Looking at the Border Patrol SE DAC, you have to smile. It’s cute! Can you even say that about at kick-ass piece of audio gear? Maybe it’s disrespectful. Too bad — because everybody knows that good things come in small packages. To be fair, good things come in big packages too. The common denominator is “packages” and I sure like packages. Sometimes, I’ll order something silly (like a pack of pens) from Amazon just so a package will come. Because when packages come, every day is Christmas. Sigh. I have issues.
But getting back to small packages. Have you ever taken the lid off of a piece of audio equipment and discovered that the guts running the whole damn thing is floating in a sea of empty space? Take an iMac for example — the actual “computer” part is something like 1/5 the size of the monitor, and easily gets lost behind it. That feels weird for some reason. Like that bag of chips at the quickie-mart. The bags sure aren’t getting any smaller, but if the chip-to-air ratio gets any farther out of whack, Amazon could use them to pad a shipping box.
All of this has very little to do with Border Patrol’s new USB Digital to Analogue Converter, except for the odd coincidence that the diminutive chassis feels like a piece of audio equipment that had been attached to a vacuum pack machine — all that “extra space” that haunts many manufacturers is simply gone. The result is a chassis that is only 9″ wide and 7″ deep! Did I mention that it’s cute? I think designer Gary Dews is gonna clout me on the ear for that comment, so I’ll just leave it there for now, but I will offer that this less-is-more thing is kinda the whole point. This Border Patrol SE DAC has zero frippery. Frippery is what gets in the way.
What there is, however, is a USB input. There’s also an optional S/PDIF input (RCA) for those interested in using an external CD transport. There are single-ended RCA outputs. There’s an IEC plug for an external power cord. There’s a rocker switch. And that’s about it for the back panel. On the top of the box, you can see the cutaway into the copper chassis (!) that shows off a single tube — that’s the “high inductance choke and an EZ80 tube rectifier” for the power supply. The little blue-circle “power” button on the front of the chassis turns the tube “version” of the power supply on and off but does not actually turn off the DAC (the rocker does that).
To continue the minimalist theme, the Border Patrol SE DAC uses a “vintage” R2R DAC chip (Phillips TDA1543) with no over-sampling (NOS), no up-sampling, no digital filtering and no output buffering. Remember the zero frippery maxim? This is a Redbook-only converter, so think 16bit/44.1kHz files, or, what usually streams from Spotify or Tidal, or what’s spinning off of that CD transport that I just mentioned.
Being a Border Patrol design, the power supply on the DAC is of special mention, as it leverages their usual choke input filter design. The SE version ($1350 vs $995 for the standard) adds the “twin transformer power supply system (as used in the EXS amplifier PSU’s), as well as ELNA Cerafine power supply capacitor and film and foil signal coupling capacitors.”
The lack of high-res audio support may have a few of you scratching your heads. I understand that. In the high-end world, we’re now starting to see files up to DSD512, with more to follow, and in that light, why “go backward”? Why indeed!
To begin to sketch the answer, let me suggest that I, like many of you, never did dump all my old CDs. I still have them. Piles and piles and piles of them. All over the place, really. And I will confess — I kinda miss playing them. With the S/PDIF version of this DAC (a $500 option), I just need a transport. Say, an OPPO, or maybe one from Bel Canto or Audio Note UK, if I’m going to splurge. Another thought — if you did rip all those CDs, they’re still all Redbook! And yet another thought — if you like to stream audio from an online service, Redbook is still probably fine — if not overkill. At some point, every one of those online services may flip over to a high-res format, but until that heady day, we still have today and a shit-ton of great music to listen to that’s Redbook encoded (or “worse”).
But here’s the real reason why you should care — the Border Patrol SE DAC Sounds Great, Fully Capitalized. If you’ll pardon the hyperbole, at $1,850 with all the bells and whistles, this DAC blows the doors off of just about everything else. And no, not just in its weight class. I mean “just about everything else”. To clearly better it, I have to go to extraordinary lengths (and budgets) — and that’s crazy.
My favorite experience with the DAC was very recent. I had the little bugger hooked up, via USB, to a $17k Aurender W20. Yeah, I know. That’s a 10x difference in price, but that Aurender is so damn good it’s really hard to not use it.
