[James Tanner]

Question: What should users of the SP 3.0 do to best accommodate vinyl? Should Bryston offer a solution tailored to the SP 3.0 other than their current offerings?

Hi

We do offer an outboard phono stage and power supply called the BP1.5 and MPS2.  So plugging that in to the SP3 would work.  If you mean building a phono stage internally to the SP3 then that would not be possible due to space limitations.

James

[Simm]

Thank you for the prompt reply. I was hoping to avoid (several) more visible pieces of equipment. However the problem of space within the SP-3 makes sense.

[James Tanner]

I have been asked a few times why no digital room correction on the Bryston SP-3 Processor.

The problem I see with Digital room correction through ‘EQ’ is that it totally screws up the direct sound vs the reflected sound coming from the speaker. 
 
When you listen to a speaker in a room you are listening to what we call the ‘power response’ and you hear all the direct sound as well as the reflected sound mixed together.  So the listening experience is a combination of all the direct and reflected sound waves in a given room with a given speaker. When you alter the ‘direct sound’ at the speaker using ‘EQ’ it totally changes the relationship between the direct and reflected sound and is a disaster when it comes to ‘time smear’.  So the speaker designer has spent years attempting to get flat frequency and phase response from his speaker and we come along and force the speaker to do anything but accurate signal transfer. Also if you are going to use ‘EQ’ try and only ‘reduce’ the ‘peaks’ in the room and not ‘amplify’ the troughs.  Amplifying the troughs can play havoc with your speaker drivers power handling.

A lot of these newer types of ‘EQ’ products try and average a group of curves taken from many different locations in the room as they are attempting to reduce the negative effects of the single listening chair dilemma. Having a single spot in the room which measures flat but everywhere else in the room measures like crap is not a good result in my opinion. I think you are much better off adjusting the speaker location and using proper room treatments.  If all else fails maybe some ‘EQ’ can be used but I would recommend keeping the correction only for the very low bass frequencies and stay away from upper bass, mids and higher frequency ‘EQ’ where room affects are not an issue due to the shorter wavelengths involved.  I am hopeful that we will see many more Subwoofers with built in room ‘EQ’ which would be the better solution in my opinion if you are forced to use room correction.

Also ‘Room Correction’ much like ‘Video’ is changing quickly and I wanted the SP-3 to be a long-term purchase for our customers so adding specific dedicated boxes as the current technologies develop to the SP-3 made more sense to me going forward rather than obsoleting some questionable feature in the SP-3.
 
Hope this helps.
 
James

Hi James,

This room correction paper is a great piece.  Room correction algorithms have become the recent fad and I hope it ends up being a fad that goes away soon.  It is true that correction under 300Hz can be beneficial, especially if you only have one sub and limited room placement options, but in my view the proper solution is really one or two or more subs properly placed. 

Also, in my view, room correction is simply adding linear distortion.  You want to bring the original performance into your room not a distorted version of it.

Cheers

Ian
Axiom Audio

[James Tanner]

Hi Folks,

It has been confirmed that Part 2 of the SP-3 review in Stereophile Magazine will be in the July issue.

james

[Jeff Arrington]

Friends,

I recently replaced my Meridian 861v4 with the Bryston SP-3. I have a question about playing hi-rez audio through the SP-3.

I have the Bryston BDP-1 connected to the SP-3 directly by coax cable to the CD input. I also have the BDP-1 AES output connected to a Berkeley DAC, with the Berkeley connected to the SP-3 through the Bal-1 analog input. Playing hi-rez material (24/192 or 24/96 downloaded from HD Tracks) through the Berkeley always plays fine. Playing the same material through the CD input (and therefore using the internal DAC on the SP-3) usually plays fine, but not always. On those occasions when I get no sound, I can cure the problem by switching the input to Bal-1 and then back to CD.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the SP-3 could not play hi-rez material directly—that you needed an external DAC to do that. If that is the case, then perhaps I have stumbled onto a happy surprise. But if the SP-3 is supposed to be 24/96 or 24/192 capable, this is an odd problem.

Any insights are appreciated.

Best regards,

Jeff

[srb]

When you say the the BDP-1 SPDIF coaxial output is connected to the SP-3 CD input, I assume you mean that it is connected to one of the SPDIF inputs 1 - 4 and that you have assigned that digital input to the CD input selector in the System Setup Menu (Digital Sources > CD > SPDIF 1 - 4).

The SP-3 has 24/192 DACs.  Perhaps try a different SPDIF input and change the digital source assignment in the Setup Menu and see if it behaves the same.  Does it happen with all high resolution file formats or are all tracks the same format?

Steve

[James Tanner]

Friends,

I recently replaced my Meridian 861v4 with the Bryston SP-3. I have a question about playing hi-rez audio through the SP-3.

I have the Bryston BDP-1 connected to the SP-3 directly by coax cable to the CD input. I also have the BDP-1 AES output connected to a Berkeley DAC, with the Berkeley connected to the SP-3 through the Bal-1 analog input. Playing hi-rez material (24/192 or 24/96 downloaded from HD Tracks) through the Berkeley always plays fine. Playing the same material through the CD input (and therefore using the internal DAC on the SP-3) usually plays fine, but not always. On those occasions when I get no sound, I can cure the problem by switching the input to Bal-1 and then back to CD.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the SP-3 could not play hi-rez material directly—that you needed an external DAC to do that. If that is the case, then perhaps I have stumbled onto a happy surprise. But if the SP-3 is supposed to be 24/96 or 24/192 capable, this is an odd problem.

