newish Klipsch speakers, out of the castle and into the muddy hinterland beyond the walls. Incidentally, that was sarcasm, just in case you are one of those minority of Americans who struggle with it.
Hey Steve, You should check out some of MHDT's tube DACs. The Orchid employs the ''legendary'' Philips TDA1541A chip. FWIW I didn't get along with the Ares II. In my system, at least, I much preferred my old Eastern Electric MiniMax tube DAC.
@@aceofspades6667 How did you like both these DACs? I owned the MHDT Paradisea which had good tone but was too rolled off when compared to newer DACs of that period.
@@mikecees2230 I preferred the Holo with a more analog almost vinyl like sound. However the pagoda balanced is in its price range so probably a fair comparison.
@@mikecees2230I have a BP and an Orchid with a S1 crown tda1541. The Orchid is way more fluid sounding, very wet, lush, think trekking through a tropical forest. The BP is more dry, polite, soft, think wandering thru a dry desert. Two similar chips both radically different sounding. I like both for different use cases and moods.
You did it again, Steve Guttenberg! I simply love the way you gently push to one’s perception of what defines good hifi equipment, that can give the listener a satisfying musical experience, without everything ‘pushed in your face’. Maybe the same approach was the subcontious reasoning behind my resent decision to invest in a Reisong A12 to be the core of my 2nd system? (The ancient Naim Nait 2 was way too expensive to re-procure, when I checked last time, actually around double the cost of an A12). At least I can say I very much enjoy listening to music through my 2nd setup, where the focus is more on musicality and tonality (‘the bigger picture’) and not so much on details.
I love my Border Patrol DAC. It’s my endgame DAC, I personally don’t need any more ‘resolution’ than this. Helps CDs to sound rich and beautiful, which is exactly what I want out of digital playback.
I'll not gonna contradict Steve's opinions about this dac. If he says that it sounds good, I'm fine with it. But I can't avoid the fact that the circuit is attached to a partially delaminated chunk of plywood or the ugly paint defect on the back panel. This is an audiophile grade 1.7 grands thing put together like a weekend DIY contraption on Instructables...
Nah. It's basically 1100 bucks. You spend that on a few feet of braided speaker wire and interconnects. If the underdog boutique manufacturer can lay down some sound using a different approach and succeeds, judge it on the merits of the sound, not the little box it rides in. I kinda wish it was even uglier and less finished. Just give me the guts I'll widdle together a box of hardwood if I really want it to look good. Besides, I'm a little tired of brushed aluminum face plates and volume knobs CNC'd from a billet of solid aluminum anyway. Nothing wrong with that, in fact it's quite beautiful... but it's also common. And when something is common, it does sort of lose that specialness in my opinion.
Steve, interesting video once again. I recently purchased a new DAC. Its an Audiolab m-dac +. I absolutely love it. Also, it goes well with my Audiolab 6000cdt Transport, & my Yamaha AS-1100 Amp. Which run my Dali Rubicon 2s, stand mount Speakers. Works fantastic. Stay safe & well. 👍🏻
Sounds like a DAC that would mesh well with my personal preference for sonic presentation. I imagine this would compliment Klipsch Heresy's as well as any other speaker that has a similarly live and dynamic presentation. I have Ares II, love it and feel like it integrates well with tubes and horns. If I didn't have the Ares I'd probably consider this although the Ares seems a little more versatile
@@keplermission4947The Ares II is really a very musical DAC indeed and it matches wonderfully with my wonderful Elekit TU-8200DX SET amplifier. And yes, I don't have a car and I use the buses. Good point :) Sincerely from Toulouse / France.
Would be nice to put pointers in the video that show each component of the system that is featured. Often times it is obvious many times it is not so it might be a good idea....
I've had the Border Control, it made the music so colored I couldn't stand it. Pianos sound out of tune, it tries to be pleasant by being overly warm and vague, and it ruins the music.
What did you expect…it was the Fillmore East! Every great rock ‘n’ roll group lusted to play at the Fillmore East and it was well worth their while. A rock ‘n’ roll icon.
Fillmore is proud to present... a band of gypsys!! I just had that going through my system few days ago at about 105db give or take. I dunno spl but it was like sticking my face into jimmys amp, and it was good. It was very good
@@erics.4113 Believe it or not I was at the Fillmore East that night I believe 1970. I was also there for Santana and twice for the grateful dead. Great acoustics and lots of energy from the crowds. That place held a lot of people.
@@stimpy1226 that gave me chills friend. Did you know, did you really know what kind of greatness was in front of you, at the time, as you were listening? I wasn't born until 1975 so I had a good excuse for not being there man!! I'm happy to connect with someone that got to be there. Made my day
@@erics.4113 I was born in 1946. I’ve been to a lot of great concerts and clubs in my life. Yes, Santana was unbelievable from about 1966 I think a little earlier maybe Santana was at Woodstock with the Grateful Dead and Jimi Hendrix but I was not at Woodstock so all of these musicians were very famous by the time I saw them in Fillmore. But I listened to their music right from the beginning.
@@stimpy1226 I've seen great shows and been part of magical musical gatherings. Burning man comes to mind, the earlier days that is. Where the chemistry and the music was all.... just right. But you lived through and experienced a very special time and place and I'm envious and delighted to think about those that were there
There are measurement only audio people who are twitching uncontrollably after seeing this video. :) I like that there are different ways to listen to music reproduction.
Try to measure my enjoyment when listening. When I fret over my gear too much I lose enjoyment. I plug my audioquest interconnects with the arrows facing the wrong way just to give myself the peace of mind that the music enjoyment is all in my head anyway. My ears and my brain are, in fact, the most important part of my chain and I try to never forget that when I get caught up in gear madness.
@@erics.4113 Enjoyment is what really matters when listening to music. It is easy to forget that and I've fallen down the hole of stressing over equipment before.
TDA1543 does not support 24 bit audio in a single chip configuration. That's utterly misleading! Maybe the receiver chipset (of which we don't know about anything) is capable of receiving 24 bit but definitively will be truncated to 16 bit for processing. Shame!
If it is possible to limit a 24bit stream to 16bit it is possible the result might be preferred. Such is the case with my MHDT Orchid DAC, with TDA1541A, when the bit rate of my Lumin UI Mini streamer is set to 16bit. The Orchid plays 24bit, but I don't know how.
He need some shelf!! How about the custom color on those tektons? I'm about to order some lore ref and was thinking about custom color... or black lol. But I saw on their site you can choose a paint manufacturer and send the color code to tekton and they'll finish in it. Pretty cool man. Maybe I'll do the room in same color so I can't see how ugly they are. Just kidding I like ugly things that sound good for real.
The first sentence of your review, I'm into it. Buying stuff from small companies who dare to be different. I just acquired an Audion Super Sterling KT120 amplifier that is single ended! It is a winner. BTW, I bought my Ares II a couple of years ago based on your review Steve. You were spot on, loved it. BTW, "smoothing the trip"...., hahahahah. That's all I'll say about that :)
Years ago now, I had a severe case of digitalitis. I had gone through some pricey, well-regarded, well-reviewed digital gear and with all of the differences they presented I was left with a result that sounded uninspiringly unpalpable. Too etched, hard, cold, clinical, flat, unnatural. I made a hard course change and picked up non-oversampling, filterless Philips TDA chip-based DAC. And a rather small and affordable one, at that. Music sounded natural and organic again. Fleshed, tonally hefty and contrasted. More convincingly real, live, organic. Much better. I've since picked up other DACs and I feel that across the board they are all better than what I was experiencing digitalitis from.
