SP3 Upgrades

mv038856 · « **Reply #20 on:** 24 Aug 2020, 09:09 pm »

Quote from: Mike Pickett on 24 Aug 2020, 06:59 pm

The upgrade cost would vary from $1000.00 for HDMI only, up to $3800.00 for a full rebuild to current specification.

Hi Mike,

Now you have made me curious...

While it is rather unlikely that I will upgrade my SP-3 serial-# 29, I still would like to know in what respect the „current specification“ differs from my unit. My HDMI board is HDMI 1.4 and I have been reading about an USB upgrade for the SP-3... is there anything else that needs upgrading to get to current spec?

Thanks!

Markus

BSMSPEMBA · « **Reply #21 on:** 25 Aug 2020, 12:32 pm »

Quote from: Mike Pickett on 24 Aug 2020, 06:59 pm

The upgrade cost would vary from $1000.00 for HDMI only, up to $3800.00 for a full rebuild to current specification.

Mike,

Thank you for the information. Can you share with us what is included in the $3,800 rebuild? For example, $1,000 for new HDMI board with eARC, and $2,800 for x, y, and z.

Thank you

Grit · « **Reply #22 on:** 25 Aug 2020, 06:42 pm »

Quote from: BSMSPEMBA on 25 Aug 2020, 12:32 pm

Mike,

Thank you for the information. Can you share with us what is included in the $3,800 rebuild? For example, $1,000 for new HDMI board with eARC, and $2,800 for x, y, and z.

Thank you

+1

Alphonse · « **Reply #23 on:** 27 Aug 2020, 07:22 pm »

Quote from: Grit on 25 Aug 2020, 06:42 pm

+1

+2 It would be nice to know before you buy any used sp3 what you would be getting yourself into regarding specific upgrade costs based on the age or serial number of the unit.

Grit · « **Reply #24 on:** 23 Sep 2020, 08:25 pm »

Deleted due to redundancy.

BSMSPEMBA · « **Reply #25 on:** 31 Dec 2020, 06:29 pm »

Quote from: BSMSPEMBA on 25 Aug 2020, 12:32 pm

Mike,

Thank you for the information. Can you share with us what is included in the $3,800 rebuild? For example, $1,000 for new HDMI board with eARC, and $2,800 for x, y, and z.

Thank you

Mike,

It has been a while, so I wanted to resurface this question. Do you have a menu of upgrades for the SP3? It would be great to know the specifics for the HDMI upgrades (e.g., does it provide HDMI 2.1 on all 8 ports with full 4k, Dolby Vision, HDR, eARC, etc.)?

Thank you

gbaby · « **Reply #26 on:** 2 Jan 2021, 10:01 pm »

Quote from: BSMSPEMBA on 31 Dec 2020, 06:29 pm

Mike,

It has been a while, so I wanted to resurface this question. Do you have a menu of upgrades for the SP3? It would be great to know the specifics for the HDMI upgrades (e.g., does it provide HDMI 2.1 on all 8 ports with full 4k, Dolby Vision, HDR, eARC, etc.)?

Thank you

Mike, I'd be interested too. What are the current SP3 HDMI specs and the cost for the upgrade? I can use an eARC upgrade for my Sony A9G television.

DRC · « **Reply #27 on:** 14 Jan 2021, 09:24 pm »

I would like to add my name to the list of people that are interested in an answer from Mike about the upgrades. SP3 is Ser no. 112.

DRC · « **Reply #28 on:** 14 Jan 2021, 11:12 pm »

This is a little dated but should shed some light on what I was told about my SP3 upgrade which is Ser No 112.

The cost of the HDMI upgrade is $1000.00 including a new upper chassis. The $3800.00 cost you mentioned also includes upgrading the mainboard, power supply board, and USB section to support DSD and high definition PCM via USB. This would get you the functional equivalent of a new SP3, but the warranty coverage would be limited to the new parts, and for 1 year. If upgrading the USB section isn’t critical for you, simply upgrading the HDMI board brings the unit to modern video spec, at a more reasonable cost.

Rod_S · « **Reply #29 on:** 15 Jan 2021, 07:54 pm »

Don't hold your breathe on a response. Over on the SP4 thread we have been waiting months for official word on the future of the SP4 and whether it will or will not receive all of the same Storm Audio updates i.e. MK 2 platform, new HDMI board, etc. and if so timeframe and cost not to mention the initially planned Bryston home grown expansions cards for the unit.

The silence is deafening and not a good sign of future product support especially for I believe what is their single most expensive product ever as it's definitely more than a single 28B Cubed, 14B Cubed or 21B Cubed, perhaps one of their active T-Rex speakers costs more. Not good optics and a complete 180 to what we are accustomed to from Bryston.

Grit · « **Reply #30 on:** 15 Jan 2021, 09:04 pm »

I feel Bryston's heart and strength is in 2ch audio. The reason I went with an SP3 was because of that processor's ability as a 2ch music preamp.

Bryston does not feel like a multi-channel processor company at heart. Most multi-channel processors embrace some type of sound processing, which we know isn't within the Bryston philosophy.

