Announcing The Bryston BR-20 Preamp/DAC/Streamer

James Tanner · « **Reply #361 on:** 6 Jan 2022, 12:22 pm »

MEMO: To All Bryston Customers
SUBJECT: Bryston BR-20 – Product of The Year 2021

Hi James

“I just love it when you purchase an amazing piece from an amazing company & the reviews you read are exactly what you are hearing in your listening room…

Quote:

“A hub of the highest order …

reflects a ‘just the facts, ma’am’ musical neutrality.”

January 2022 issue of ‘The Absolute Sound’ was in the mailbox today.

Excellent review from Neil Gader with a James Tanner interview & winner of a

2021 Product Of The Year – Bryston BR-20

Congrats to everyone at Bryston & take a much deserved bow !

Happy Bryston Listening Everyone”

Jeff W.

mav52 · « **Reply #362 on:** 6 Jan 2022, 01:16 pm »

James or Chris , A question in reference to the headphone section of the BR-20. In the press release it notes " We even updated the internal headphone amplifier to have more power and lower output impedance to effortlessly power even difficult loads.". I have the BHA-1 . Does the BR-20 have the same BHA-1 specifications and is there any XLR's like the BHA-1 for those difficult loads and gain selections etc..

James Tanner · « **Reply #363 on:** 6 Jan 2022, 01:19 pm »

Quote from: mav52 on 6 Jan 2022, 01:16 pm

James or Chris , A question in reference to the headphone section of the BR-20. In the press release it notes " We even updated the internal headphone amplifier to have more power and lower output impedance to effortlessly power even difficult loads.". I have the BHA-1 . Does the BR-20 have the same BHA-1 specifications and is there any XLR's like the BHA-1 for those difficult loads and gain selections etc..

Hi Mav

No the BHA-1 is still the top Headphone unit we make for very difficult phones.

james

mav52 · « **Reply #364 on:** 6 Jan 2022, 02:07 pm »

Quote from: James Tanner on 6 Jan 2022, 01:19 pm

Hi Mav

No the BHA-1 is still the top Headphone unit we make for very difficult phones.

james

Thank you James.,

sep297 · « **Reply #365 on:** 8 Jan 2022, 01:35 pm »

From what I have read from James, the Home Theatre Bypass is not operational yet on the BR20 and maybe sometime, although on the cards.

Are there any other workarounds that would give me similar functionality or is the easiest answer to wait until it is confirmed? I use my Hifi along with the family TV and Processor (Emotiva RMC-1) so was looking for a Balanced bypass that could be operated by the remote control of my Logitech Harmony.

I cannot see at the moment any reason to have the HDMI board if I purchase a BR20, can it be fitted later if I find a reason to need it?

Many Thanks

Stuart

James Tanner · « **Reply #366 on:** 8 Jan 2022, 02:14 pm »

Quote from: sep297 on 8 Jan 2022, 01:35 pm

From what I have read from James, the Home Theatre Bypass is not operational yet on the BR20 and maybe sometime, although on the cards.

Are there any other workarounds that would give me similar functionality or is the easiest answer to wait until it is confirmed? I use my Hifi along with the family TV and Processor (Emotiva RMC-1) so was looking for a Balanced bypass that could be operated by the remote control of my Logitech Harmony.

I cannot see at the moment any reason to have the HDMI board if I purchase a BR20, can it be fitted later if I find a reason to need it?

Many Thanks

Stuart

Hi Stuart,

Yes the HDMI can be added later.

james

bokko · « **Reply #367 on:** 8 Jan 2022, 03:47 pm »

bokko · « **Reply #368 on:** 8 Jan 2022, 04:07 pm »

James Tanner · « **Reply #369 on:** 8 Jan 2022, 04:30 pm »

Hi Folks,

There is a BETA version of the software that allows one of the Analog inputs to act as a pass-through that we are testing now.

james

James Tanner · « **Reply #370 on:** 8 Jan 2022, 05:28 pm »

MEMO: To All Bryston Customers
SUBJECT: Bryston BR-20 – A Reference Product!

January 2022

Hi Folks,

It’s always satisfying when a quality reviewer like John Johnson of Secrets of Home Theater magazine request that he would like to continue to utilize our Bryston BR-20 Preamplifier/DAC/Streamer in his personal reference system!

Hi James,

I have a very large array of reference equipment This is because I feel that if I had only one reference setup, I would be biased towards the sound of that setup when listening to review products.

Any deviation from the sound of that reference kit that I am used to might be interpreted as not being fair. So, I alternate between the array of reference items that I have in order not to be biased towards any particular sound.

This is a formal request as I would like to use the Bryston BR-20 in my reference system”.
John Johnson

BR-20 Full Review:
https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews/amplifier/preamplifier/bryston-br-20-stereo-preamplifier-review/

spartana · « **Reply #371 on:** 9 Jan 2022, 10:12 am »

Hi James,
How are such reported issues like the blinking light treated @ Bryston? Is the issue automatically handed over to the quality department once reported from multiple users here in the circle? Somehow I would appreciate an outlook on what happens in such cases -especially since with products like the BR20 we will have more software bugs than hardware issues in the future.
Thanks and have a good day,
Holger

James Tanner · « **Reply #372 on:** 9 Jan 2022, 12:17 pm »

Quote from: spartana on 9 Jan 2022, 10:12 am

Hi James,
How are such reported issues like the blinking light treated @ Bryston? Is the issue automatically handed over to the quality department once reported from multiple users here in the circle? Somehow I would appreciate an outlook on what happens in such cases -especially since with products like the BR20 we will have more software bugs than hardware issues in the future.
Thanks and have a good day,
Holger

Hi Holger

It is usually forwarded to the software guys - the difficult thing is replicating the issue so it can be dealt with. We have hundreds of BR-20's in the field now and so it takes some time to sort out what is a universal symptom that needs fixing vs a particular issue in a specific situation.

