BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Two & REVIEWS & Memos

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James Tanner

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BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Two & REVIEWS & Memos
« on: 8 Jun 2021, 12:39 pm »
Hi Folks,

I am going to re-start the Bryston Newsletter after many years of inactivity.

If anyone wants to receive them (I assume quarterly) please send me you email. - jamestanner@bryston.com

They will probably be 2-4 pages.

Here is the first page of the one I am currently working on.

best
james


UPDATE - I am going to add Bryston Reviews to list as well - let me know if you do not want to receive reviews.


« Last Edit: 30 Jun 2022, 12:15 am by James Tanner »

James Tanner

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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Two & REVIEWS
« Reply #1 on: 5 Jul 2021, 12:29 pm »
IPAD as a Hi-Res music source.





« Last Edit: 30 Jun 2022, 12:16 am by James Tanner »

James Tanner

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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Two & REVIEWS
« Reply #2 on: 14 Aug 2021, 10:50 pm »



« Last Edit: 30 Jun 2022, 12:17 am by James Tanner »

James Tanner

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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Duex & REVIEWS
« Reply #3 on: 1 Nov 2021, 11:16 am »
Hi Folks

Please see our latest Bryston newsletter – this time all about Moving Coil cartridges.

P.S. – The Bryston Phono stage is getting a ‘Best Of Award’ from a major magazine shortly.









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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Duex & REVIEWS
« Reply #4 on: 2 Dec 2021, 02:34 pm »



James Tanner

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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Duex & REVIEWS
« Reply #5 on: 1 Jan 2022, 08:20 pm »
Speaker Cable Newsletter



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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Duex & REVIEWS
« Reply #6 on: 18 Jan 2022, 03:47 pm »




MEMO: To All Concerned
SUBJECT: BP-17 Cubed & 4B Cubed Review U.K.


January 2022

Bryston BP17-3 Preamplifier and 4B3 Power Amplifier
Review by George Sallit
 
I reviewed the Bryston BP17-3 preamp and the Bryston 3B-3 power amplifier and really enjoyed the sound quality.  I seriously considered the dreaded opening of the wallet and talked to a few audio friends about doing it. DON’T was the answer.

But why?

Well, the next model up, the Bryston 4B Cubed also has great sound quality, higher power output and is not that much more expensive.

The Bryston 3B-3 produces 200 watts into 8 0hms from a neat box that is 17” W x 8.1” H x 10.75” D and weighs 16 kg whereas the Bryston 4B-3 produces 300 watts into 8  ohms from a box that is 17” W x 6.3” H x 15.5” D and weighs 19 kg. The Bryston 4B-3 is about 50% deeper than the Bryston 3B-3, but the price difference is not that much more with the Bryston 3B-3. Both models feature totally independent power supplies including two transformers, the Salomie circuit, switchable gain and the unique (as far as I know) 20-year guarantee. Bryston said the main internal differences were the power transistors, and the Bryston 4B Cubed power supply is twice the size of the Bryston 3B Cubed.
 
A quick call and e-mail to PMC speakers, their distributors in the UK, and they agreed to send me a BP17-3 preamplifier (the same one used in the previous review) and a demo Bryston 4B-3 amplifier. I had no problems connecting these amplifiers into my system, an 4 CDT, a Melco N100 digital box, Audionote DAC 4.1x /Denafrips Terminator+ DAC and Audionote E Silver Signature speakers. Vinyl was supplied by a Voyd 0.5 Ref, SME V, Audionote Io II and an Audionote S-2 transformer. Cables were a mixture of Audioquest, Audionote and Cut Loose silver ribbons.

Although a demo amplifier, I connected the system up and left it running for a day before any serious listening. Everything worked as it should and I used the Bryston 4B-3 in the same way as I had used the Bryston 3B-3.

