[James Tanner]

Hi Folks,

I was asked to do an article for an Australian Magazine on High Resolution Audio and Bryston. I thought I would post it here and see what you think?

Questions for Bryston

1. Can you give me some background information about the company, the product range and target market?

http://bryston.com/pages/company.html

2. What products does Bryston offer with support for HRA?

We have a number of HRA Digital products … Digital Players like the (BDP-1USB) and the (BDP-2) and 2 DAC’s the (BDA1 and BDA2) as well as a BUC-1 USB to AES/EBU and COAX digital adapter.  We also offer the SP3 a Preamp Surround Processor that does HRA playback as well for both music and movies.

The BDP’s digital players are dedicated Linux based players that replace your computer in your audio system. They will play all file formants up to 192/24bit resolution. They have no moving internal parts and have a dedicated operating system that has only one task – play a high resolution digital audio file as well as possible.  It is not worried about viruses’ or checking what update comes next etc. which sucks up computer resources to a very great extent.  You attach the BDP to a quality DAC (like our BDA-2) and control or manage your play lists through your laptop or desktop computer as well as handheld devices like MPad, ITouch and IPhones as well as Android devices. The BDP is a NAS (network attached storage) device so it is available on your home network or can be used with an in-room dedicated router if you want a closed network for your audio system (my man-cave option).

The Bryston BDA-1 and BDA-2 DAC’s are also capable of HRA up to 192/24 as well and utilize totally discrete Class A circuits in the analog sections and dedicated power supplies for both digital and analog signal circuit paths.

The BUC-1 connects to your USB output on your computer and bypasses the soundcard in your computer so all the computer is doing is managing your files. This provides much better performance than typical computers with their limited resolution and noisy environments. The BUC-1 can also process up to 192/24bit files.

The SP3 Processor/Preamp is a Surround Processor capable of all the new high resolution music and movie formats currently available.

2. Please include pricing as well.

The Canadian prices are BDA-1USB $1700, BDP-2 $2995, BDA-1 $1995, BDA-2 $2395 BUC-1 $795 and SP-3 $9000.

3. How long has Bryston been selling HRA-compatible products?

About 7 years now.

4. How does a speaker qualify as compatible with high resolution audio?

No real issue there assuming a high quality speaker capable of a full range frequency response and minimum distortion and minimal dynamic compression.

5. Have you had a lot of interest from your customers in HRA products? Do they tend to be from the same demographic in terms of age, income and music interests?

Yes the HRA audio products have become our best sellers but given their performance and price range typically sell to customers that are looking for the very best audio performance available – the car analogy would be a BMW approach. I would say most of our customers are 30-60 years of age and are maturing from a more mass produced feature driven product to a more performance driven product.

6. What is the target market for HRA?

I think anyone looking for the best audio playback available. If you think about it this is the first time in history that we as consumers can go online and download an ‘exact copy of a master digital music file’. In the past there was always a middle step – LP’s, CD’s, Magnetic Tape etc.  So the potential of true fidelity is available now as never before in our history. The real problem is that most people think ‘Digital is Digital’ and there is no difference in quality – but believe me there is!  Sadly most of what is listened to from streaming services and Itune downloads etc. is highly compressed music and not indicative of the fidelity available today.

7. It's still a niche category right now. Do you think it will one day become as mainstream as MP3? If so, how many years before this happens?

I really do not know – I hope so but given the history of ‘its good enough’ or ‘I don’t hear a difference’ by the majority of listeners I think high end audio will remain a niche market for many years to come. Fortunately there are enough customers that care out there to allow companies like Bryston to endure and grow.

8. What are the main challenges right now that HRA will need to overcome before it becomes mainstream?

More music content from those companies that care – more artists like Neil Young that care - more customers that care – more manufacturers that care and largely more accurate information to people generally so they can make informed decisions about what they are purchasing.  And also exposing customers to what really is available through audio shows and quality store demos rather than offline purchases because a good review was written.

9. There have been attempts to introduce high resolution audio formats to the mainstream before, such as SACD and DVD Audio. How/why will HRA be any different?

I think the ability of easy downloads changes the game. Anyone with a computer has access to state of the art recordings and as long as there audio gear can take advantage of the better quality everyone has access. High Fidelity finally is only a click away!

10. Bryston operates at the premium end of the market. Do you think there is a place for consumer brands like Sony to offer HRA products to consumers? Or are their products not good enough to do justice to the high quality of HRA music?

I think Sony is an excellent company and certainly capable of producing high quality gear. They are much more structured though to mass market production techniques and therefore have limitations that smaller target product companies like ours do not have to deal with.  They have to deal with thousands of units vs hundreds for smaller companies like ours. For example each and every Bryston product is produced by checking the quality of every individual part before it gets assembled and then ‘burned-in’ for 100 hours on our test bench to make sure no component fails and finally computer check out for all performance parameters before it goes out the door.  Mass market manufacturing simply does not allow for that care and attention. That’s one of the reasons we have offered a 20 year warranty!

Most of the innovations over the years have come from small independent companies like ours rather than large conglomerates that cater to mainstream customers. A great example of that is our BDP Digital Player. We introduced that concept 6 years ago and now companies like Sony are starting to release similar concept products.

James Tanner
V/P Bryston Ltd.

[brucek]

Perhaps it would be a good idea to distinguish between analog 20 year warranty and digital 5 year warranty, given the article is mostly dealing with digital products?

brucek

[James Tanner]

Perhaps it would be a good idea to distinguish between analog 20 year warranty and digital 5 year warranty, given the article is mostly dealing with digital products?

brucek

Good point,