[antt]

hi james, when i saw the photo of the sp3 i was very disappointed. i had expected a larger version of the sp2, larger display etc.. i love the sp2 faceplate, the look of the sp2 buttons with leds above them in the square cutout along the faceplate. i know all things must change.i guess my question is why such a drastic change. i cant speak for anyone else ,but i really like the existing bryston look.when i look at the sp3 photos my eyes are drawn to the groove in the middle then i look up and down like its 2 separate components instead of one solid faceplate, maybe its just me..... also i could not tell if the sp3 had the leds in the middle of the buttons ,but as i said i like the sp2 style buttons and overall faceplate ,,,, and please use green instead of blue for display etc.. this of course is my opinion but i think green is easier to read and easier on the eyes ,and as someone else pointed out it matches our amps. thx, mc.

I've just been examining a fuzzy photo of the proposed SP 3, and I'd like to point out that the design is a significant departure from all of Brystons other "controller" products.  It looks like it's made to match the power amps.  This is different from all of Bryston's other controller products like the B100 or their preamps, DAC's, etc.

The biggest thing I'd like to point out is this processor doesn't appear to have any LED's.  I own an SP 1.7, and I rely heavily on the LED's to tell me the status of my Processor.  Is this the same for you?  If the SP 3 operates similarly to the 1.7, not having any LED indicators would be a disaster.  I can only imagin having to dig through menus on that little screen, or having to pay thousands extra for a video circuit so you could get an on screen display. Yet that would still not give you the "instant" info an LED provides.  I love my SP 1.7, but no LED's on a processor with a similar human engineering approach would be a deal breaker for me. 

I just looked at all the other controller devices currently being made by Bryston on their website, and they do feature LED's above the buttons.

James, are the LED's in the buttons themselves?  The fuzzy pic indicates some kind of "ridge" in the buttons, but I can't make out anything else besides that.

In the end, I'd have to agree with martyc that I do like the other look better than the amp matching design.

Sorry for the somewhat negative post, but I am concerned.

Regards,
Bill

[bmoura]

11.   Two stereo balanced in (e.g., for BCD-1 CD player and for CD/SACD from multiformat player)

Are the analog inputs unbalanced only?  Or balanced as well?   I'd want 5.1 analog balanced and unbalanced bypass in if possible with the SP3 for CD/SACD Multichannel Player.

[James Tanner]

11.   Two stereo balanced in (e.g., for BCD-1 CD player and for CD/SACD from multiformat player)

Are the analog inputs unbalanced only?  Or balanced as well?   I'd want 5.1 analog balanced and unbalanced bypass in if possible with the SP3 for CD/SACD Multichannel Player.

There are 2 sets of Stereo XLR Balanced inputs and one set of 7.1 Balanced Outputs. The 7.1 inputs will be through HDMI (not balanced XLR) and one set of 7.1 Analog RCA inputs.

james

[MOZ]

So James... did you get a chance to try a prototype of the SP3 ???

[James Tanner]

So James... did you get a chance to try a prototype of the SP3 ???

Hi Moz,

No - not yet it is still in engineering being developed.

james

[Krobar]

Any news on the SP3? Has anything to do with DSD or CEC flow control been decided? (These I'm guessing are early signal routing and dsp / digital input design decisions)

[James Tanner]

Any news on the SP3? Has anything to do with DSD or CEC flow control been decided? (These I'm guessing are early signal routing and dsp / digital input design decisions)

Hi Krobar,

We are still working on the Power Supply design and the Analog layout so we have not started to address the Digital side yet.

james

[bmoura]

Any news on the SP3? Has anything to do with DSD or CEC flow control been decided? (These I'm guessing are early signal routing and dsp / digital input design decisions)

With CES coming up in January, I'm sure we'll get an update then.  Looking forward to more info on the unit here as well !