That was a great insight for me. Your experience of the BorderPatrol is similar to my experience of the Hegel H390 AirPlay. At first you might find it dull until you realize you are hearing and apprehending the recorded music as it is. Every recording is different but the way the sound holds the space doesn’t vary.
This sounds like an interesting DAC, thanks Steve. We also have to give credit to Kimura San who promotes NOS TD1543 DAC of 47 labs. I'm now using a Sparkler CD player using TD1543 NOS chipset which is interesting enough. Lite DAC from China is a little wonder, bought one and lent it to my friend, he was knocked out of his chair upon hooked up and I never got my DAC back ... lol and production Lite has slowed down due to too costly in intensive labour required to find matched pair of DAC chips in sea of stock....
Hello Steve, for what’s it worth my Sugden DAC 4 uses the same NOS Philips DAC chip and to me sounds wonderfully good with a good amount of detail, great drive/dynamics and nicely refined highs. Sugden will never send you one but please try it out if you can. Highly recommended, Brian
Hi Steve, I’m following your channel now for about a year. After being distracted by a thing called life I am back at the audiophile hobby and re discovering music. Of course I kept listening music all over the years, but using low end audio equipment. My system is still very basic compared to a lot of you guys into the hobby, but it falls in the high fidelity class again. What I like about your channel is you don’t only talk gear, but also music and you (re) introduced me to some jewels. I remember late night listening to the Grateful Dead in my youth, but forgot the album I was listening too that time. I tried some of their albums recently, but didn’t get that same vibe. After you mentioned the Fillmore East album a few times I tried it out and it brought back that old vibe again. Also, thanks to you, listening to the Trinity album by the Cowboy Junkies, Wildflowers in the Graveyard from Amber Rubarth, Temptation (Holly Cole), etc. Please keep mentioning the music you test the gear with, it’s most appreciated. About the gear you test, it often is more expensive to what I am willing to pay or can afford . Still getting ideas about my future buying because of your reviews and a few others I trust following advice. Thanks for the good work Steve!
Audio is so esoteric in this way. With photography, we can look at an oversaturated or oversharpened photo and immediately recognize that one should be gentle with how you treat any source material. The detail is there, but it can be overemphasized to the detriment of the experience. Similarly, modern consumer TV's are set to do that automatically to whatever you feed it. I wonder if, and to what degree, focusing on detail, etc, creates an unnatural presentation of the music we listen to.
Too much detail at the expense of tonal richness kills the music. It's like lighting. I look OK under subdued incandescent lighting but under stark fluorescent lighting...not so much.
Even in photography, we have choices to make. I used to use Agfacolor film, which came in 3 different varieties-- Portrait (subtle colors), Ultra (extra saturated), and a middle one I don't recall. Which variety was appropriate to its subject was up to the photographer and the viewer. Of course if the lab printed it differently than expected!?!
All good points in these replies. That said, I want my DAC to simply do the math, crunch those numbers to the nnnth degree,... don't euphonically sweeten, as there's other insert points whereby we can accommodate some sweetening if needed. That said, I get it. Diversity in offerings, small niche mfr, or big global goliath mfrs... it's all good. ie., somethings out there for every taste. Like many niche audio products, obviously many experience this DAC and can't live without it, and that's cool af.
Great review and info. Cool to use that Grateful Deal, love that recording and know it well! Have you every review the PS Audio Direct Steam DAC? It seems to be a unique approach with their love or maybe worship of DSP. Thanks. Kindly, ace
I had someone bring one around once and we put it against a Qutest from Chord and similar detail, with chord one of market leaders in this regard. I’ll admit I didn’t listen to it critically for a long time. Denafrips Ares is a nice one which I featured in a video recently Steve.
Steve, as a fellow BP DAC owner I totally agree about its musicality. I mostly listen to LPs at home but hunted down this DAC for the times I wanted to stream digital via Roon and just relax and enjoy the music. So my question is, how does something like the Mola Mola Tambaqui stack up from a musicality standpoint? Does the Tambaqui find the happy ground of retaining the musicality of the BP but add the detail, transparency, sound staging of something like the Denafrips? I know this isn’t a fair fight price wise but have always wondered if something at the level of the Tambaqui or DCS DAC can really do it all while letting the music poor through.
@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac Thanks for the reply, Tambaqui must really be special as you have said. Analog system is locked down, I know what needs to join the digital side in the future.
i have asked if they could ship internationally, hopefully they will. i tried to order one on their website to try out, but there was no provision for adding an international shipping address.
Hi Steve. I appreciated this video. I remember your original BorderPatrol DAC review way back. I own the SE model and do love its performance. So nice to set it and forget it - close my eyes and just enjoy the tunes. My noticeable gripes are that it could be more airy and open, and some detail in the lower end is lost. But beyond that the BP DAC is a blast to listen to. When I do crave detail I have a handy Chord Mojo running optical toslink to my Node 2i. Easy enough to flip that on and get the most out of ultra hi-res files. The Mojo is quite the workhorse even in a loudspeaker setting. Cheers.
Am I the only one that does not see the long horizontal paint run on the back? The paint will not affect the sound, but it will affect perceived quality. Danger Will Robinson!!
In that case please take a look at the Holo May - it is also very different. However Stereophile said of it "In almost every way, the HoloAudio May (Level 3) is the best-measuring D/A processor I have encountered" Many who have heard it say it's the best DAC they ever heard :-)
@@mikelm222 I'm working my way up from the bottom, still new to 2ch and far from well informed enough on my personal likes to make a 5k dac purchase. I haven't tried the $500-$1k offerings yet. Plus I don't have the best hearing so over the top detail on nuanced bits of music may never even reach my brain. I just want, overall, good sound. So I can appreciate the merits of this piece. Notwithstanding, I haven't heard any purpose-built external dac.... yet.
I use the BP se-i dac with the Alstine SET120….(not the control amp). It’s a great pairing. It’s running into an Alstine tube pre b4 the SET120. I think you just need to ensure the input-Z of the stage after the dac is sufficiently high (>20k Ω)
Good review overall, though I feel like it would be helpful to operationalize more what you mean by 'musical'- more mid-range emphasis? A more liquid-like sound? BTW, first time I've heard Steve reference the Dead in a long time- he's said he's not a Dead fan per se- but what a great album he chose to highlight of theirs!- for an introduction to the Dead as a live 'rock and roll' band, it may be my single top recommendation (though Europe '72, and for a more 'psychedlic orientation,' Live/Dead are obviously up there with it).
I am starting to see why BP only offers a 12 month warranty. Three years from Alvin. Reviewers need to start out the very beginning of a every video by stating the warranty. Otherwise it is implied that warranties are not that important. Standard should be three years regardless of ownership. Stereophile needs to wake up on this too. Steve you are the leader. Show the others how. Congrats on the 200k Subscribers!
Looks very interesting. I am in the market for a dedicated DAC prefer not to go with over priced Denafips Dacs. The technology is great the build seems very good with Denafips, but they are way over priced and good luck getting service on these if need be.