Over time we can usually sort things out. The positive thing is software is fixable in the field over time whereas hardware problems mean a return to the factory - fortunately the BR-20 has had zero hardware issues.

james

unincognito · « **Reply #373 on:** 9 Jan 2022, 05:09 pm »

Quote from: bokko on 8 Jan 2022, 04:07 pm

In respect to blinking flashing red light some experience.
Its mentioned blinking red occurs on startup so could this occur when device comes to end of DHCP IP address lease? So suddenly starts blinking after a week at this point not startup but just cause and affect for some reason not being successful in retaining leased IP. So would work until the IP address is used by another device then one or both devices with same IP stop working?

I use enterprise level business network stuff so don't have this problem.
What you can do is look at address range DHCP server gives out usually 192.168.???.??? by accessing router, router modem, often at the gateway address.
So for our example lets say 192.168.0.??? So what I do if its 192.168.0.10-254. Is change to 192.168.0.50 - to 192.168.0.250.
Then set BR-20 to static ip address 192.168.0.40 and 192.168.0.41. ???.???.???.1 is always taken thought

This can also be done from some routers and is called reserving an IP address. Look at it's manual to see how to go about this.

The blinking red light is not network related, it represents two pieces of hardware inside the unit hand shaking and usually takes about 1-2 minutes to occur upon turning the unit on and is normal.

We don't understand what is meant by "So suddenly starts blinking after a week at this point not startup but just cause and affect for some reason not being successful in retaining leased IP".

We have left BR20's on 24/7 for weeks on end and not had to touch it let alone see a flashing red lock light, I'm not saying there isn't something wrong, just that its not as simple as leaving the machine on.

Also we don't test or use static ip addresses because ip address reservation is a thing and we have mybryston.com

Chris

unincognito · « **Reply #374 on:** 9 Jan 2022, 05:15 pm »

Quote from: spartana on 9 Jan 2022, 10:12 am

Hi James,
How are such reported issues like the blinking light treated @ Bryston? Is the issue automatically handed over to the quality department once reported from multiple users here in the circle? Somehow I would appreciate an outlook on what happens in such cases -especially since with products like the BR20 we will have more software bugs than hardware issues in the future.
Thanks and have a good day,
Holger

Issues are typically reported by way of email, ticket entry (by way of the contact us page) or by calling and this typically gives as the ability to be able to communicate and have some back and forth communication to get a better understanding of an issues that isn't easily reproduceable. In some cases in the past we've accomplished this via forums like AudioCircle, but lately I've found myself to busy with other tasks to make it on here nearly as frequent as I use to.

Chris

jbuzas · « **Reply #375 on:** 10 Jan 2022, 12:02 am »

There are at least a couple of us having the red light issue. I describe what happens.

I use my BR-20 exclusively with Roon. When I first select Roon Bridge and enable the BR-20 in Roon, things work as expected (for a roon bridge application). I put my BR-20 in standby when not in use. When I turn it back on, I have to enable the BR-20 in Roon.

After about 10 days of use as above, when the BR-20 is powered up, the lock light flashes red and continues to do so indefinitely. I can still stream from Roon. But the lock light nevers stops falshing red. If I unplug the BR-20 and plug it back in, it resets and the lock light is then green when streaming. After 10 days or so, back to flashing red.

As I said, I am not the only one having this exact issue.

thanks for you help.

James Tanner · « **Reply #376 on:** 10 Jan 2022, 12:19 pm »

It must have something to do with the use of ROON.

I do not use ROON and have not experienced that red light blinking other than when I change the software version.

james

James Tanner · « **Reply #377 on:** 10 Jan 2022, 03:08 pm »

MEMO: To All Concerned
SUBJECT: High Fidelity BR-20 Best Product Award

January 2022

Hi Folks,

The passing year has been very hard for all of us. At the same time, it was extremely interesting, both from the end customer and journalists’ point of view. It was year of a growing music industry, and best sales of music in history – that gives us hope and not only for the survival, but the development and growth of high-end audio industry. And it was all in COVID-year…

Also, for us, High Fidelity magazine, it has been very good time. We would like to thank you all sincerely for your cooperation and kindness - without you and our readers we would not be where we are now.

In 2021, we tested over 120 products and we liked the vast majority of them a lot.

However, to make our readers lives easier, we’ve chosen – for the fourteenth time – several devices and music releases that we liked the most.

BEST PRODUCT 2021 AWARD GOES TO:

Bryston BR-20
Preamplifier/DAC/audio files player

WOJCIECH PACUŁA
High Fidelity Magazine
Poland

James Tanner · « **Reply #378 on:** 10 Jan 2022, 05:18 pm »

I could not agree more with the review by TAS and High Fidelity.

My wife and I were blown away streaming and listening to our vinyl over the weekend. I heard instruments that I did not know were in some of the recordings.

Amazing product.

Tim Smith

rcarlbe · « **Reply #379 on:** 11 Jan 2022, 05:07 am »

Is the red light issue, or more generally a lack of communication between to he BR-20 and Roon, the reason Roon has not certified the BR-20? Recently, Danny of Roon indicated on their community pages that there were issues Bryston needed to fix.