Hi All,
Please see below comments on the 3 Bryston DEMO systems I currently have setup at home from a person I admire greatly. All 3 systems used the BP26 preamplifier and BCD-1 CD Player as front ends. The amplifiers varied depending on speakers- (28B's-Thiel) --- (4B - MG1.6) --- (2B SST-Quad). All systems have Torus Power Isolation Units.
Bio
David McCallum is co-owner of Toronto’s Tattersall Sound and Picture. A sound designer & editor, David has won numerous awards during a 15 year career including 3 Genie Awards for best sound in Canadian film, 7 Gemini Awards for best sound in Canadian television, and Britian’s prestigious BAFTA award for best sound. David has recently returned from Sao Paulo, Brazil where he was working as the dialogue supervisor on Blindness – Fernando Mierelles’ film adaptation of the Nobel Prize winner novel from Jose Saramago, and the opening night gala at the 2008 Cannes International Film Festival. David has also spent more than a decade writing Hi-Fi reviews and columns.
"Notes to James Tanner
Hi James,
What a pleasure it was spending a few hours listening to your 3 systems. Being away in hotel rooms for the last three months has restricted my hi-fi listening, so it was great to let my ears open up and take in some 2 channel hi-fi bliss!
I’d like to start with the Thiel (3.7's with two SS1 Subs) system. Even though it was the last system we listened to, prior to arriving this room had interested me the most, and after spending almost a year enjoying Thiel’s SS2 subwoofer I was curious to hear a more elaborate Thiel based system.
My observations with the Thiel speakers in the room were almost instantaneous, and can most simply be described as ‘complete.’ While I had really enjoyed how revealing the previous PMC setup was, if you recall at the time I was a bit fixated on some minor frequency issues (that was probably related to a bias of mine from back then), but with the Thiel system I was immediately able to relax into the presentation.
Perhaps this is related to the settling of the sound a few feet further back from the older PMC system, but I really enjoyed the musical presence. From its starting point almost near your back wall the sound-stage stretched way outside the speaker range creating a wonderful sense of envelopment – on both the Ladysmith Black Mambasso and Simon & Garfunkel track I truly felt like I was listening to a multi-channel recording.
There were details that I enjoyed here – the inner detail and image were balanced beautifully, the frequency timing (if that makes any sense) seemed dead accurate, and the integration of low frequency dynamics into the overall presentation was as good as I can recall hearing.
I believe a truly great hi-fi system doesn’t call attention to any one thing other than perhaps getting out of the way and revealing the written, performed and recorded music. The Thiel system was masterful at letting the music do the talking and is perhaps the best overall presentation of Hi-fi I have ever heard in a home, or most ‘complete’ if you were!
Moving backward, even though we spent the least amount of time here, I probably smiled the most while listening to the Maggie’s (MG1.6's with two PMC-TLE Subs). The sound of this quasi-ribbon speaker reminds me of my studio escapades, that tight and extremely revealing upper-end frequency extension can be magical to hear.
I remember vividly one moment in the Patricia Barber track (you’ll have to remind me which one) where I heard a high-frequency burst that I immediately thought I would have removed had I been in the engineer’s chair during the production. I’m glad I wasn’t in the chair, and even more glad that the recording engineer had more discipline then I and left this detail behind, as it’s often these types of moments that allow recorded sound to feel ‘real & live’ even if at times they strike us as imperfections.
But that’s what the Maggie’s bring – challenging and unforgiving presentation of the source material. It’s good we didn’t listen to any lesser quality recordings, as these speakers would have surely spit them out across the floor in front of us!
And finally my love. The Quad’s (2905's). Oh how I love Quad’s. Like so many of us, my first experience with true hi-fi was on a pair of Quad’s – in my early 20’s while working at a Philips Classic recording and mastering studio in Baarn, Netherlands I spent 3 weeks working on a pair of ESL 63’s, and have subsequently listened extensively to both the 57’s and 63’s – and I must say what 20 year old can resist that sound once they have been exposed to it? I couldn’t.
But it’s been quite a few years since I’ve listened to an electrostatic speaker, and I must say what a treat it was to experience this new model. All the things I remember were still there – magnificent staging, detail that pulls you forward in your chair asking you to walk into the music, and a complete disappearance of the equipment playing the music! Paired with your ‘modest’ 2B SST amp and set in your smallest room, I didn’t find the system lacking for anything and could and would spend hours enjoying music in this room.
The last thing I’ll say is that over the years I’ve observed a lot of Hi-Fi enthusiasts searching for a singular perfection in audio presentation. However, my time at different film studios as well as when writing for audio magazines has taught me that there are numerous ways to present great Hi-Fi, and that this diversity can in fact be the most rewarding part of our shared hobby.
So perhaps then the best part of our Saturday morning wasn’t any one of the rooms, but the combination of all three. They are all ‘great’ and getting a chance to hear each system with the same Bryston components connected at the front was an excellent study in speaker design, room acoustics and system set-up. I’ve taken a lot away from those few hours and have a few changes in mind for my own system. But I’ll be back soon for sure.
Thanks James, great fun!
David"
