Bryston BDP-1 Own one? What DAC are you using?

Having demo'ed the BDP-1 for a week, i agree with your software assessment. It's sound is head-and-shoulders above the Squeezebox touch, but software wise, far below. The included browser software is very rudimentary and frustrating.

I use a 500GB Seagate USB drive connected to the back. Once you connect the drive and turn off the BDP-1, the drive will appear as a share on your local network. You can then add files via your network and updates are much faster.

I'm looking for a installable Windows MPD server so I can use the iPad app to control it

Just a follow up on my experience with the Bryston BDP-1 and BDA-1 combo... I have now run the pair for approximately 100 hours overall.
They are very satisfying components. The sound is simply perfect in my opinion as far as digital sources go (at least without mortgaging your home). There is zero noise and a jet black background. I very much prefer to listen to files in their native resolution. It is nice to have the upsampling option, though I rarely prefer or engage it. Hi res material is simply stunning - check out the material from the 2L label at HDTRACKS.
The Bryston Max proprietary software is a bit slow and ackward at times, but Bryston service and support is absolutely second to none and they are consistently offering updates and working with customers for feedback. Contrary to many reviewers, I've virtually always preferred the sound of the AES connection as opposed to the SPDIF connection. I have both cables from Bryston so am able to toggle between the two and compare.
I couldn't be more pleased with them and highly recommend both.

If you use Windows 7 on PC, you should download the free Gnome MPD player to control music selection and play on the BDP-1. Excellent GUI and you do not need a Wi-Fi connection for it to operate.

Neal

Bryston Bdp-1 with Wyred4Sound DAC-2 DAC connected by simply physics AES/EBU digital silver cable. Marvelous. Flac files converted through J River Media Center and DVDAudio Extractor programs.

I really want to buy one of these and have tried one out but the fact you still have to use a computer to create and manage your library, the thing takes forever to load the library from an external hard drive , it takes forever to reload if you try to update files on the HDD and the interfaces I have seen are very very clunky makes me feel this product is not ready for prime time.