Bryston D250Z Zone Amplifier

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Samurai7595

Bryston D250Z Zone Amplifier
« on: 16 Jul 2013, 06:07 pm »
Can the Bryston D250Z zone amplifier be used to bi-amp a pair of speakers?


srb

Re: Bryston D250Z Zone Amplifier
« Reply #1 on: 16 Jul 2013, 06:42 pm »
I'm guessing you're referring to passively bi-amping?  If you were actively bi-amping, any multi-channel amplifier could be used with each channel independently fed from an active crossover.  If you are passively bi-amping, the Bryston zone amplifiers have an input selector switch for each input that can be set to output the Left or Right channel from a master stereo bus input, eliminating any Y-adapters or extra interconnects.

But I'm not sure why you would want to.  Bryston's president, Brian Russell, was quoted in an online article where they said "Brian said these amps are meant for a segment of the market where high quality is not essential. These include night clubs, restaurants, ice rinks, condos and bars which need music or broadcasts in several zones. These amps can also be used for piped music.  For serious audiophile listening, nothing beats the Class AB amps, he said."

Not to mention that a Bryston 4B SST² has an output of 500W/ch @ 4Ω compared to the bi-amped output of the D250Z of 220W @ 4Ω (110W + 110W) giving more available headroom, and in the U.S., the 4B SST² is only 79% of the cost of the D250Z ($4995 vs. $6350).

Steve

Samurai7595

Re: Bryston D250Z Zone Amplifier
« Reply #2 on: 16 Jul 2013, 07:06 pm »
I'm guessing you're referring to passively bi-amping?  If you were actively bi-amping, any multi-channel amplifier could be used with each channel independently fed from an active crossover.  If you are passively bi-amping, the Bryston zone amplifiers have an input selector switch for each input that can be set to output the Left or Right channel from a master stereo bus input, eliminating any Y-adapters or extra interconnects.

But I'm not sure why you would want to.  Bryston's president, Brian Russell, was quoted in an online article where they said "Brian said these amps are meant for a segment of the market where high quality is not essential. These include night clubs, restaurants, ice rinks, condos and bars which need music or broadcasts in several zones. These amps can also be used for piped music.  For serious audiophile listening, nothing beats the Class AB amps, he said."

Not to mention that a Bryston 4B SST² has an output of 500W/ch @ 4Ω compared to the bi-amped output of the D250Z of 220W @ 4Ω (110W + 110W) giving more available headroom, and in the U.S., the 4B SST² is only 79% of the cost of the D250Z ($4995 vs. $6350).

Steve

Makes sense, thanks Steve!