Thank you for the review Steve. I saw your first review and that and an exchange of emails with Gary Dews led me to buying the Border Patrol DAC. I enjoy it very much. It draws me into the music. However, I wonder if you have compared it to an original multibit TDA-based CD player? If the user is purely listening to CDs then this might be a way to achieve a very similar (or possibly better with the TDA1541) sound but with the added bonus of a usually excellent transport.
Mr Steve Guttenberg would like to ask you a question: can you use an amplifier with higher power than recommended for loudspeakers? For example, a pair of JBL L100 with a recommended power of 200 watts being driven by a McIntosh MA1200 with 350 watts ? Can the JBL L100 be damaged? Thank you for your attention and greetings from Brazil !!!
Yes of course you can. The more power the more control, in general terms. Damage results from excessive volume played ONLY, not from amplifier's power capabilities.
Steve, great review! A breath of fresh air in our world of quantification :) I would like to share with you a little anecdote, I hope you’ll enjoy it ;) So I recently acquired a (used) pair of Harbeth 30.2 40th and here’s what I wrote to my audio buddy a couple of days ago: Quote… These past few days I’ve been playing the following system: Harbeth 30.2 40th | Goldmund Telos 280 | Nagra Jazz | Mytek Brooklyn + TeraDak LPSU | Innuos ZENith Mk3 but something was starting to bother me... a touch too revealing so I did one change Mytek Brooklyn + TeraDak LPSU => Border Patrol DAC SE wow... sooo much better in that configuration less revealing, less resolution... but sooooo much more natural and therefore naturally musical very happy to have an alternative more natural sounding DAC the Mytek is perfect when using tube amps and/or sweeter/more coloured speakers the BP is perfect to smooth down SS amps and/or the more revealing speakers wonderful all about system balancing, as usual Unquote
Steve i wonder how many of your subscribers are happy with a DAC that is more than 7 years old and feel no need to upgrade? i have just gotten into streaming with a IFI Zen Stream and just now realized how good my old NAD D1050 is.
I have a highly modified enlightened audio designs dsp-9000 series 3 ( a small company that used to be hear in the Midwest and was used by stereophile as a reference for years) from the 90s and I'm not missing all the latest greatest dac chips, dsd, high resolution, mqa and I'm doing just fine. You don't need the latest and great tech to enjoy the music. Guessing I have one of the older dacs here? I have been enjoying it everyday! It still beats most of what's out there. Wasn't cheap but it still competes with the likes of dcs.
It is not all copper, only the insert for the tube is copper! You stated this wrongly in a previous video before, so i felt i should inform the viewers...
Just sent an enquiry to BP and asked them to comment directly here in the comment section about steel or solid copper. If it's all copper you need to withdraw @TheGiftofmelody. Did you test it for magnetism if you suppose it's actually steel? Copper typicall isn't magnetic if untreated.
Well if the black metal parts are copper indeed that would be surprising as they look and feel like ordinary metal. Anyways, Gary is a great guy to deal with and this DAC definitely keeps the focus on the music! Happy listening everyone 🎶
Anyone with a 16bit r2r IC dac, even though it will play 24bit, try limiting it to 16bit replay, either by restricting the output of a streamer to 16bit or the streaming service itself. Listen carefully versus allowing it to replay the same file in 24bit. You might be surprised.
Most movies are made at a 24 frame per second rate which is far to slow to show fast movements realistically. Most people prefer that slow frame rate over higher ones. If someone has decided this preference is a learned preference or if there is some cognitive reason for the preference I don't know. Which brings us to this DAC which eschews accuracy. Is old (sorry) vinyl head Steve partial to this DAC because of a similar learned preference for less accurate all analog sound or is there such a thing as too accurate to please? Got me but this is a big can of worms in the audio world. Luckily it's a mostly friendly discussion. Steve hasn't come to blows with John Atkinson after all. Still I wonder if a new class music reproduction is warranted. A name? How about sort of high fidelity or high fidelity enough?
"Can of worms" LOL. Nobody knows exactly. Just e/g one more of the numerous "variables": Did Steve ever tell us about his personal state of hearing? One may say, a reviewer should provide some data about personal hearing capabilities, just as a President should about mental and physical health. That could be a nice topic for an episode: "Audiophilia, aging and gradual loss of hearing - and how to deal with it". Fun fact: Lately Herb Reichert (aged 72 I guess) seems to have started to fall in love with subwoofers! - After decades of defending these anemic little 3/5s. It's only natural, but never heard from Herb about these things, which are only human and only natural.
i get a chance to go canjam nyc 2022 for the first time and i was very much underwhelmed with all the fancy headphone amps and uber expensive headphones didn't impress me at all only one booth from HeadAmp got me excited. they got HeadAmp GS-x Mini hooked up with usb on Border Patrol dac using the headphone of Dan Clark aeon 2 noire with vivo premium cable to me that was the best sounding system. all the synergy coming from the system DAC + Headphone Amplifier + Headphone = magical! music to my ears. i went back there 3 times. and few hours later i immediately purchased Dan Clark aeon 2 noire and got it today and i don't hear the same magic once heard. i am using Chord hugo 2 as my source. not the right kind of synergy. Sigh. this hobby making me pulling my hair in despair.
Amir would go nuts about this thing xD I wonder how much it drops at 20kHz. That said, I think the price is crazy high considering the internals and probably one of the most (if not the most) basic Philips chip.
Hey! I love listening to noise! My gf always says what's all that racket noise rock n roll you playing and get off my lawn! My gf is like old or something?
I've thought about this for the most part of the day. I am somewhat uneasy with the product name. Being of latino heritage, the name conjures unpleasant experiences by latino immigrants crossing the border. I am no social justice warrior nor do I support illegal immigration. nor I am sensitive and reactionary of anything said to my brothers and sisters. It's just is. BTW I love this channel.
They were gonna call it Make Digital Great Again but then Steve in marketing said F that. I guess Molson ICE isn't your cup of beer then either? What about the Washington football team? That's a real zinger catchy name. I'm just trying to make levity not make fun of you or your comment. It is kinda strange name they chose. And listen, everyone in the US is an immigrant or descendant of, save for native American, Mayan or Aztec descendants. So in my opinion, anyone from South of the border should freely have access to, especially, the southern US because that was Mexico's land before any European colonized this country. And they're taking it back in numbers and I'm happy for it. And i think this country will benefit from it in the long run. Now let's make another great dac again! 🤗
Interesting comparison, since the Denafrips is said to be the most "analog" sounding DAC compared to the modern crop.... Border patrol gets about 14bit resolution, no? Welp, it just goes to show that going overboard with "audiophile fireworks" can throw the baby out with the bathwater. At some point you have to say it's good enough already! Go find new music !! 🎶🤫🎶 (PS Love my Ares2 in "NOS" which dials back the resolution for tonal beauty;-)
Good timing with this. My BorderPatrol DAC which I’ve used since 2017 or 18, has started to flake out - voices sound like they over a hot mic. That’s a recent issue. Up to this point, it’s been great. I’ve really enjoyed this DAC - I’ve put thousands of hours on it - and at some point I’ll try to get it fixed but in the meantime I ordered an Ares 2 a couple days ago. I’m looking forward to the Areas but I already miss the presentation over the BorderPatrol. I really should get it fixed. Yes, it’s ‘musical’, but also I love the soundstage and depth. The singer is on the stage, as opposed to in the front-row (on my mojo, which I currently have set up). Of course, that depends on the recording. But in general, it just gets out of the way and presents something that sounds ‘natural’.