I played the same music as before and surprise, surprise the sound was very similar. Starting with Thin Lizzy, Live and Dangerous it sounded, live and very dangerous. It was easy to get into the overall pace and dynamics of this recording. I looked at my previous review notes and what the Bryston 4B-3 did differently was there was a more relaxed sound to this live recording. Not a softening of dynamics but a feeling similar to driving a big powerful car where you know and can tell that no matter what happens you will never run out of power. Yes, the Es are 97 dB efficient and being about 6 ohms impedance will have 450 watts/channel from the Bryston 4B-3, but that sense of ease, even when I had 95db sound pressure levels in my 10 m x 7 m room, was something to behold.

Moving onto classical music and playing the finale of Beethoven 9th by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in the Heinz Hall, the Reference Recording captured the sound of a huge orchestra in a huge hall. Both the atmosphere and ambience of the hall and the sheer power of a full orchestra with a huge choir, all in unison, was well captured and easy to lose yourself in the music in the same way as you do with live music. Power and delicacy with a natural, relaxed sound. The huge dynamic range was well captured and you have to be careful not to set the sound levels from the first movement as the finale is likely to blow your socks off.  It was pomp and show.

Playing some of Mike Valentine’s recording of Justin Pearson playing superb cello in Temple Church brought back memories of being there and hearing this music as it was being recorded.  Justin Pearson is a master of the cello and it is not surprising that he plays for the National Symphony Orchestra. The emotion from the cello was well captured and spell-binding. And with the delicacy of the piano playing adding to the cello made it even better. All with that natural ease you hear in real life.

And on it went as I forgot the review and just lost myself in the music. Sessions went from a few hours a day to be the whole day. And my set of test music was replaced by music where I said, I wonder what this album sounds like. For a lot of the albums there was more to hear but for others nothing more. Oddly enough, those albums recorded earlier (before DAWs?) and ones that happened quickly had more to show.

In conclusion, this combination is worth the additional up charge to give what initially looks like excessive power, as it allows everything to work with a real sense of ease that translates into more realistic music. I am therefore going to turn into an audio-bore and like others recommend anyone considering buying the BP17-3/3B-3 combination to very seriously consider getting the Bryston 4B-3 if they can afford it over the Bryston 3B-3. I am not surprised that the Bryston 4B-3 is Bryston’s best-selling power amplifier.


Bryston distributed in the UK by PMC Speakers: https://bryston.co.uk/

James Tanner

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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Duex & REVIEWS
« Reply #7 on: 31 Jan 2022, 12:09 am »




Years ago, Conan O’Brien, was on a tour of the US. He had been handed a forced hiatus when Jay Leno decided that he wasn’t quite ready to give up the Tonight Show. Along this tour he was invited to visit the Google Campus in Mountain View California. He summed up his visit in a tweet “I’ve just learned that if you type google into google at google…you are shown the face of god”
My experience, though entirely unrelated, isn’t so dissimilar. Through a series of events, I ended up getting an Invite from James Tanner to visit him at his lovely home in suburban Toronto and to privately demo his audio system…or should I say, one of the beautiful systems he had neatly arranged his house.

There have been so many reasons, many of which I’m not entirely sure we’ve come to terms with yet, why the last few years have been crushing. As a bit of an analog nerd, crate diving, garage sales, church bazaars and gold ol’ used bins at my local record stores have remained distant. Like my wifes yoga, this was my active practice and I have missed it tremendously.
I have also missed meeting audio fans, I’m calling James that because innovator magician seems a bit too big for this little note and being exposed to things that have proven my understanding has improved, my appreciation has grown and that I’m nowhere near the completion of my journey.

I have never heard a digital presentation that has made me weak in the knees. I have remained doggedly committed to the analog experience because, there is just something about it that delivers me to a room, a space, a creative moment. I get that this discounts all of the science, all of the rational study…it’s a hobby of relativism and this is what I’ve come to believe…or what I had come to believe until Friday.
James revealed the bits of kit to me, a beautiful BR-20, gorgeous Middle T-rex tower speakers, BAX-1 cross over and two 21B-3 channel amps. So that was my first question, 3 channels?

