SST vs ST

lowrider · « **on:** 7 Feb 2004, 06:48 pm »

Yesterday I borrowed a demo 4B SST from the importer to compare with my 4B ST, left it running for an hour, then played my regular demo CD...

Shock, had to call the wife to confirm, it sounded muffled all the way to the midrange, uncontrolled bass, almost as bad as a Plinius 8200 that couldnt handle my Sonus Faber EAII...

Replaced with my old ST to confirm settings had not changed somehow, every thing sounded fine again, so...

1 - New Brystons lost their balls handling difficult loads
2 - Became "audiophile" and need long run-in
3 - This unit is defective

What do you think ?

James Tanner · « **Reply #1 on:** 7 Feb 2004, 10:41 pm »

Hi Lowrider,

The SST amplifier is better in every way over the ST. Lower noise , lower distortion (especially above 2K), better able to drive difficult loads due to doubling of power supply capaciatnce, better transient response etc.
I think maybe you have a defective unit there or it was hooked up incorrectly.

james
Brsyton

lowrider · « **Reply #2 on:** 8 Feb 2004, 10:37 am »

Thanks,

It was hooked the same way as the ST, with balanced Apogee Wide-eye, what coud be wrong ?

James Tanner · « **Reply #3 on:** 8 Feb 2004, 12:41 pm »

HI Lowrider,

Make sure all the switches in the back are correct:
The voltage gain is set to 1 volt - NOT 2
The individual/bridge switch is set to Individual.
And the balanced switches (both sides) set to balanced.

Lowrider it is just very strange that you are getting poorer performance from the 4B SST relative to the 4B ST. Every review out there and many, many customers who have owned 4B ST's in the past and went to SST's have called or written me to say how much of an improvement it is.
Obviously you are hearing what you are hearing but there must be something amiss. In terms of low impedance drive capability as you mentioned in your previous message the 4B SST is like replacing a 6 cylinder engine with an 8.

Anyway, hopefully we can figure out what is going on. Try differnt speaker cables as well if you can and please let me know how you make out with all this.

james

lowrider · « **Reply #4 on:** 8 Feb 2004, 07:42 pm »

I dont think there is anything wrong with my cables, but it says on the power that for balanced I should use 2 volts, is it right ?

James Tanner · « **Reply #5 on:** 8 Feb 2004, 10:56 pm »

Hi Antonio,

Use the 1 volt for balanced. The Balanced ST is the same as the 1 volt setting on the SST. It is very common for people to mistake 'GAIN' for dynamics and I want to make sure the gain on the SST matches the gain of your ST - the 1 volt setting on balanced does that.

james

lowrider · « **Reply #6 on:** 9 Feb 2004, 11:07 am »

Hi James,

Thank you for your help, I never tried it with 1 volt, as it is written on the back of the power to use 2 volt with balanced, would it make that much difference, isn´t it equivalent to the switch on older models that has unbalanced, balanced and bal +6db

I already returned it, so I cannot do any more tests, shame...

James Tanner · « **Reply #7 on:** 9 Feb 2004, 12:23 pm »

Hi Antonio,

Yes it will make a lot of difference to percieved dynamics if you are doing comparisons as you stated. Maybe give it a try sometime in the future.

james

lowrider · « **Reply #8 on:** 9 Feb 2004, 01:50 pm »

What do you mean by a lot of difference...

It sounded not only compressed, but out of control and "confused", does a different sensitivity makes this much difference, in the ST it just sounds louder or quieter if I change it...

By the way, the local importer wont get another, or other model, (I was really interested in the 6B SST), without a firm order, which makes buying Bryston almost impossible in Portugal, mine where its ST demos, I have 4B ST + 4 Powerpacs 120...

James Tanner · « **Reply #9 on:** 9 Feb 2004, 07:43 pm »

Hi,

If it sounded confused then it may have been the stereo/bridged switch was in the bridged configuration?

james

lowrider · « **Reply #10 on:** 10 Feb 2004, 12:10 pm »

I did set it to stereo, balanced and 2 volt, but I didn´t check again when I unhooked it...

Would bridged work at all, I mean both channels...

James Tanner · « **Reply #11 on:** 10 Feb 2004, 01:09 pm »

Hi Antonio,

Yes bridged would work but the channels would be out of phase.

james

lowrider · « **Reply #12 on:** 10 Feb 2004, 03:11 pm »

Like when you wire them wrong and get the sound not focused...

It was much worst than that...

James Tanner · « **Reply #13 on:** 10 Feb 2004, 03:18 pm »

HI Antonio,

Well I guess I will chalk it up to system incompatability.

james

lowrider · « **Reply #14 on:** 10 Feb 2004, 03:55 pm »

Very strange, as the 4B ST works like a charm, except that I could use a little sweeter treble with some CDs...

On the other hand, this reminds me of when I got TAG´s new dual processor, (to replace my two year old AV32R wich worked fine over two years), and it scratched now and then

, of course it was my system, my rack, my power supply, even my fridge interfering...

Only the third unit worked ok, they found a problem with a batch of boards, eventually I gave-up, returned it and bought a Krell Showcase, wich also had a quirck with EQ and had to be replaced, but works fine since...

Frankly Bryston was the last brand I would expect something like this to happen...

James Tanner · « **Reply #15 on:** 10 Feb 2004, 04:01 pm »

Hi Antonio,

I think there is something very strange going on.
The rest of the world has responded to the SST over the ST's with nothing but praise as to the superiority of the sound of the SST over the ST. Just read the latest review I posted on our website out of Switzerland. This review is representative of all the positive feedback I have recieved world wide on the SST designs.
Perplexing to say the least.

james

lowrider · « **Reply #16 on:** 10 Feb 2004, 04:21 pm »

Well James,

I am even more surprised than you, I heard it

, after reading all those reviews, you still can assume I hooked it wrong...

Eric · « **Reply #17 on:** 10 Feb 2004, 10:47 pm »

I will echo what James says here. I own the 4bsst and heard the the st in a direct comparrison. There was none. The sst was much smoother more refined. the bass still had the good articulation and slam.