I bought one a few years ago. Recently, I was wanting to buy a CD transport as I have become less enamored with streaming. I took my BP to the local stereo salon with some of my CDs. Just regular CDs and some of them were rips. At first we were listening my CDs on a pretty expensive transport with the built in DAC in a reasonably high end preamp. It sounded good, all the notes were there and you could hear them fine. I then plugged in the BP. All the conversations in the store stopped at that moment. The sales person asked to take a picture of it. Music was happening. No one asked about its resolution or whether it played Hi-Res or DSD. No one said much of anything at all while it was playing. This was a graphic demonstration of what you were talking about.
Steve - I bought my Border Patrol DAC not long after reading your original review in 2018. It's since been upgraded to the SE-i version. My experience with this DAC is much like yours. The presentation is less an audiophile extravaganza than what seems to me to be a natural rendering of the music. Some have said it's veiled and rolled-off. That is not at all what I hear. However, a few months ago I got curious about the Denafrips DACs and purchased a Pontus 2. I know, I strayed, what can I say? I can understand why so many like the Pontus. Bass is tighter, there's more detail and the sound is a little cleaner. There are clear and obvious differences. But after a while I noticed that I just wasn't listening as much. My attention wasn't really on the music. After a month I sold the Pontus. I'm still using the BP. You nailed the differences between the two.
Curious to know your impressions after Gary upgraded yours to the SE-i version. I currently have an SE model and am contemplating the upgrade myself.
@@m_DT The upgrade didn't change the nature of the sound. It simply provided more of what was already there. It wasn't a night and day improvement. But it was definitely audible. The impression I got was a slightly warmer and more organic sound. I don't like using the word "organic" to describe sound but it fits what I hear from this DAC. There was more of it after the upgrade. I heard it as a fuller, warmer sound without losing the degree of detail that was previously presented. I'm glad I did it.
@@garyalexander5686 cool. Thanks for sharing.
I was looking forward to Denafrips Pontus. But a recent incident caught my attention. I am using the Elac Navis ARB - 51 Active speakers. The speakers sounded warm, but lacked clarity at the beginning. After some burn in they started sounding bright, so much so that I could no longer stand its high frequency response. I was using a ESS Sabre based Topping DAC. I was becoming frustrated at my system. I reduced HF extension down to -1 on the back of the Elac speakers. That helped a little making the overall presentation a little warmer, it wasn't enough. Out of desperation, I started trying out different DACs and even 15 years old computer sound cards from Creative. And voila, a Creative X Fi XtremeAudio sound card destroyed my Topping DAC completely. The Topping DAC has better imaging, sharp percussions, but music is sterile, lacks soul, the instruments sound edgy, overall sound has a hollow emptiness, as if signal has some vacant areas, midrange is terrible, music doesn't have body. With X Fi music has more body and detail in a different way, percussive detail is less prominent, but instruments sound real, have more emotions, signal has more weight, midrange is strong, bass is less strong but seems more like part of the instrument not a separate entity. Overall I just keep on listening more and more.
Now coming back to my original point. Initially I wanted to upgrade to Pontus from the Topping DAC that I have. Now I am hesitant. More because of your comment. I expected the Pontus to sound like analog, less edgy, more midrange prone. Now I am so much in love with my creative soundcard, I am worried that Pontus might mess things up. I expect a rich tonality, lush midrange. What do you think should I stay away from Pontus? I do not live in the US, but I can ask a friend to bring the BorderPatrol DAC for me.
@@momtazularefin I didn't mean to suggest that the Pontus 2 is a lean, thin-sounding DAC. It isn't. It's sound leans more towards warmth than cool. When you add to that better bass response and better detail and clarity (as compared to the Border Patrol) you end up with a very good DAC. At first it seemed to me to be an upgrade. But more time revealed that something was missing. That something was the degree of musical engagement the BP DAC presents. I just think about the music when I'm listening. I don't think about the format or the resolution. That was not the case with the Pontus 2. If you're happy with your current sound, why not just stay with it?
I bought one a few years ago. Recently, I was wanting to buy a CD transport as I have become less enamored with streaming. I took my BP to the local stereo salon with some of my CDs. Just regular CDs and some of them were rips. At first we were listening my CDs on a pretty expensive transport with the built in DAC in a reasonably high end preamp. It sounded good, all the notes were there and you could hear them fine. I then plugged in the BP. All the conversations in the store stopped at that moment. The sales person asked to take a picture of it. Music was happening. No one asked about its resolution or whether it played Hi-Res or DSD. No one said much of anything at all while it was playing. This was a graphic demonstration of what you were talking about.
I bought a non-USB Border Patrol SE-I a couple of weeks ago. Love it.
What people need to know is that the Lite DAC Ah Chinese DAC (about $250), based on the same TD1543 DAC chip than the BP, sounds at least as good (and *better* in my opinion) than the Border Patrol DAC. How do I know? I had both at the same time and was shocked at what I heard with the lite DAC Ah. Plenty of threads on this DAC on the forums.
DAC-AH is a great DAC for modders as it has a solid PCB and can be tweaked to the Nth degree. Btw it has 8 paralleled 1543 chips which lowers the noise floor and decreases distortion.
I got a TDA1543+CS8412 DAC board from amazon for about £15. Looks like I saved myself a few bob.
Yes - exactly my experience too - I have the Lite DAC, and the BP and they sound identical to me. Having said that, the Topping D70s is much, much better than both, and better at the presumptive 'R2R' sound than most R2R DACs I own, even though the Topping D70s is D/S.
I’ve owned a few very good DACS. All had their strengths but none involved me in the music like the Border Patrol. For pure emotional engagement, the BP is the best DAC I’ve heard, measurements be damned. A tip, I’ve also found it sounds best with 16/44, not 24/96. I spent years chasing hi res and my end game is CD quality with an old school chip. Go figure!
I've since bought this SE-I dac version, and have compared to my other-prior R2R chip (tube and non-tube) dacs. I AGREE with this particular review and comments, and especially about the ability to simply sit and listen to a "music first", "natural" dac again.
It’s really cool you take time to give more niche vendors some daylight on your channel. Waldorf isn’t too far from me and I just found out Conrad-Johnson isn’t either. I used to think of some of these audiophile brands as big companies, but many are not, which is very cool. Love your work here Steve, thank you.
Totally agree. I live in Fairfax and was shocked to learn they are right here.
@@keplermission4947 Well said, sir. We wouldn't want the peasantry to enjoy music, would we ? Frankly, we should expel them, their highly regarded £4700 PrimaLuna amp, Cambridge Audio Alva (Arcam my ass) turntable and very possibly newish Klipsch speakers, out of the castle and into the muddy hinterland beyond the walls.
Incidentally, that was sarcasm, just in case you are one of those minority of Americans who struggle with it.
Love the Leo bridges album. His Collaboration with Khuruangbin on Texas Sun is also briljant.
Hey Steve,
You should check out some of MHDT's tube DACs. The Orchid employs the ''legendary'' Philips TDA1541A chip.