Anyway, I had queued up one of my current reference tracks, the title track from the Reference Recordings CD of Copland‘s “Fanfare”. Right at the beginning, there’s a couple of cymbal crashes. With the Border Patrol SE DAC, this passage redefined “real” in my hi-fi world. My head whipped around, my eyes flashed whites all the way around, my pupils dilated, my nostrils flared, and sweat popped out across my forehead. That was brass. And not just brass, but Zildjian, and not just Zildjian, but recently polished Zildjian, polished by a man named Brad who’d recently moved from California, but had been suffering from a bit of intestinal distress, and who had apparently found relief through a precise combination of wheatgrass and elderberries, but not quite enough to bring back the overall strength in his left arm, which he’d chosen to support with a brace, which in this particular instance had slipped 1/7th turn around his elbow, but since it was a cotton brace and not a neoprene brace, the brace had only restricted his movement by 7% instead of the usual 9.5%, which allowed him the stability to really bring those Zildjian cymbals together in a truly convincing way.
Uh huh. Anyway, you get my point, I hope, which was this: HOLY CRAP, that sounds AMAZING.
Seriously, I’d never heard this particular shimmer and sheen before. This passage and that instrument showed a timbre that I was immediately able to take back to other DACs and measure them on. And measure them poorly on.
In terms of openness, a quality I value almost above all others these days, the Border Patrol DAC SE is utterly absent. Not transparent. Not invisible. Absent. Open windows? Pshaw. No building. This is some serious voodoo shit, and I have absolutely no idea why the Border Patrol SE DAC sounds so different. Well, other than “zero frippery”. Hee hee. But what I do know is that it sure sounds sweet!
Note: the output impedance is not zero or close to it — think: “it’s a tube DAC” — so anything downstream (amp, passive preamp, integrated, woodchuck, whatever) that presents an input of less than 20kΩ is worth being cautious about. I say that, though I should note that anything that presents so low an input load could be problematic for anything, so I’m really just pointing a finger at “specialty passive preamps”; if you’re concerned about a mismatch, ask Border Patrol.
Also note (especially for those Computer Audiophile guys that like to plug their DACs directly into an amp because of a predilection for epically sub-par preamplifiers) that there is no volume control knob or switch on this particular DAC, so plugging it directly into an amp may/will require using Roon or some other app, tool, or gadget that does allow you to attenuate. Remember: zero frippery. Assuming you’ve got a quality preamp (and Border Patrol is quite happy to sell you one, which, I submit, may be the best-sounding component that the company makes — and that’s saying quite a lot of something), none of this is an issue, but given how many of you out there appear prone to doing truly wacky things (with DACs specifically), I felt it’s worth mentioning — so, if you’re the wacko, plan accordingly. My recommendation is to use the Border Patrol SE DAC with an external preamp or an integrated. I did, had no issues and oodles of fun.
Given the caveats around high-res support, which may or may not be minor depending on your current digital library, I cheerfully confess that the Border Patrol SE DAC has been the most entertaining thing to hit my rack in years.
The value represented in this sub $1,500 converter easily earns our Coveted “value” award, The Julia, and the performance easily earns the Border Patrol DAC SE an Editor’s Choice award and also puts it firmly into Best of the Year territory.
Call that a trifecta if you will, but I call it an absolute must-listen.
Border Patrol (website): US Retail for SE starts at $1,350.
I want one, i really do.
Just wanted to say that I am happy so far with the DAC. Really nice sound as advertised. Have it hooked up to Marantz CD player and definite improvement in the higher notes and the midrange with excellent separation between all of the instruments etc. That is to my ears. Just what I wanted.
Hi Scot,
Thanks for your response.
I am vacillating. The L4 does timbre very well, perhaps not quiet on a par with the Yggdrasil, see below, but MUCH better than the Bel Canto.
The Yggy’s soundstage is wide and very precise, exactly as is DOESN’T exist in real life. Also, its presentation is such that it is highlighting things which sound new to me, whereas the Lampizator is more in line with my Bel Canto – which is no slouch.
I had persuaded myself to just demo the Border Patrol, but I have a large collection of my LPs I have ripped – 9624.
Listening to the Lampi again this afternoon and REALLY enjoying it.
In this world of woe it is actually a NICE problem to have.
Cheers,
Martin
Martin, I am in Tunbridge Wells and have a BP USB SE. You can play 96khz files through it no problem. I use Audirvana and it says it’s providing the DAC with 32 bit files. They still play fine.
My BP won’t play any higher rate than 96; the very few 192khz files I have are just white noise. So I tell Audirvana to play them as 96khz files. They sound fine.
The BP DAC is great, it has a natural swing but is still detailed and involving. For the money it’s a must try. And Gary is smashing to deal with, a gent.
Hope this helps
Paul
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the feedback. Had a chat with Gary yesterday, as you say nice chap. I have ordered a SPDIF SE version to try.
