Bryston power amps/preamps...Comments?
10201...@compuserve.com
and preamps, specifically the BP25i preamp and the 3Bst or 4Bst amps.
Basic req's are bass handling, richness throughout, and no coloration
of a wide variety of musics including (yes, poor recordings too)
alternative music. Any help would be appreciated.
Richard
10201...@compuserve.com
HFHIFI
opinion, it is THE most reliable equipment in the industry. Any company
that can offer a twenty yeat warranty has confidence in its' equipment.
I always prefered the amps to the preamps; the latter were OK but a bit
gritty. The amps can get a bit hard when pushed, but will drive anything
in the universe. If you own speakers that have a brighter midrange, such
as Thiels, then I would caution you on the Bryston. I also found that
they were ideal for British speakers or Magnepans, both of which have
slightly soft mids and highs.
I just retired my 2BLP last week, as I got new speakers and found that it
got annoying at stun volumes. However, prior to the change, I was using
Rogers speakers and loved the combo.
Overall, I give the amps very, very high marks, especially in view of
their price range.
D. Agnew
says:
I use a .5B and a 2B, and have friends who use (respectively) a 3B and
a 4B. All sound great. I tend to listen at lower volumes, which is
why I went for the 2B, but it has plenty of guts for my tastes. The
bass is solid - the most noticible difference when I hooked up the 2B.
From plucked string bass through tympani, electric bass to pedal notes
on the organ, the bass is solid and quick. The rest of the sound is
also very good - acoustic guitar is as good as I have heard (given the
fact that I don't own electrostatic speakers - I have Mirage
speakers).
If I had to do it again, I wouldn't hesitate to buy the same.
D. Agnew
Sugiman
it to the 3B and Golden Tube SE-40 and liked this one the best by a
longshot. One warning though, my Bryston (and I have heard that this
is a family characteristic) really likes to take its good, sweet time
to warm up. In fact, I noticed the sound of my system improving as I
left the amp on for almost three days (after that the sound quality
seemed to have maxed out).
Very dangerous for the ol' electric bill.
EM
Mike Kohut
years. The amp performs very smoothly throughout the entire audio
frequency spectrum. Bass response is rich and deep without being
boomy.
Although these components are very solidy made, I have had problems
with both of them. Several years ago, one side of the amp failed. It
turned out that several transistors blew out and had to be replaced.
The original warranty that I got was only for 5 years, so I had to
shell out a few hundred bucks to fix this problem. In the past few
years, my preamp has developed an intermittent contact problem,
particularly if I move or reinstall any components. One or both
channels will cut out suddenly. If I jiggle the cables, the sound
cuts back in. I tried taking apart the unit and spraying Radio Shack
contact cleaner on all the moving parts, but this didn't help at all.
New cables didn't help either. I haven't taken it in for repairs
because the problem doesn't occur often (as long as I don't disturb
the cabling).
In spite of these problems, I would still recommend Bryston amps
because of their good sound. They now have a 20-yr. warranty, so you
don't have to worry about something going wrong. I'm not sure if I
would buy another Bryston pre-amp, since mine is a little too
bare-bones for my taste (e.g. no headphone jack).
I don't know about others, but I find that equalization is critical if
you have speakers with extended bass response (i.e. down to 20Hz or
so). I use a 33-band Technics equalizer myself, along with its
corresponding spectrum analyser, and I find that the most troublesome
frequencies are the bottom-end bass octaves. The midrange and higher
frequencies require little or no equalization. Of course, it depends
on your speakers and your listening room characteristics.
Robert Allen
(Steven Zipser) writes:
>This strikes me as unusual for two reasons.
>
>1. Bryston's 20 year warranty was retroactive to cover all Bryston
>products! No exceptions.
Hmm.
>> I don't know about others, but I find that equalization is critical
>> if you have speakers with extended bass response (i.e. down to 20Hz
>> or so). I use a 33-band Technics equalizer myself, along with its
>> corresponding spectrum analyser,
>
>Just think...you spend all that money on Bryston electronics, with
>their high-current power supplies and their fully discreet circuits,
>and then put the cheap, cheesy ic chip ridden circuitry of the
>technics equilizer along with its pipsqueak power supply. You're
>probably doing more harm to the sound than good. What kind of
>speakers are you using that you feel the need for bass eq?
This seemed a bit strange to me too. But it does bring up another
point which I recall from an unrelated post: someone used a Radio
Shack RCA->BNC adaptor to fit an expensive transport to an expensive
DAC, presumably using an expensive digital coax cable. While some
Radio Shack stuff is not too bad (I use various electronic components
for shortwave radio projects), I would never use their connector
adaptors in an expensive system, anymore than I'd use a cheap
equalizer (or for that matter an expensive one) with my Bryston amp...