FWIW I didn't get along with the Ares II. In my system, at least, I much preferred my old Eastern Electric MiniMax tube DAC.
Yep i owned the orchid for a bit before selling it to buy a holo spring KTE dac. I always wanted to try the Pagoda balanced dac from MHDT.
@@aceofspades6667 How did you like both these DACs? I owned the MHDT Paradisea which had good tone but was too rolled off when compared to newer DACs of that period.
@@mikecees2230 I preferred the Holo with a more analog almost vinyl like sound. However the pagoda balanced is in its price range so probably a fair comparison.
I love my MHDT Havana. Sounds great. Might get an Orchid at some point.
@@mikecees2230I have a BP and an Orchid with a S1 crown tda1541. The Orchid is way more fluid sounding, very wet, lush, think trekking through a tropical forest. The BP is more dry, polite, soft, think wandering thru a dry desert. Two similar chips both radically different sounding. I like both for different use cases and moods.
You did it again, Steve Guttenberg! I simply love the way you gently push to one’s perception of what defines good hifi equipment, that can give the listener a satisfying musical experience, without everything ‘pushed in your face’. Maybe the same approach was the subcontious reasoning behind my resent decision to invest in a Reisong A12 to be the core of my 2nd system? (The ancient Naim Nait 2 was way too expensive to re-procure, when I checked last time, actually around double the cost of an A12). At least I can say I very much enjoy listening to music through my 2nd setup, where the focus is more on musicality and tonality (‘the bigger picture’) and not so much on details.
Thanks Steve. Good tracks for my ears .
That's the same feeling I get form my Zu DW's Believe I finally found my sound.
I love my Border Patrol DAC. It’s my endgame DAC, I personally don’t need any more ‘resolution’ than this. Helps CDs to sound rich and beautiful, which is exactly what I want out of digital playback.
You can order BorderPatrol DAC with upgraded Jupiter Copper Foil Paper and Wax caps that will take the DAC to a new level.
bought the border patrol se i instead of denafrips, handwired in usa ,comes stock with a nos rectifier tube try look for that in chi fi
If I lifted the lid on that unit I would be worried. Looks untidy and 'blown togther'
I'll not gonna contradict Steve's opinions about this dac. If he says that it sounds good, I'm fine with it.
But I can't avoid the fact that the circuit is attached to a partially delaminated chunk of plywood or the ugly paint defect on the back panel.
This is an audiophile grade 1.7 grands thing put together like a weekend DIY contraption on Instructables...
Agreed. I found both of those details to be deal-breakers. When he started to tell us the price I thought "maybe three hundred bucks."
Nah. It's basically 1100 bucks. You spend that on a few feet of braided speaker wire and interconnects. If the underdog boutique manufacturer can lay down some sound using a different approach and succeeds, judge it on the merits of the sound, not the little box it rides in. I kinda wish it was even uglier and less finished. Just give me the guts I'll widdle together a box of hardwood if I really want it to look good. Besides, I'm a little tired of brushed aluminum face plates and volume knobs CNC'd from a billet of solid aluminum anyway. Nothing wrong with that, in fact it's quite beautiful... but it's also common. And when something is common, it does sort of lose that specialness in my opinion.
@@erics.4113 The paint work finish of Steve's Border Patrol unit is not at all typical based on looking at the images having done an internet search.
@@liamo4 my eyes are bad too I didn't notice paint defects. Also the screen on my phone is cracked so I'm a bad judge 😉
@ Marcelo Gd The paint work finish of Steve's Border Patrol unit is not at all typical based on looking at the images having done an internet search.
Steve, interesting video once again. I recently purchased a new DAC. Its an Audiolab m-dac +. I absolutely love it. Also, it goes well with my Audiolab 6000cdt Transport, & my Yamaha AS-1100 Amp. Which run my Dali Rubicon 2s, stand mount Speakers. Works fantastic. Stay safe & well. 👍🏻
Sounds like a DAC that would mesh well with my personal preference for sonic presentation. I imagine this would compliment Klipsch Heresy's as well as any other speaker that has a similarly live and dynamic presentation. I have Ares II, love it and feel like it integrates well with tubes and horns. If I didn't have the Ares I'd probably consider this although the Ares seems a little more versatile
@@keplermission4947The Ares II is really a very musical DAC indeed and it matches wonderfully with my wonderful Elekit TU-8200DX SET amplifier. And yes, I don't have a car and I use the buses. Good point :) Sincerely from Toulouse / France.
Would be nice to put pointers in the video that show each component of the system that is featured. Often times it is obvious many times it is not so it might be a good idea....
The cool factor on that shirt is off the charts!
Steve has to turn his music up to play over all that noise his loud shirts make
Love the porcupine tree LP on JC's table!
Love the viewers system of the day.!
I've had the Border Control, it made the music so colored I couldn't stand it. Pianos sound out of tune, it tries to be pleasant by being overly warm and vague, and it ruins the music.
What did you expect…it was the Fillmore East! Every great rock ‘n’ roll group lusted to play at the Fillmore East and it was well worth their while. A rock ‘n’ roll icon.
Fillmore is proud to present... a band of gypsys!!
I just had that going through my system few days ago at about 105db give or take. I dunno spl but it was like sticking my face into jimmys amp, and it was good. It was very good
@@erics.4113 Believe it or not I was at the Fillmore East that night I believe 1970. I was also there for Santana and twice for the grateful dead. Great acoustics and lots of energy from the crowds. That place held a lot of people.
@@stimpy1226 that gave me chills friend. Did you know, did you really know what kind of greatness was in front of you, at the time, as you were listening? I wasn't born until 1975 so I had a good excuse for not being there man!!
I'm happy to connect with someone that got to be there. Made my day
@@erics.4113 I was born in 1946. I’ve been to a lot of great concerts and clubs in my life. Yes, Santana was unbelievable from about 1966 I think a little earlier maybe Santana was at Woodstock with the Grateful Dead and Jimi Hendrix but I was not at Woodstock so all of these musicians were very famous by the time I saw them in Fillmore. But I listened to their music right from the beginning.
@@stimpy1226 I've seen great shows and been part of magical musical gatherings. Burning man comes to mind, the earlier days that is. Where the chemistry and the music was all.... just right. But you lived through and experienced a very special time and place and I'm envious and delighted to think about those that were there
I still use my Cambridge Audio CD3 cd player.
4x TDA1541A chips, built in 1991.
Love it!
Hold on to it as long as you can. I use the MHDT Orchid DAC with one such chip.
@@liamo4 Got a spare one for parts just in case.
Listened to Side-Eye for the first time. Excellent music and recording!
There are measurement only audio people who are twitching uncontrollably after seeing this video. :)
I like that there are different ways to listen to music reproduction.
Wow, if this causes them to twitch, the rest of their life must really be unbearable!
@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac The whole intonation of things said in this episode bears some sort of defiance and constant teasing.
Try to measure my enjoyment when listening. When I fret over my gear too much I lose enjoyment. I plug my audioquest interconnects with the arrows facing the wrong way just to give myself the peace of mind that the music enjoyment is all in my head anyway. My ears and my brain are, in fact, the most important part of my chain and I try to never forget that when I get caught up in gear madness.
@@erics.4113 Enjoyment is what really matters when listening to music. It is easy to forget that and I've fallen down the hole of stressing over equipment before.
