"[The Burwen Bobcat] enhances sound when listening, ripping or burning CDs, and high-speed converts files to MP3s that give your iPod or musical cell phone sound comparable with a $100,000 HI-FI SYSTEM!"

Emphasis mine, but all the excessive hyperbole is the property of the Burwen Bobcat, a digital device that is gaining traction in the audiophile underground. Lately, I've been hearing comments about the Bobcat in regards to the computer audio movement, but, uh, musical cell phone? $100,000 hi-fi system? MP3s? Bobcats? Mark Levinson endorsed? Could the BS meter go any higher?

Unlike the $10k Nova Physics Memory Player which is a computer in a box with special software, the Burwen Bobcat is, simply, a Windows Media Player plug-in. While you may see the Burwen Bobcat DAC listed for $1995, the actual magic goes for $199.95 and can be downloaded immediately. The DAC pictured above is called the $1995 Daniel Hertz USB 1 DAC. Presumably, any USB DAC will work fine with the Bobcat software, so check out our USB DAC page for the other players.

So how does the Burwen Bobcat software make your cell phone MP3s sound like a $10000000 hi-fi system? After you rip a CD to your computer, the Bobcat software changes the signal to compensate for information lost during the MP3 conversion process and then compensates for the original digital duplication from the master tape. Basically, it adds information that isn't there:

"It actually improves the signal by adding nearly inaudible high frequency reverberation
and subtle tonal balance correction (equalization)."

But the Bobcat isn't an EQ device exactly. You don't move around sliders, but select from 19 different presets like "vocal" or "classical" or "movies" (just like a $99 Sony boom box down at the 'Shack!). Each time you make a selection, it rewrites the track.

So any "official" reviews yet? John Mazur over at Positive Feedback says the Bobcat crushes a $6000 CD player, while Wes Philips says this of a Bobcat demo:

"In his demonstration of the Burwen Bobcat at HE2005, Levinson played three 128kbps MP3 files through a system that consisted of a laptop running the Burwen software, the USB DAC, and what appeared to be Red Rose's entry-level integrated amplifier and two-way loudspeakers. I wasn't overwhelmed by the sound and suspected that we were being played the "before" tracks that would later be followed by an "aha moment" when the Bobcat wrought its magic. This was apparently not the case, nor were A/B comparisons between 128kbps files and Bobcat reconstructions offered at the Show."

Not exactly stunning. Levinson, the namesake of Mark Levinson and the man behind marketing the Bobcat, said this in a Stephen Mejias Stereohile blog post:

"I would rather listen to a pair of $99 computer speakers with Burwen Bobcat than a 6 figure system without it."

Either he's joking or he's an idiot. My guess is the majority of magic behind the Bobcat is the USB DAC itself, as witnessed by Wes Phillips' audition. Jitter reduction is a pretty serious benefit and, clearly, by having 19 presets to select from, the improvements aren't a universal sort of purification but additive EQ designed to sound pleasing with specific kinds of music.

Check out the Burwen Bobcat site for all the BS you can handle as well as Danny Kaey's post about the Creative Xmod, a cheapie device that seems strangely similar to the Bobcat.