[PETE6737]

James,
Will the Sp3 have the same D/A processing as the BDA-1? with upsampling etc?. I'd like to get a BDA-1 but I would likely hold on that to trade my SP1.7 to  SP3 if the D/A processing is equivelent to the BDA-1. Thanks, Pete

[James Tanner]

Hi Pete,

Good question and I will confirm with engineering but I am pretty sure the SP3 will not have the same digital stage as the BDA-1. The reason is that the SP3 is designed as a Surround Processor so the Digital stage is designed around the new digital HD Surround mulltichannel formats as the priority and stereo listening is a downmix.

The BDA-1 on the other hand is optimized for a stereo digital PCM bitstream.

james

[mv038856]

We are still working on the Power Supply design and the Analog layout so we have not started to address the Digital side yet.

James,

despite the digital side not being the priority right now, I was wonderig whether you have any idea which direction Bryston might be going regarding the digital section. The digital section for the SP-2 - if I am not mistaken - was the Digital Audio Engine DAE-5 provided by Momentum Data Systems (http://www.mds.com/products/product.asp?prod=DAE-5).

Will Bryston design its own digital section for the SP-3, procure it from an external source or have it developed externally? If Bryston hasn't even started thinking about the design and wants to develop the board itself... we might be looking at an availability of the SP-3 at the CES... in the year 2011 or even later. Or is the DAE-6D from MDS an option?

The same question applies for the planned HDMI processing board.

Sorry for being that inquisitive... 

Cheers!


Markus

[James Tanner]

We are still working on the Power Supply design and the Analog layout so we have not started to address the Digital side yet.

James,

despite the digital side not being the priority right now, I was wonderig whether you have any idea which direction Bryston might be going regarding the digital section. The digital section for the SP-2 - if I am not mistaken - was the Digital Audio Engine DAE-5 provided by Momentum Data Systems (http://www.mds.com/products/product.asp?prod=DAE-5).

Will Bryston design its own digital section for the SP-3, procure it from an external source or have it developed externally? If Bryston hasn't even started thinking about the design and wants to develop the board itself... we might be looking at an availability of the SP-3 at the CES... in the year 2011 or even later. 

The same question applies for the planned HDMI processing board.

Sorry for being that inquisitive... 

Cheers!


Markus

Hi Markus,

Yes we will be using modified boards from MDS for the digital section.

james

[PETE6737]

Will there be room EQ calibration in the SP3?

[James Tanner]

Will there be room EQ calibration in the SP3?

Hi Pete,

The processor will do it so we will look at that as we go along. We may limit it to 200Hz and below to maintain maximum fidelity.

james

[bmoura]

Will there be room EQ calibration in the SP3?

Hi Pete,

The processor will do it so we will look at that as we go along. We may limit it to 200Hz and below to maintain maximum fidelity.

james

I assume the processor will let you switch the EQ in and out for comparison and to maximize the fidelity.

[bmoura]

We are still working on the Power Supply design and the Analog layout so we have not started to address the Digital side yet.

James,

despite the digital side not being the priority right now, I was wonderig whether you have any idea which direction Bryston might be going regarding the digital section. The digital section for the SP-2 - if I am not mistaken - was the Digital Audio Engine DAE-5 provided by Momentum Data Systems (http://www.mds.com/products/product.asp?prod=DAE-5).

Will Bryston design its own digital section for the SP-3, procure it from an external source or have it developed externally? If Bryston hasn't even started thinking about the design and wants to develop the board itself... we might be looking at an availability of the SP-3 at the CES... in the year 2011 or even later. Or is the DAE-6D from MDS an option?

The same question applies for the planned HDMI processing board.

Sorry for being that inquisitive... 

Cheers!


Markus

If Bryston is using the MDS board it would have to be the 6D since the 5 doesn't support the new Blu-Ray audio formats (Dolby True HD, DTS Master Audio, etc.)

[MOZ]

Will there be room EQ calibration in the SP3?

Hi Pete,

The processor will do it so we will look at that as we go along. We may limit it to 200Hz and below to maintain maximum fidelity.

james

Hi James,

I assume that the processor (DAE-6D ?) gives you the choice of AUDYDSSEY or TRINNOV EQ, did you decide yet witch one you'll choose ?

MOZ

  get the Trinnov...