TDA1543 does not support 24 bit audio in a single chip configuration. That's utterly misleading! Maybe the receiver chipset (of which we don't know about anything) is capable of receiving 24 bit but definitively will be truncated to 16 bit for processing. Shame!
can you confirm this?
If it is possible to limit a 24bit stream to 16bit it is possible the result might be preferred. Such is the case with my MHDT Orchid DAC, with TDA1541A, when the bit rate of my Lumin UI Mini streamer is set to 16bit. The Orchid plays 24bit, but I don't know how.
Porcupine Tree’s Deadwing on JC’s table is always an encouraging sign! Must sound great over that system.
My eyes immediately saw that and I thought the same thing.
gorgeous system from the audience, but does he really shift the Denon CD player every time he wants to use the turntable ?
He need some shelf!!
How about the custom color on those tektons?
I'm about to order some lore ref and was thinking about custom color... or black lol.
But I saw on their site you can choose a paint manufacturer and send the color code to tekton and they'll finish in it. Pretty cool man. Maybe I'll do the room in same color so I can't see how ugly they are. Just kidding I like ugly things that sound good for real.
Very nice Steve. Maybe you could get Lampizator Amber DAC or other ones. Very special.
I prefer Łukasz Kisiel's Lucarto Audio DAC "Songolo" when it comes to "Pol-Fi" DACs. Tried both by myself, warm recommendation!
@@pickyaudiophile never heard of it, does it have any reviews? Thanks for the info
The first sentence of your review, I'm into it. Buying stuff from small companies who dare to be different. I just acquired an Audion Super Sterling KT120 amplifier that is single ended! It is a winner. BTW, I bought my Ares II a couple of years ago based on your review Steve. You were spot on, loved it. BTW, "smoothing the trip"...., hahahahah. That's all I'll say about that :)
I’m sold. If only I understood the different options - S, SE, usb, coax
🤦♀️🤷♀️🥺
Have been waiting for this.
Such a great DAC. Definitely my endgame DAC.
Years ago now, I had a severe case of digitalitis. I had gone through some pricey, well-regarded, well-reviewed digital gear and with all of the differences they presented I was left with a result that sounded uninspiringly unpalpable. Too etched, hard, cold, clinical, flat, unnatural. I made a hard course change and picked up non-oversampling, filterless Philips TDA chip-based DAC. And a rather small and affordable one, at that. Music sounded natural and organic again. Fleshed, tonally hefty and contrasted. More convincingly real, live, organic. Much better. I've since picked up other DACs and I feel that across the board they are all better than what I was experiencing digitalitis from.
Which one is that?
That was a great insight for me. Your experience of the BorderPatrol is similar to my experience of the Hegel H390 AirPlay. At first you might find it dull until you realize you are hearing and apprehending the recorded music as it is. Every recording is different but the way the sound holds the space doesn’t vary.
This sounds like an interesting DAC, thanks Steve. We also have to give credit to Kimura San who promotes NOS TD1543 DAC of 47 labs. I'm now using a Sparkler CD player using TD1543 NOS chipset which is interesting enough. Lite DAC from China is a little wonder, bought one and lent it to my friend, he was knocked out of his chair upon hooked up and I never got my DAC back ... lol and production Lite has slowed down due to too costly in intensive labour required to find matched pair of DAC chips in sea of stock....
Have you listened to any of the Metrum Acoustics DACs? They have a similar design objective for their house sound.
Great Dead album Steve. I can't remember if I was at those shows. 🌝Beautifully recorded too.
Steve - can you please tell us who makes the cool sound (absorbing?) device shown in the beginning of your video? Thank you and Happy New Year.
Hello Steve, for what’s it worth my Sugden DAC 4 uses the same NOS Philips DAC chip and to me sounds wonderfully good with a good amount of detail, great drive/dynamics and nicely refined highs.
Sugden will never send you one but please try it out if you can.
Highly recommended,
Brian
Great stuff used to have the border patrol 300b. Try that. Used to manufacture out of the uk.
Hi Steve, I’m following your channel now for about a year. After being distracted by a thing called life I am back at the audiophile hobby and re discovering music. Of course I kept listening music all over the years, but using low end audio equipment. My system is still very basic compared to a lot of you guys into the hobby, but it falls in the high fidelity class again. What I like about your channel is you don’t only talk gear, but also music and you (re) introduced me to some jewels. I remember late night listening to the Grateful Dead in my youth, but forgot the album I was listening too that time. I tried some of their albums recently, but didn’t get that same vibe. After you mentioned the Fillmore East album a few times I tried it out and it brought back that old vibe again. Also, thanks to you, listening to the Trinity album by the Cowboy Junkies, Wildflowers in the Graveyard from Amber Rubarth, Temptation (Holly Cole), etc. Please keep mentioning the music you test the gear with, it’s most appreciated. About the gear you test, it often is more expensive to what I am willing to pay or can afford . Still getting ideas about my future buying because of your reviews and a few others I trust following advice. Thanks for the good work Steve!
Thanks
If you have the inclination, it would be interesting to see/hear your views on power controllers( sine wave) for TTs.
Wow it has a tube rectumfryer...doesn't sound pleasant
The tube does not run at all hot, you can touch it and not burn yourself.
@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac Perhaps this “funny guy” does not know what tube rectification is. You’re a kind person.
Nice review, I'm with you on this one, one simple question: what took you so long?
Hey I reviewed it in 2018 here on my channel
Hi Steve do you think there is a considerable difference between a £300-£400 DAC to a £2,000 - £3,000?
Audio is so esoteric in this way. With photography, we can look at an oversaturated or oversharpened photo and immediately recognize that one should be gentle with how you treat any source material.
The detail is there, but it can be overemphasized to the detriment of the experience. Similarly, modern consumer TV's are set to do that automatically to whatever you feed it.
I wonder if, and to what degree, focusing on detail, etc, creates an unnatural presentation of the music we listen to.
Too much detail at the expense of tonal richness kills the music.
It's like lighting. I look OK under subdued incandescent lighting but under stark fluorescent lighting...not so much.
Even in photography, we have choices to make. I used to use Agfacolor film, which came in 3 different varieties-- Portrait (subtle colors), Ultra (extra saturated), and a middle one I don't recall. Which variety was appropriate to its subject was up to the photographer and the viewer. Of course if the lab printed it differently than expected!?!
All good points in these replies.
That said, I want my DAC to simply do the math, crunch those numbers to the nnnth degree,... don't euphonically sweeten, as there's other insert points whereby we can accommodate some sweetening if needed.
That said, I get it. Diversity in offerings, small niche mfr, or big global goliath mfrs... it's all good.
ie., somethings out there for every taste.
Like many niche audio products,
obviously many experience this DAC and can't live without it, and that's cool af.
Great review and info. Cool to use that Grateful Deal, love that recording and know it well! Have you every review the PS Audio Direct Steam DAC? It seems to be a unique approach with their love or maybe worship of DSP. Thanks. Kindly, ace
Is that a technics 1500c in the back?
yes, already asked, already answered
Now we need you to review the latest Audio Note UK dac-transport….!?
I had someone bring one around once and we put it against a Qutest from Chord and similar detail, with chord one of market leaders in this regard. I’ll admit I didn’t listen to it critically for a long time. Denafrips Ares is a nice one which I featured in a video recently Steve.