Any insights are appreciated.

Best regards,

Jeff

Hi Jeff

Yes the SP3 will do 192/24.

Make sure under Options in CD Source setup you have the PCM -ZR set to DISABLE.  Also set the SP 3 to STEREO with Digital input selected on the SP-3 with the BDP as the source.

Also what version of software are you using as the switching problem may be an earlier version of software.

James

[Jeff Arrington]

Steve and James,

Thanks for the responses. Setting the PCM-ZR to disable appears to have solved the problem. My unit is loaded with firmware version 2012.04. I checked Bryston's website, and cannot seem to find a place that identifies the current version of the firmware. Please let me know if there is a place you can go to check on that.

Steve, I did have the BDP-1 hooked up to the SPDIF inputs. The problem randomly occurred, whether I was using a 96/24 or a 192/24 resolution file.

Thanks again.

Jeff

[James Tanner]

Steve and James,

Thanks for the responses. Setting the PCM-ZR to disable appears to have solved the problem. My unit is loaded with firmware version 2012.04. I checked Bryston's website, and cannot seem to find a place that identifies the current version of the firmware. Please let me know if there is a place you can go to check on that.

Steve, I did have the BDP-1 hooked up to the SPDIF inputs. The problem randomly occurred, whether I was using a 96/24 or a 192/24 resolution file.

Thanks again.

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

email me at jamestanner@bryston.com and I will send you the link.

james

[hapthai]

Hi James,

Could you tell me if the headphone input of the SP3 would be able to drive these headphones?

Beyer T1 (600 ohms, 102 DB), Sennheiser HD800 (300 Ohms, 102DB), Fostex TH900 (25 ohms, 100DB sensitivity)

Thanks

[James Tanner]

Hi James,

Could you tell me if the headphone input of the SP3 would be able to drive these headphones?

Beyer T1 (600 ohms, 102 DB), Sennheiser HD800 (300 Ohms, 102DB), Fostex TH900 (25 ohms, 100DB sensitivity)

Thanks

Should be OK on the first 2 but 25 ohms may be an issue.

james

[onthefly]

Did I tell you I'd bought an SP3?  No, really, I have this time.  It's in my rack right now and I've locked the door.
Have you seen the back panel?  No composite, s-video nor component.  A thing of beauty. 

[James Tanner]

Did I tell you I'd bought an SP3?  No, really, I have this time.  It's in my rack right now and I've locked the door.
Have you seen the back panel?  No composite, s-video nor component.  A thing of beauty. 

Great - glad you got it sorted -  .  be very interested in your opinion on the sound????

james

[Alpha10]

Did I tell you I'd bought an SP3?  No, really, I have this time.  It's in my rack right now and I've locked the door.
Have you seen the back panel?  No composite, s-video nor component.  A thing of beauty. 

Brilliant news, I hoped you would get there in the end, and yes just stripped down brilliant sound, what more could you want 

If you have any questions, fire them over, here or AVF 

Cheers

[Ritchief]

Did I tell you I'd bought an SP3?  No, really, I have this time.  It's in my rack right now and I've locked the door.
Have you seen the back panel?  No composite, s-video nor component.  A thing of beauty. 

Congratulations !!!

[onthefly]

Thanks fella's.

I'm one rack, three amp channels and a sub away from nirvana.

Listening to 2 channel bypass right now. The sound is strong (like a melon farmer!).  The detail is exquisite, absolutely marvelous.

Florence & The Machine - MTV Unplugged (CD) - Wow.
Craig Armstrong - The Space Between Us (CD) - Fabulous.
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (HDAD Disc - 192/24 Side) - How good is that.


More soon.

[James Tanner]

From: Jim Slevinsky
Sent: May-18-12 1:51 PM
To: James Tanner
Subject: RE: SP3?

James

I am now proud owner of SP3 000160. Manual was from February, but my 17 year old did basic config for me in about 5 minutes (he got speaker distance/xover point/gain from our Onkyo stand-in).  We really like the straightforward menu structure and orthogonal function flexibility.

The initial impression from both of us – radically better speech intelligibility, way better dynamics, and much better imaging.  All considered, a step function improvement over the Onkyo- 9B configuration.

Have a great long weekend.

Jim

[Vipers]

Did I tell you I'd bought an SP3?  No, really, I have this time.  It's in my rack right now and I've locked the door.
Have you seen the back panel?  No composite, s-video nor component.  A thing of beauty. 

Hey onthefly, great news, I knew you'd get there in the end

Another member to the UK SP3 club

[onthefly]

Hey onthefly, great news, I knew you'd get there in the end

Another member to the UK SP3 club

Thanks Paul.  I had a sniff at two other brands but you never know what you've really bought until you've lived with it for a while.  Too risky so I stuck with JT and the famous Bypass.

[James Tanner]

MEMO: To All Bryston Customers
SUBJECT: Dealer Feedback SP-3 Surround Processor
DATE:  May 2012

From: PAUL from the UK
Sent: May-26-12 8:09 AM
To: James Tanner
Subject: SP-3 DEMO

Hi James,

I just did a SP3 demo this morning, and the customer was nearly in tears.

It really moved him, he's got a 1.7 at the moment but he was totally blown away by the SP3, he made me smile though as to be able to afford it he is going to give up his daily Costa coffee, Buying lunch out every day and he has given up smoking.

So not only is the SP3 the best processor on the planet but it also helps saves lives
 
Thanks,
Paul.