“I’ve found that powering a truly active set up is just very different. People think they’ve heard active or don’t know how to truly set one up, but once you’ve done it right or heard one set up properly, you will understand how giving bass, treble and mids its own power clarifies the presentation. And I’ve made these cable kits that are colour coded to make it easy” Ohhh right, you’re not just a guy showing me your system, this is actually YOUR system…I forgot. The room was minimally treated, a set of gorgeous wooden louvres sat behind the components, and as he later revealed, no special expensive cabling…just “what he could find”. He grabbed his IPAD and said “ready”?...I was like, “yup”.

And so it began…all digital rips being delivered from an NAS tucked away in the corner of his room “I don’t know the first thing about networking, and I don’t want to be bothered, I just want to hear music” Rambling Jack Elliott live from the Dylan tribute the room reflections and a cough somewhere in the audience, Billie Holiday her voice so present and the soaring trumpet and liquid sax right there, maybe baffled in the studio or not but it was that clear to me,

There was no crackling, no “maybe you should give that another clean” and the soundstage was so detailed, wide and balanced that it was indiscernible from the best Analog presentations I’ve heard. It was WARM and at no point did I drift into the crippling thought of binary code coursing through computer wire into the back of the BR-20 (my particular listening neurosis can do this, can fill my head with nonsense that I can’t shake. Not here, not with this.) It didn’t matter if the source had been originally analog, or digital (Madonna’s Vogue was of particular note as they had used Q sound at the time of production and the deliberate placement of elements in the sound stage were eye opening to say the least) this all Bryston system handled it all and I heard things like the subtle vibrato in Art Garfunkel’s sound of silence vocal that had evaded me till now.

However this wasn’t the least bit delicate, or persnickety. Everything felt as it should, even if I hadn’t heard it that well resolved ever. The bass was powerful not overbearing, the mids melted into the stage and the highs showed up exactly when they needed too.

A man can dream, and dream I did. I am in no position to afford a system like this now, if ever…but I don’t think that’s the point. What is the point is that loving music and being committed to its reproduction is a life’s work and what James has done at Bryston as exemplified by what I heard is nothing short of amazing…all the heart of analog without the fuss, and that is no small feat.

So, while I didn’t see a face, I can say that listening to a Bryston, in the home of the man who has built Bryston…I was, at the very least, able to hear just a little bit of heaven.
« Last Edit: 31 Jan 2022, 10:38 pm by James Tanner »

James Tanner

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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Duex & REVIEWS
« Reply #8 on: 31 Jan 2022, 01:03 pm »
BR-20 Review from France.



James Tanner

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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Duex & REVIEWS
« Reply #9 on: 1 Feb 2022, 09:44 am »
Hi Folks,
There appears to be a lot of misunderstanding out there regarding the use of multiple drivers in loudspeakers.
Please see my latest Newsletter regarding this very controversial subject and how it relates to our Bryston speaker designs.
Let me know if you want to receive the Bryston Newsletters – jamestanner@bryston.com










James Tanner

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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Duex & REVIEWS
« Reply #10 on: 2 Feb 2022, 12:59 pm »





James Tanner

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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Duex & REVIEWS
« Reply #11 on: 6 Feb 2022, 01:16 pm »



James Tanner

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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Duex & REVIEWS
« Reply #12 on: 6 Feb 2022, 01:18 pm »





James Tanner

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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Duex & REVIEWS
« Reply #13 on: 7 Feb 2022, 12:04 pm »



James Tanner

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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Duex & REVIEWS & Memos
« Reply #14 on: 10 Feb 2022, 03:43 pm »
HI Folks - Qobuz is a Hi-Res streaming service - please see special Award for our BDP-3 Digital Player



James Tanner

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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Duex & REVIEWS & Memos
« Reply #15 on: 13 Feb 2022, 01:31 pm »



James Tanner

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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Duex & REVIEWS & Memos
« Reply #16 on: 14 Feb 2022, 12:25 pm »




James Tanner

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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Duex & REVIEWS & Memos
« Reply #17 on: 15 Feb 2022, 07:06 pm »



James Tanner

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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Duex & REVIEWS & Memos
« Reply #18 on: 5 Mar 2022, 05:12 am »



James Tanner

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Re: BRYSTON NEWSLETTER - Part Duex & REVIEWS & Memos
« Reply #19 on: 5 Mar 2022, 05:16 am »