>BTW, while I am a dealer, I'm not a Bryston dealer I did sell it at
>various stores for 15 yrs and have extensive experience with their
>products
I've only had a Bryston 8B-ST for a few months now, but it's just
wonderful. I love it. It's quiet, has great seperation, is
physically tough, etc. I just wish I could afford a seperate stereo
amp so could have total seperates for my home-theater vs. music
listening. I don't know that I could hear the difference, but I'd
love to give it a try :-).
Robert Allen
r...@sun.com
I hate Frys Electronics. All of them, but particularly the ones
in Fremont, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale.
Steven Zipser
(Mike Kohut) writes:
> I have owned a Bryston 1B preamp and a 4B power amp for about 13
> years. The amp performs very smoothly throughout the entire audio
> frequency spectrum. Bass response is rich and deep without being
> boomy.
>
> Although these components are very solidy made, I have had problems
> with both of them. Several years ago, one side of the amp failed.
> It turned out that several transistors blew out and had to be
> replaced. The original warranty that I got was only for 5 years, so
> I had to shell out a few hundred bucks to fix this problem.
Mike:
This strikes me as unusual for two reasons.
1. Bryston's 20 year warranty was retroactive to cover all Bryston
products! No exceptions.
2. To my knowlege, Bryston has never charged anyone for any repairs on
any of their products. This is a record paralleled only by Krell to
my knowlege. Perhaps you had the repairs done by some independant
shop???
> In the past few years, my preamp has developed an intermittent
> contact problem, particularly if I move or reinstall any components.
> One or both channels will cut out suddenly. If I jiggle the cables,
> the sound cuts back in. I tried taking apart the unit and spraying
> Radio Shack contact cleaner on all the moving parts, but this didn't
> help at all. New cables didn't help either. I haven't taken it in
> for repairs because the problem doesn't occur often (as long as I
> don't disturb the cabling).
If you're an equipment jockey (many of us are!) than it is possible
that the constant installing & dis-installing cables has loosened the
internal wiring to the RCA jacks.
> In spite of these problems, I would still recommend Bryston amps
> because of their good sound. They now have a 20-yr. warranty, so
> you don't have to worry about something going wrong. I'm not sure
> if I would buy another Bryston pre-amp, since mine is a little too
> bare-bones for my taste (e.g. no headphone jack).
>
> I don't know about others, but I find that equalization is critical
> if you have speakers with extended bass response (i.e. down to 20Hz
> or so). I use a 33-band Technics equalizer myself, along with its
> corresponding spectrum analyser,
Just think...you spend all that money on Bryston electronics, with
their high-current power supplies and their fully discreet circuits,
and then put the cheap, cheesy ic chip ridden circuitry of the
technics equilizer along with its pipsqueak power supply. You're
probably doing more harm to the sound than good. What kind of
speakers are you using that you feel the need for bass eq?
> and I find that the most troublesome frequencies are the bottom-end
> bass octaves. The midrange and higher frequencies require little or
> no equalization. Of course, it depends on your speakers and your
> listening room characteristics.
Much of which can be ameliorated with careful speaker placement, some
room tuning devices, careful selection of cables, putting spkrs on
spikes, etc.
Good luck w/ your sound
enjoy the music
Zip
Mike Kohut
after they've warmed up. However, you don't necessarily need 3 days
to warm it up; I find that my Bryston 4B gets up to speed if I play a
rock recording fairly loudly for about half an hour. After that, the
sound doesn't seem to improve, even if I leave the amp powered on for
days at a time.
David Lindenauer
My 2B sounds distinctly different (better) after a few hours than when
first plugged in.
Someone wrote they wait 3 days; that seems a bit excessive. If there
is a difference after so long a period of time, I either can't hear it
or don't have the aural memory to notice.
Walter Clark
>Although these components are very solidy made, I have had problems
>with both of them. Several years ago, one side of the amp failed.
>It turned out that several transistors blew out and had to be
>replaced. The original warranty that I got was only for 5 years, so
>I had to shell out a few hundred bucks to fix this problem.
I am quite surprised by your having to pay anything. You must have
either had the misfortune of having a problem in the period between
the 5 year warranties and when the 20-year retro warranty became
effective or you had the work done by someone other than Bryston.
I have had my 4b since 1979. I had it's channels upgraded by Bryston
around 1980 and I replaced the internal wiring and supply filter caps
about a year ago when I found one of the original caps had dried
out. The wiring change was based on some work I had done to improve
the Crown Macro Reference and involved mostly replacing the 16ga
internal power and point-to-point signal output gain stage wiring with
new 10ga and 12ga, probably not something Bryston would appreciate -
warranty wise. Bryston would have probably replaced the supply caps
under warranty but I happened to have more than enough extra suitable
caps already on hand that were left over from some other power amps
projects.
I use my 4b as a subwoofer amp. It is almost as good as a modified
Crown MR in terms of extension and control of the subwoofers, better
than the stock MR. It isnt in the same league with any of the recent
Levinson or Krell in this regard but neither is the price. Unless I
have one of the above at home for some reason and am able to compare,
the difference is unimportant to me.
Walter