I was out of town, but in my general region today, so I stopped by the electronic dealer in the area for a listen. I knew that they carried bryston & b&w, I have frequented there several times. They have 2 listening area's, 1 that is a dedicated theater, consisting of bryston amps, b&k pre, and b&w speakers and another that is a show room that has b&w 802d's, NHTM2 center, and b&w scm1 speakers. They recently sold their SP1.7, so they were using a yamaha 2500, with a bryston 4b to power the 802d's and a 9b for the SCM1's.
I have heard bryston amps casually, before this, but never with the SP2, which I own. My own system consists of the SP2, NuForce Ref9's for L/C/R (N802 and NHTM1) and a cheap parasound for my back 2 SCM1's.
The parasound became the amp for my back speakers after I sold my cinnenova grande to finance the NuForce amps. I have always felt it was a big mistake, and now I can definately confirm this.
Anyways, you might wonder why they are using a yamaha receiver with this system? Well, like I said, they sold the SP1.7 a few months back and havent decided whether to get a Creston pre, or the SP2. The Crestron mainly to help sell the Crestron packages.
Last time I was there, he said I could bring in my SP2 and they would set it up on their system. I didn't think I ever would, but right now my room is totally torn down while I am doing drywall work, so it was a perfect opportunity.
At first we listened to 2 channel. He used a Yamaha DVD player. don't know the model. We compared digital and analog. Analog was more detailed and laid back. Digital was harsh, and distorted. The thing the dealer commented on, was the SP2's ability to retain detail at low levels, and how he felt the volume adjustments were a considerable upgrade over the 1.7. He also noted how my SP2 did not POP when changing inputs, and the 1.7 was notorious for that.
Since I was not familiar with the CDP, this demo was mainly for his benefit. I'll give his overall opinion that he told me later.
I then talked him into setting up the surround stuff and we popped in Episode I. We watched the POD race scene.
Overall, I felt that the system flowed very well. stuff panned great and sounded like a cohesive surround sound system.
Both, the dealers, and my opinion was that, for surround sound, the surrounds were a part of the effect. it wasn't like, theres a sound coming from my back left speaker, it was, the music panned properly across the 3d spectrum.
He said, when they changed the 1.7 out for the Yamaha, there really wasn't much of a noticeable difference to him. After listening to the SP2, he feels that it is a big upgrade and probably the best that the store would carry. He still felt that the best system he had ever heard was setup on the new Krell Evolution line, but felt that this system had incredible dynamics that he hadn't heard from the setup in its current and former state. The soundstage created a more 3-dimensional feeling with depth in both 2 channel and movie formats, where what he has been hearing was rather flat.
I really enjoyed the setup. I am currently saving for a 9bSST and this demo solidified that as the right direction to head in.
I felt that they bryston stuff made for an awesome home theater setup, and look forward to accomplishing just that. I do still feel that the classe stuff is better for 2 channel, and will probably get the classe preamp, CDP and 3200. That way I can enjoy the best of both worlds. Who know, maybe the bryston CDP will be what I am looking for, but I felt that it might be a tad too forward for my tastes.