Is that a Technics TT behind you, sir?
Yes, a 1500C, review to come
Steve, as a fellow BP DAC owner I totally agree about its musicality. I mostly listen to LPs at home but hunted down this DAC for the times I wanted to stream digital via Roon and just relax and enjoy the music.
So my question is, how does something like the Mola Mola Tambaqui stack up from a musicality standpoint? Does the Tambaqui find the happy ground of retaining the musicality of the BP but add the detail, transparency, sound staging of something like the Denafrips? I know this isn’t a fair fight price wise but have always wondered if something at the level of the Tambaqui or DCS DAC can really do it all while letting the music poor through.
Yes, the Tambaqui is so musical, If you can afford it, sure!
@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac Thanks for the reply, Tambaqui must really be special as you have said. Analog system is locked down, I know what needs to join the digital side in the future.
i have asked if they could ship internationally, hopefully they will. i tried to order one on their website to try out, but there was no provision for adding an international shipping address.
IMHO resolution is, in a way, like watching a painting; you don’t to be too close nor too far.
Steve have you reviewed any of the MHDT dacs another dac with a tube
It definitely looks beefy!!
Hi Steve. I appreciated this video. I remember your original BorderPatrol DAC review way back.
I own the SE model and do love its performance. So nice to set it and forget it - close my eyes and just enjoy the tunes. My noticeable gripes are that it could be more airy and open, and some detail in the lower end is lost. But beyond that the BP DAC is a blast to listen to.
When I do crave detail I have a handy Chord Mojo running optical toslink to my Node 2i. Easy enough to flip that on and get the most out of ultra hi-res files. The Mojo is quite the workhorse even in a loudspeaker setting. Cheers.
Sick system.
Am I the only one that does not see the long horizontal paint run on the back? The paint will not affect the sound, but it will affect perceived quality. Danger Will Robinson!!
Yeah looks like perspiring Rudy G.'s face with the henna coming down.
@@pickyaudiophile
Whatta callback!
Not his finest moment..
In that case please take a look at the Holo May - it is also very different. However Stereophile said of it "In almost every way, the HoloAudio May (Level 3) is the best-measuring D/A processor I have encountered" Many who have heard it say it's the best DAC they ever heard :-)
Isn't that like 5k?
@@erics.4113 pretty much around that figure
@@mikelm222 I'm working my way up from the bottom, still new to 2ch and far from well informed enough on my personal likes to make a 5k dac purchase. I haven't tried the $500-$1k offerings yet. Plus I don't have the best hearing so over the top detail on nuanced bits of music may never even reach my brain. I just want, overall, good sound. So I can appreciate the merits of this piece. Notwithstanding, I haven't heard any purpose-built external dac.... yet.
Good video
how would the border patrol pair with the van alstine control amp and cornwall IVs or KLH model 5s?
Simply great i guess, at least with the Klipsch.
I use the BP se-i dac with the Alstine SET120….(not the control amp). It’s a great pairing. It’s running into an Alstine tube pre b4 the SET120. I think you just need to ensure the input-Z of the stage after the dac is sufficiently high (>20k Ω)
Finally!!! I've been waiting for a Borderpatrol DAC review!!!
So a very old school Dac with a very modern price. Just kidding :)
Good review overall, though I feel like it would be helpful to operationalize more what you mean by 'musical'- more mid-range emphasis? A more liquid-like sound?
BTW, first time I've heard Steve reference the Dead in a long time- he's said he's not a Dead fan per se- but what a great album he chose to highlight of theirs!- for an introduction to the Dead as a live 'rock and roll' band, it may be my single top recommendation (though Europe '72, and for a more 'psychedlic orientation,' Live/Dead are obviously up there with it).
I'm so old school when the music was in the details. Try renewal bamboo.
oh yeah!
Nice review!
this dac has everything I want in a dac
I am starting to see why BP only offers a 12 month warranty. Three years from Alvin.
Reviewers need to start out the very beginning of a every video by stating the warranty.
Otherwise it is implied that warranties are not that important. Standard should be three
years regardless of ownership. Stereophile needs to wake up on this too.
Steve you are the leader. Show the others how. Congrats on the 200k Subscribers!
Looks very interesting. I am in the market for a dedicated DAC prefer not to go with over priced Denafips Dacs. The technology is great the build seems very good with Denafips, but they are way over priced and good luck getting service on these if need be.
I think the border patrol is just what I’d like to put in my system. D90 dac is great, but musical not really lol
dont need it , i've got the schiit yggy. thanks for the review
Thank you for the review Steve. I saw your first review and that and an exchange of emails with Gary Dews led me to buying the Border Patrol DAC. I enjoy it very much. It draws me into the music.
However, I wonder if you have compared it to an original multibit TDA-based CD player? If the user is purely listening to CDs then this might be a way to achieve a very similar (or possibly better with the TDA1541) sound but with the added bonus of a usually excellent transport.
Steve,Would I still benefit from this Dac even if my Marantz cd6007 player Dac does 24/192khz??
Well, benefit in the ways that I described, yes. But in terms of resolution and clarity, no!
Mr Steve Guttenberg would like to ask you a question: can you use an amplifier with higher power than recommended for loudspeakers? For example, a pair of JBL L100 with a recommended power of 200 watts being driven by a McIntosh MA1200 with 350 watts ? Can the JBL L100 be damaged?
Thank you for your attention and greetings from Brazil !!!
Yes of course you can. The more power the more control, in general terms. Damage results from excessive volume played ONLY, not from amplifier's power capabilities.
@@pickyaudiophile THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR RESPONSE, FOR YOUR CLARIFICATIONS AND FOR YOUR ATTENTION. SUCCESS TO YOU !
I agree yes you can! You could use 1000 W amplifier. Of course if you hear the speaker distorting when you’re playing it super loud, turn it down!
@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac Thank you for your clarifications and your attention. Health and success to your youtube channel!!!
Steve, great review! A breath of fresh air in our world of quantification :)
I would like to share with you a little anecdote, I hope you’ll enjoy it ;)
So I recently acquired a (used) pair of Harbeth 30.2 40th and here’s what I wrote to my audio buddy a couple of days ago:
Quote…
These past few days I’ve been playing the following system:
Harbeth 30.2 40th | Goldmund Telos 280 | Nagra Jazz | Mytek Brooklyn + TeraDak LPSU | Innuos ZENith Mk3
but something was starting to bother me...
a touch too revealing
so I did one change
Mytek Brooklyn + TeraDak LPSU => Border Patrol DAC SE
wow... sooo much better in that configuration
less revealing, less resolution... but sooooo much more natural and therefore naturally musical
very happy to have an alternative more natural sounding DAC
the Mytek is perfect when using tube amps and/or sweeter/more coloured speakers
the BP is perfect to smooth down SS amps and/or the more revealing speakers
wonderful
all about system balancing, as usual
Unquote
Yup!
Steve i wonder how many of your subscribers are happy with a DAC that is more than 7 years old and feel no need to upgrade? i have just gotten into streaming with a IFI Zen Stream and just now realized how good my old NAD D1050 is.
