well gentlemen, the last piece( is there ever a last piece) of my "this year's" puzzle arrived last week, 14BSST for the surrounds. Having a little time last weekend to play around somewhat, I disconnected the main speakers 28's and connected the 14 in their place to get some impressions of the 14 being feed with the same sources and driving the same speakers I have been listening to for the last 6 weeks with the 28's. my 14 came Thur with 642 watts on the test sheet. Initial impressions are this is 1 kick butt stereo amp. It drove my maggie mains to very satisfying levels, very good imaging, timber is excellent, lots of air around the performers. stage is decent width and depth. I listened to the 14 for a couple hours with the same music I have been playing on the 28's. Although I could be very satisfied with the 14 driving my mains, it cannot really compete with 28's, and rightfully it shouldn't. With the 28's, stage gets wider and deeper, imaging is noticeably better, more air around the performers,bass slam with the 28's on the maggies is off the charts for planers, but as the reviewers say, 28 will most definitely outperform anything I have heard at low volume. the low level detail that comes out on the 28 is not there on the 14. But, as good as the 14 is, the 28's just take everything up to a new uncharted level.
understand these opinions by no means take away anything that the 14 does.
I would say the 14 will compete very favorably with anything out there in its power/price range, probably better than most.
For twice the price, the 28's should be better, and they most definitely are.
I feel very lucky to be in the position to be able to do a small comparison/opinion between the very fine products that Bryston builds.
Now for the down side, and first I will say I fully believe I could be happy long term with a full system of 14's and 7's. but unfortunately Bryston with the 28 has created an addiction.
After listening to the 14 on the mains, I went ahead and connected it to the surrounds. My surrounds have started to come alive now, the 250 a channel levinson amp that was there just got left in the dust by the 14. Great surround ambiance and effects now on multi-channel music/movies. The rear channel ambiance on some of my multi-channel dvd's is very present with the 14, little things I am now hearing that i was not with the levinson.
But in the back of my mind is this little voice saying, what would it sound like with 5 28's.
Argggggggg. Bryston has created an addictive monster here.
As I said previously, are we ever finished with our "addictions"?
Looks like next years "project" could have a 1 year old 14BSST for sale and me ordering 2 more 28's.