I am hoping the BP DAC combines the strengths of the Yggdrasil and the L4 Lampizator, if it does then it will be the bargain of the century.
I am using a USB chain on the font that includes a microRendu. They are just updating the OS and the associated clients. As I use LMS if they update the version of Squeezelite then I will be able to downsample my few 24/192 albums – fingers crossed.
Excited!
Thx again,
Martin
Gents,
May I ask for your opinion please:
I have just auditioned a Schitt Yggdrasil for two weeks. Excellent DAC.
I am currently listening to a Lampizator L4G5 DAC. This too is an excellent DAC. It reminds me very much of my current Bel Canto 3.5vb, but with a mid-range that is much more like the Yggdrasil. This isn’t quite as good at the Yggdrasil in the mids, but is more extended in the bass and high frequencies; although the bass is a bit looser, but not unpleasantly – reminds me of my LP12!
I have exchanged emails with Gary about listening to the Border Patrol. As I am in the UK and he has long since moved from Hove this is not trivial.
Q: How would you rate the Lampi vs the Border Patrol? Bearing in mind I would be buying the Lampi 2nd hand I do not have an option to just do it and see.
Completely understand if this is too public to just answer online.
Thx.
I have an Atlantic DAC from Lampizat0r, and I’m a fan. My DAC was the first one off the line (or near enough), so whether or not it is still representative is up for debate. That said, I have been quite pleased with it since receiving it — and most relevant for the sake of comparison, it plays just about everything I have to throw at it (except DSD256 files). Sadly, I don’t have any of the other Lampi DACs on hand to facilitate such a comparison, so I will have to refrain from offering a definitive opinion on the comparison you’re looking for. I simply do not know.
The BorderPatrol DAC is, as noted, Redbook only. That can be a big difference — but only if you have high-res files to play. As to the sound quality, I’ve already noted that the BP DAC is exemplary in all corners of perceived joy. Given the price discrepancy (the BP DAC is significantly cheaper), I think this makes the BP DAC a no-brainer.
This isn’t to say that I haven’t heard finer DACs. I have. At least, I think I have. But if so, all are vastly more pricey than the little BP DAC. The Bricasti M1 Limited, for example, is amazing. That DAC is my current reference. But it’s also $15k. Rafe has been extremely impressed by an offering from TotalDAC. That one isn’t cheap, either.
But FWIW, while I no longer own one, I believe the Schiit Yggdrasil to be easily outclassed by either my Lampi or by the BP DAC reviewed here. YMMV.
I am not familiar with the Bel Canto DAC.
Let us know how you get on Bradley. Thinking about buying one myself…
Great Review and I am interested in this DAC. You say we need a preamp. Can we plug it into an integrated amp and still be ok?
Yep. Just fine.
long live the integrateds! Just ordered the DAC
Do you think the normal version will also bring the same kind of magic without the special mower supply?
Everything he does adds something. But yes, the “base version” is extremely good value for the money.
I have a transport and a no fuss nos dac from a small dutch company and it’s all i need! Great stuff. Redbook forever.
same here. in my experience, redbook from a proper transport into a proper dac is almost indistinguishable from hi-rez, so why bother? to pay more? to feel that you are buying the best?
Mr. Hull says:
“The output impedance is a bit high….”
I feel like I am being kept in suspense! What is the output impedance? It is not listed on Border Patrol’s web site as near as I can tell.
No suspense. I’m sure the manufacturer can tell you. But I can tell you that with every preamplifier I tried it with, there was no issue. YMMV.
I don’t own a ton of hi-rez, but I’ve been picking some up lately via HDTracks. … after A-B’ing vs. the Red Book, I’ve found some sound better, some sound perhaps a little *worse (more tipped up and hi-fi sounding) and the great majority just sound a bit different without one being particularly better than the other.
I know that many of the hi-rez files are somewhat sake-oily–and have just been up-converted from 44.1/48 masters (which my own DACs will happily do for me without the added expense), so maybe that’s the problem. (To this point, one album with impeccable provenance, the RR 176.4 Eiji Oue Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances is one of those that absolutely crushes it’s Red Book counterpart.) But still, contra to the MASSIVE hype from reviewers and DAC manufacturers alike, I just don’t hear a very *consistently* compelling case being made for hi-rez.
Is there any evidence that hi-rez is a real (technological) ticket to audio nirvana? Although I was as excited as anyone about the impending hi-rez revolution a few years back, now that it’s arrived, I am underwhelmed… I just don’t think I’d find the fact that a DAC is Red Book-only to be much of a deal-breaker (or even deal-considerer) at this point. Is it just me?