Don’t worry, be happy
Most of my system celebrated 21 years in my possession coinciding with my 70th birthday. Happy together as Flo and Eddy put it :-)
I have a highly modified enlightened audio designs dsp-9000 series 3 ( a small company that used to be hear in the Midwest and was used by stereophile as a reference for years) from the 90s and I'm not missing all the latest greatest dac chips, dsd, high resolution, mqa and I'm doing just fine. You don't need the latest and great tech to enjoy the music. Guessing I have one of the older dacs here? I have been enjoying it everyday! It still beats most of what's out there. Wasn't cheap but it still competes with the likes of dcs.
It is not all copper, only the insert for the tube is copper! You stated this wrongly in a previous video before, so i felt i should inform the viewers...
Sorry, I think you are wrong, the black painted metal parts of the case are copper.
Just sent an enquiry to BP and asked them to comment directly here in the comment section about steel or solid copper. If it's all copper you need to withdraw @TheGiftofmelody. Did you test it for magnetism if you suppose it's actually steel? Copper typicall isn't magnetic if untreated.
Steve got it right. The chassis tray, cover and tube holder are made from copper. Only the faceplate is made from aluminium.
So it's confirmed by manufacturer (rep Gary Dews) it's all copper with an alloy face plate.
Well if the black metal parts are copper indeed that would be surprising as they look and feel like ordinary metal. Anyways, Gary is a great guy to deal with and this DAC definitely keeps the focus on the music! Happy listening everyone 🎶
Anyone with a 16bit r2r IC dac, even though it will play 24bit, try limiting it to 16bit replay, either by restricting the output of a streamer to 16bit or the streaming service itself. Listen carefully versus allowing it to replay the same file in 24bit. You might be surprised.
@@mikepawntee2425 I said might.
Most movies are made at a 24 frame per second rate which is far to slow to show fast movements realistically. Most people prefer that slow frame rate over higher ones. If someone has decided this preference is a learned preference or if there is some cognitive reason for the preference I don't know. Which brings us to this DAC which eschews accuracy. Is old (sorry) vinyl head Steve partial to this DAC because of a similar learned preference for less accurate all analog sound or is there such a thing as too accurate to please? Got me but this is a big can of worms in the audio world. Luckily it's a mostly friendly discussion. Steve hasn't come to blows with John Atkinson after all. Still I wonder if a new class music reproduction is warranted. A name? How about sort of high fidelity or high fidelity enough?
"Can of worms" LOL. Nobody knows exactly. Just e/g one more of the numerous "variables": Did Steve ever tell us about his personal state of hearing? One may say, a reviewer should provide some data about personal hearing capabilities, just as a President should about mental and physical health. That could be a nice topic for an episode: "Audiophilia, aging and gradual loss of hearing - and how to deal with it".
Fun fact: Lately Herb Reichert (aged 72 I guess) seems to have started to fall in love with subwoofers! - After decades of defending these anemic little 3/5s. It's only natural, but never heard from Herb about these things, which are only human and only natural.
Steve is correct... big difference in listening to Music vs listening to Equipment
i get a chance to go canjam nyc 2022 for the first time and i was very much underwhelmed with all the fancy headphone amps and uber expensive headphones didn't impress me at all
only one booth from HeadAmp got me excited. they got HeadAmp GS-x Mini hooked up with usb on Border Patrol dac using the headphone of Dan Clark aeon 2 noire with vivo premium cable to me that was the best sounding system. all the synergy coming from the system DAC + Headphone Amplifier + Headphone = magical! music to my ears. i went back there 3 times. and few hours later i immediately purchased Dan Clark aeon 2 noire and got it today and i don't hear the same magic once heard. i am using Chord hugo 2 as my source. not the right kind of synergy. Sigh. this hobby making me pulling my hair in despair.
I wish I had border patrol..
That shirt is dope, Steve!
Well, iFi neo iDSD give me the same sensations that Border Patrol give to you, imho you must try and give it a change
Is it April 1st Again? You have to be kidding me? Steve Tell me you are joking
No!
I thought BorderPatrol was originally from England... am I right?
It’s Gary Dews company, he’s English
@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac Yes, Steve. I read it on some recent reviews yesterday. He is from England and moved to Maryland. :) Thank you , sir.
Amir would go nuts about this thing xD I wonder how much it drops at 20kHz.
That said, I think the price is crazy high considering the internals and probably one of the most (if not the most) basic Philips chip.
I would bet it has a lot more noise than a strictly IC unit. It's probably okay for a mid-fi setup.
Hey! I love listening to noise!
My gf always says what's all that racket noise rock n roll you playing and get off my lawn! My gf is like old or something?
Great Review! Very interesting DAC.
I've thought about this for the most part of the day. I am somewhat uneasy with the product name. Being of latino heritage, the name conjures unpleasant experiences by latino immigrants crossing the border. I am no social justice warrior nor do I support illegal immigration.
nor I am sensitive and reactionary of anything said to my brothers and sisters. It's just is.
BTW I love this channel.
They were gonna call it Make Digital Great Again but then Steve in marketing said F that. I guess Molson ICE isn't your cup of beer then either? What about the Washington football team? That's a real zinger catchy name.
I'm just trying to make levity not make fun of you or your comment. It is kinda strange name they chose.
And listen, everyone in the US is an immigrant or descendant of, save for native American, Mayan or Aztec descendants. So in my opinion, anyone from South of the border should freely have access to, especially, the southern US because that was Mexico's land before any European colonized this country. And they're taking it back in numbers and I'm happy for it. And i think this country will benefit from it in the long run. Now let's make another great dac again! 🤗
Interesting comparison, since the Denafrips is said to be the most "analog" sounding DAC compared to the modern crop....
Border patrol gets about 14bit resolution, no?
Welp, it just goes to show that going overboard with "audiophile fireworks" can throw the baby out with the bathwater.
At some point you have to say it's good enough already!
Go find new music !!
🎶🤫🎶
(PS Love my Ares2 in "NOS" which dials back the resolution for tonal beauty;-)
Good timing with this. My BorderPatrol DAC which I’ve used since 2017 or 18, has started to flake out - voices sound like they over a hot mic. That’s a recent issue. Up to this point, it’s been great. I’ve really enjoyed this DAC - I’ve put thousands of hours on it - and at some point I’ll try to get it fixed but in the meantime I ordered an Ares 2 a couple days ago. I’m looking forward to the Areas but I already miss the presentation over the BorderPatrol. I really should get it fixed. Yes, it’s ‘musical’, but also I love the soundstage and depth. The singer is on the stage, as opposed to in the front-row (on my mojo, which I currently have set up). Of course, that depends on the recording. But in general, it just gets out of the way and presents something that sounds ‘natural’.
Try a new tube
@@pkats9093 Yeah, I tried that first.
I bought one a few years ago. Recently, I was wanting to buy a CD transport as I have become less enamored with streaming. I took my BP to the local stereo salon with some of my CDs. Just regular CDs and some of them were rips. At first we were listening my CDs on a pretty expensive transport with the built in DAC in a reasonably high end preamp. It sounded good, all the notes were there and you could hear them fine. I then plugged in the BP. All the conversations in the store stopped at that moment. The sales person asked to take a picture of it. Music was happening. No one asked about its resolution or whether it played Hi-Res or DSD. No one said much of anything at all while it was playing. This was a graphic demonstration of what you were talking about.
This is so BS. Like going to Olive Garden to “experience” more straightforward food. Unbelievable.