[James Tanner]

Will there be room EQ calibration in the SP3?

Hi Pete,

The processor will do it so we will look at that as we go along. We may limit it to 200Hz and below to maintain maximum fidelity.

james

Hi James,

I assume that the processor (DAE-6D ?) gives you the choice of AUDYDSSEY or TRINNOV EQ, did you decide yet witch one you'll choose ?

MOZ

  get the Trinnov...

Hi MOZ

We are still discussing that very issue.
Dolby Volume has also entered the arena.

james

[mv038856]

get the Trinnov...

Hi MOZ,

have you ever heard the Trinnov EQ room equalization?

Having a look at their website http://www.trinnov-audio.com, they seem to have focused on the professional and studio market so far - which would, of course, perfectly fit into Bryston's profile and history...  Additionally, Trinnov EQ is - at least for now - more exclusive, compared to Audyssey, which is available in a number of mainstream brands.

Maybe Audyssey and Trinnov EQ can both be activated on a single or two separate prototype SP-3(s) so that Bryston can do some serious listening tests for which EQ solution sounds best in the SP-3 environment. Another question is, whether one of these EQ solutions can easily be stripped down to the frequency area below 200Hz, as James suggested. The TI DA-710 runs at 300MHz. If it's clock is being reduced to 225MHz, as James noted as an option earlier in this thread, the question is, whether there is still enough processing power for complex room EQ operations.

In the end, the sound quality is most important. If there is an unusual means neccessary for acchieving it (at least for Bryston), it still should be used. A few years back, I would have refused to have any Class-D amplifier or any equalization applied in my system. Since I have experienced the incredible improvements in bass performance that I acchieved with my Class-D driven, servo-controlled and heavily equalized Velodyne DD-15 subwoofer, I am open for digital room correction. The Onkyo PR-SC885P that I am using in my home theater right now has an integrated Audyssey-EQ and I have to admit that it is doing a very good job. I haven't done a direct A/B comparison to my SP-2 PRO yet, but I have the feeling that the Audyssey room equalization works quite well. Now, if Trinnov EQ worked even better, combined with the inherently superior Bryston analog technology - the SP-3 could be a killer product... 

Let's see what Bryston is coming up with, regarding the EQ question.

Cheers!

Markus

[mv038856]

Another thing that came to my mind regarding a SP-3 is the question about a true 7.1 analog pass through. Currently the multi channel pass through on the SP-1.7 and SP-2 runs through the digital section. Only the 2 channel bypass uses the analog ALPS potentiometer. Would an 8 channel ALPS poti be an option? Should the SP-3 have an "old fashioned" potentiometer or a discrete resistor based electronic volume control, just like a B-100 or BP-16?

James,

has the decision been made for the type of volume control on the SP-3? Will it be a two or eight channel (alps) potentiometer or the type of volume control the B100/BP16 use? Will it be different, depending on the signal being analog, digital, stereo or multichannel?

What about the DACs? Will it be the same Cirrus Logic chip used in the SP-2 and/or BDA-1? MDS don't list the DAC type in their product leaflet for the DAE-6D, which, as I understand, might be a basis for the SP-3 digital board.

Sherwood seems to be the first consumer electronics licensee for the Trinnov Optimizer. They offer a receiver with it: http://www.sherwoodusa.com/prod_r972_trinnov.html They also list some more details about the solution and even offer some screenshots with a before/after equalization. One interesting thing about the Trinnov Optimizer is the microphone they use. In contrast to Audyssey, where you have a mono microphone that is positioned where your head would be when listening and that is directed up, the Trinnov microphone seems to have more channels for the system to take the direction into account and 'correct' speaker placement issues. It seems that, among other things, the system kind of redistributes the signals to the speaker array available, almost 'wherever the speakers might be placed'... that's spooky, if you ask me... 

Anyway, Trinnov's website sports a number of mostly European (despite sounding Russian, Trinnov seems to be a French company) well-known studios, most of them broadcast, that are using their professional Optimizer product, that - according to Sherwood - is somewhere in the US$13k to US$17K range.

Cheers!

Markus