If I'm not mistaken, the SP4 falls outside the normal area of Bryston expertise. My feeling was that this was their effort to try and provide Bryston customers with a processor option that they thought they could one day modify to fit Bryston's high standards. Unfortunately, the HT/HDMI environment has always seen rapid changes/upgrades, making support more challenging.

James Tanner · « **Reply #31 on:** 16 Jan 2021, 12:36 pm »

Hi Folks,

Yes we are still discussing the future of the SP4. The original plan was to have a product that would allow all the feature sets that the best home theater audio had to offer and going forward we would try and "Brystonize" some internals by offering a better stereo DAC, analog bypass etc.

We have found that the SP4 has sold well but the customers and dealers seem to prefer the surround feature sets first and foremost over the dedicated stereo performance. The sonic performance of the SP4 is excellent as is and so we have not had much interest in increasing the dedicated stereo performance we were originally considering.

So going forward we are discussing if we should continue with the SP4 as a product. There are some more up to date features available on the latest versions and we could still look into adding some up-market stereo applications but not sure if that makes sense given the market segment the SP4 seems to inhabit.

james

dminches · « **Reply #32 on:** 17 Jan 2021, 01:36 pm »

James, I think that makes sense.

My 30,000 foot view:

If people are most interested in the home theater capabilities of a processor there is a lot of competition for Bryston and people will likely look at the companies that are concentrating on that market. The sweet spot for the SP3 is the customer who thinks audio performance first but wants the ability to also use the unit in a multi-channel audio and home theater setup. That’s why the SP3 is so popular.

gdbalp · « **Reply #33 on:** 18 Jan 2021, 11:57 pm »

Hi,

As a SP3 owner, I agree that SP3 is something special for its abilities for sound reproduction in any channel configuration.

Bryston has the right expertise from BR-20, BDA-3, and the well established SP3 to make a world class AVR processor again.

This would differentiate Bryston from the big box store AVRs and even most of the High End gear that is available today.

My vote is on a replacement for the SP3 and I am ready to place my order yesterday...

Luigi

I

dminches · « **Reply #34 on:** 24 Jan 2021, 03:37 pm »

Has anyone applied the new SP3 firmware? If so, did you lose any settings?

gravy · « **Reply #35 on:** 24 Jan 2021, 08:14 pm »

Not yet for me.

I read the readme.txt and the fixes documented didn't really seem worth the risk of losing my user config. I really wish we could backup our configs and restore them after the upgrade.

I think I'll let that update pass.

derekcooper · « **Reply #36 on:** 26 Jan 2021, 01:43 pm »

I replaced my HDMI board yesterday with the current HSR82T and the most recent firmware. Was primarily interested in the ability to handshake with my LG OLED using Dolby Vision, but so far that has eluded me. My other components can handshake with the LG using Dolby Vision no problem.

Any questions about the new board / firmware I can possibly answer?

Going to work on the handshaking some more today, but I fear the board just isn't fast enough to lock with the LG at the speed Dolby Vision requires. That will be $1k not well spent!

BSMSPEMBA · « **Reply #37 on:** 30 Jan 2021, 01:51 pm »

Quote from: derekcooper on 26 Jan 2021, 01:43 pm

I replaced my HDMI board yesterday with the current HSR82T and the most recent firmware. Was primarily interested in the ability to handshake with my LG OLED using Dolby Vision, but so far that has eluded me. My other components can handshake with the LG using Dolby Vision no problem.

Any questions about the new board / firmware I can possibly answer?

Going to work on the handshaking some more today, but I fear the board just isn't fast enough to lock with the LG at the speed Dolby Vision requires. That will be $1k not well spent!

I have the same use case (i.e., LG OLED), which is why I want to upgrade the HDMI board. Please let us know if you are able to get Dolby Vision, HDR, and eARC to work.

Based on the specs of the board, it should work. http://www.mds.com/products/hdmivideo/hsr-82/

Thank you

derekcooper · « **Reply #38 on:** 30 Jan 2021, 02:01 pm »

Quote from: BSMSPEMBA on 30 Jan 2021, 01:51 pm

I have the same use case (i.e., LG OLED), which is why I want to upgrade the HDMI board. Please let us know if you are able to get Dolby Vision, HDR, and eARC to work.

I started a separate focused thread - https://bit.ly/3t9iyAz.

ec · « **Reply #39 on:** 4 Jan 2023, 06:43 pm »

Quote from: DRC on 14 Jan 2021, 11:12 pm

This is a little dated but should shed some light on what I was told about my SP3 upgrade which is Ser No 112.

The cost of the HDMI upgrade is $1000.00 including a new upper chassis. The $3800.00 cost you mentioned also includes upgrading the mainboard, power supply board, and USB section to support DSD and high definition PCM via USB. This would get you the functional equivalent of a new SP3, but the warranty coverage would be limited to the new parts, and for 1 year. If upgrading the USB section isn’t critical for you, simply upgrading the HDMI board brings the unit to modern video spec, at a more reasonable cost.

Sorry to revive this old thread. I tried calling Bryston support it advises you are next in line then puts you to VM.

Bryston - do you still offer the HDMI 4k HDMI 4K passthrough upgrade and if so what is the cost in $CDN

I am considering an older used SP3 which has the original HDMI board but need 4K as both my PJ and sources support 4k.

Thanks