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In Reply to: RE: How Good Are Bryston Amps Compared to Other High End? posted by Braxus on March 25, 2014 at 09:59:18
As you can see when you ask a question like this it's highly subjective. If I had any Rotel amp and upgraded to a Bryston 4Bsst I'd be thrilled to death. Only you can say if you like the sound quality but Bryston's build is top notch. You wouldn't be in business long putting a 20 year transferable warranty on a product if you had to back it up very much. Bryston is just a good solid power house amplifier.
With all that said, my subjective 2 cents, I found Pass Labs to be a more engaging sound for me.
Follow Ups:
Could it be here that people don't like Bryston because it doesn't color the sound, making it more pleasing to listen to? Im told Brystons are very neurtal amps that are basically wire plus gain- that's it. So people who don't like Brystons don't like neutral amps. Am I correct in that assumption? Im wanting a very fast sounding amp with quick dynamics with kick that can knock your socks off. Rotel did this and Im told Bryston does as well. Im not sure Pass labs can do this, especially on a power hungry speaker only receiving 30 watts of Class A.
"Im wanting a very fast sounding amp with quick dynamics with kick that can knock your socks off. Rotel did this and Im told Bryston does as well. Im not sure Pass labs can do this, especially on a power hungry speaker"
Listen to a Pass x250.5 (or the brand new x250.8 which I have not heard myself) and then tell me it does not do dynamics with kick. Give one a listen and then decide for yourself.
Nope. They tend to be hard sounding and don't replicate music. While loads of feedback look better on paper, they sacrifice real world performance.
Neutral tone is a different thing altogether.
especially on a power hungry speaker only receiving 30 watts of Class A.
Which delivers 153 watts into 8 ohms (195 into 4) when driven into AB.
View the measured performance
You need to understand that Rotel isn't even in the same performance league as Pass or Bryston. Of course, they don't cost as much either. Pass makes both pure Class A, which is the 30 watt you probably saw, and they also make the X series which are Class A/B, the smallest being 150x2 into 8 ohms. The most bone jarring transients I've experienced so far has been from Krell. Krell also gets a lot of flack for not being sweet. Audition the Bryston and see what you think.Also, all watts are not created equal, I'm sure that little 30 watt Pass can drive most any speaker. You might find reading about Nelson Pass interesting. He began designing amps that would drive difficult electrostat speakers. We all like different presentations of our audio so listen to as much as you can to hear what's out there.
Edits: 03/26/14
perhaps, but their Evolution series totally blow this myth out of the water, especially when they're being connected via CAST to the Krell Evolution 202 pre amp.
Its neutral sounding characteristics is totally dependent on the music source. If the music is sweet and lush sounding such as the "A Meeting by the River" by Ry Cooder, it'll sound lush and sweet as well, if the music is impactful with great dynamic contrast and sweet to boot, like the PF's "Comfortably Numb" song, it'll sound just that...
If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing well
(Proverb)
Good to see Krell still has fans. Unfortunately our local dealer parted ways with Krell a few years back and it's more difficult to keep up with them.
I've never was a fan of Krell nor a fan of Audio Research or any brands for that matter as I only subscribed to what sound best to me within my price range.
Prior to owning the Krell Evolution system, I used to own the Audio Research all tube reference system, as good as the sound was, but after auditioning the Krell Evolution system in my dedicated listening room, I sold my Audio Research.
Who knows maybe in the future I will be auditioning another equipment and if that system will sound better than the Krell Evolution system then it too will stay and Krell will be sold.
If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing well
(Proverb)
Agreed.
An ARC pre-amp + the Bryston power amp are a sonic match, IMO.
The combo I demo'ed was an ARC Ref 3 and Bryston 3B ST on Wilson Sasha speakers w/ all Transparent Opus cabling.
That's odd. I thought my ARC LS25mkII with the Bryston 7BSST2 mono blocks were sorely lacking.
The Aesthetix Calypso preamp did better with the rather dry and lean Brystons, but even the Aesthetix couldn't make the Brystons sound 'right' for me. I gave up on 'em.
It'a all about synergy after all. The top of the line Bryston such as their 28BSST2 monoblocks together with the BP 26 pre amp that I auditioned didn't sound lean or forward or what have you, while driving the Proac Carbon Pro 8 speakers, if anything it sounded sweet and lush coupled with ultra dynamics.
The only problem with it was, I couldn't afford it.
If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing well
(Proverb)
Never auditioned the Bryston mono -blocks Abe.
Last week, I did have the listening pleasure of finally auditioning the wonderful Aesthetix Calypso signature preamp w/ matching Atlas power amp.
Very nice sound, indeed!
I would love to demo the Aesthetix pre w/ a Pass Labs power amp!
As kootenay mentioned, it might be system synergy and possibly my choice of speakers. However, I've had other amps that do extremely well with the Thiels. Sufficiently powerful tube amps in particular, and some solid-state.
I like the Calypso preamp not only for its sound but flexibility. It was the only preamp I could find that came close to offering a similar set of features as the ARC. I wanted a good selection of balanced and unbalanced inputs/outputs, remote control input selection, volume up/down/mute, etc. And it was better suited to tube rolling vs the 6H30 based ARC.
Thanks! Abe. I do remember those tube-rolling sessions.
The problem with Krell is the inconsistency in their product line over the years. I don't have very recent experience with Krell but I can tell you that the old KSA series were very nice sounding amps.
As an example, the 'little' KSA-50S was sweet yet very robust and impactful. It was a wonderful sounding amp. The Krell KAV-2250 was grainy, sterile, and dry, with no midrange warmth or robustness.
Someone commented on Pass Labs vs Bryston. I'd take Pass any day over Bryston having owned the Pass X150 and X150.5, Pass X-3, and the Bryston 7B-SST2 amps.
Bryston was a great amp when it was 2395.00 25 years ago. Nothing could touch it at that price. 25 years later the price is 5000.00 and it's not a great bargain anymore. I'll take a used Pass lab over it any day of the week. There is a reason it comes with a 20 year warranty. It's not really that good. (Sure it's built like a brick shithouse)It just doesn't sound that good.
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