Amp/Preamp Asylum: REVIEW: Bryston 4B SST Amplifier (SS) by rp1@surfnetusa.com

Model:	4B SST
Category:	Amplifier (SS)
Suggested Retail Price:	$2700
Description:	300 watt/channel dual mono amplifier
Manufacturer URL:	Bryston
Model Picture:	View

Review by rp1@surfnetusa.com ( A ) on November 07, 2003 at 23:05:43
IP Address: 66.248.83.64

Add Your Review
for the 4B SST

This review is more a commentary of synergy and matching than a review of any one piece of equipment. The longer that I have been in this hobby the more it is beaten into my head that no piece can be considered alone in ascribing sonic qualities.

I am attempting to lay down the groundwork for something that has shockingly reinforced the dictum "that everything effects everything".

We were having a listening session last night trying my friends amps out on the (updated) Spectral. There were various tubed amps and SS amps and all of them did very well on the Spectral.(That's gist for another review.) All the amps, including my Spectron, are much more expensive than the 4BSST. We tried each amp with 3 different interconnects: Monster 1000i, Esoteric Audio, and Goertz silver purl XLR.

The Bryston amps are silent amps, that is they do not attempt to create artificial HF extention, width and depth by using dither to fool the ear. (You would be supprised at how many products try this trick.) Everything just comes out of a background of pure silence. This bears on what happened later....

Just for giggles I decided to bring the Bryston out of storage just to see where Bryston sat next to the other amps. Now, we had all heard the Bryston before and, while always musical, powerful sounding, and with great bass and low-midrange tonal color, and able to easily show variations in the front end and speakers, it never quite matched the more expensive amps in upper midrange to high extention and ease. This was the first time I hooked up the Bryston to the updated version of the Spectral and the first time I tried the Goertz silver purl on it. (Though I have had the cables since June.)

We hooked up the amp, turned it on, gave it a minute to warm up and started listening. We were all talking, not really expecting anything from the Bryston, especially since it was cold and had been unpowered for two months or so. Suddenly, when the track on Natalie Merchant's "Tiger Lilly" came in we all stopped talking. We were stunned by what we heard as Natalie's voice took on a shape and form that struck us with its realism. The Brystons normal rich palatte of tonal colors was still there, and even enhanced, but what was striking was the vastly improved intimacy throughout the entire upper range. No, it was not as extended in decay time as the Spectron delivers but the shape and color of the instrument (be it voice, piano or guitar)was much more gripping in its emotional charge.

Playing the "Blue Guitar" track on the Cowboy Junkies album "Miles From Our Home" illustrated the presentation of a very complex mix of guitar and bass instruments (the systems at most high-end stores simply choke on it). Most all the amps on hand were more than competent to seperate and delineate all the instruments but the Spectral/Bryston was able to keep all the rich tonal colors of the instruments intact and seperate.

The rich tonal colors were what a SET is supposed to produce at much lower power levels and with less complex music. Here, we were getting all these midrange colors and flavors with power and authority with an extended and musically relevent high frequency presentation.

The "Sanvean" track on Dead Can Dance's "Toward the Within" is an example of Lisa Gerrard voice hitting the stratosphere (it is said that she sings in Seven Languages...five of them Human). Through the Spectral/Bryston combo her voice brought visable goose-bumps on several of us.

As the unit warmed up the soundstage moved further back and the highs got smoother and more delicate, but we were in no way unhappy with the way it sounded cold. It just got even more musical and dynamic. It went on and on...Eva Cassidy soared, Janice Ian struck us with her vunerability and intimacy, Fleetwood Mac rocked us, and on and on. My guests stayed longer than any of us planned.

So what gives? The Spectral surely gets the credit for the extended dynamics on the high-end (hell throughout the range). Just as it did for all the other amps. But changing the interconnect was what had us scratching our head. None of us could explain the difference except that when anything but the Goertz was used the magic went away. Conciously we could not discern what was going on; with the Goertz we had magic and intimacy,with the other cables it was still balanced and clean and all the other good things but no magic. To make matters even worse, I am hearing things in the music that I never even heard with the Spectron. I just seem to be getting more midrange info; my ear is much better able to discern what is going on in the soundstage and why it is going on. Perhaps it is the range of colors that is giving the brain the info it needs; at any rate this is one of those happy matings that rarely happen in audio and is recieved with thanks when it does.

Product Weakness: Can be over-polite with some preamps. Can sound dull (or low-mid heavy) on some speakers. Not the last word on dynamics and HF extention (compared to Spectrons, Spectrals and a few others)
Product Strengths: Capable of of near-SET tonality but with vastly better detail with the right front end. Great bass control and flavor. Handles complex passages with ease. Smooooth midrange. Responds well to power filters and cords. Cymbals sound like the metal they are made of. Dead silent back-ground. Very idiot resistant. Great balance of tonality,micro and macro-dynamics.

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Bryston 4BSST, Spectron Musician II, Atma-Sphere M60,
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Spectral DMC30S (just updated)
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Levinson 390S (my concession to luxury)
Speakers:	Nearform Research 645 KSU2
Cables/Interconnects:	Goertz, JPS, Empiricle Audio, MIT
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Jazz, Bluegrass, Rock, Goth, God knows what else
Room Size (LxWxH):	13 x 26 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments:	Treated with carpet and furniture. Accustic ceiling
Time Period/Length of Audition:	Permanent, rotated out at random just for giggles
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Exact Power SP15
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

Product Weakness:	Can be over-polite with some preamps. Can sound dull (or low-mid heavy) on some speakers. Not the last word on dynamics and HF extention (compared to Spectrons, Spectrals and a few others)
Product Strengths:	Capable of of near-SET tonality but with vastly better detail with the right front end. Great bass control and flavor. Handles complex passages with ease. Smooooth midrange. Responds well to power filters and cords. Cymbals sound like the metal they are made of. Dead silent back-ground. Very idiot resistant. Great balance of tonality,micro and macro-dynamics.