[Levi]

Your other option is not to buy the SP 3.0. 

You can find great procs out there that costs less than $5K!   

[Phil A]

I'm sure there are nice processors for less than $5k.  What will set the Bryston apart is 2-channel music.  Based on my Marantz SR6300 in the bedroom, I'm sure the Marantz 8003 is a great processor for $2.5k.  I believe a friend who used to work at the high end shop took it home, hoping it would be a almost as good as the SP1.7 on 2-channel music.  He was thinking about buying it (the Marantz) at a great deal at an accommodation price and selling it eventually when the SP3 is out but the SP3 is out of his price range (even as an accommodation) and he intends to keep the SP1.7 along with the Oppo BDP-83 (his Marantz DV9500 is an Audiogon along with his Oppo 970 - he did not find the Marantz 8003 close enough on 2-channel music to the SP1.7).  As I noted, the Oppo works quite well for hi-def movie sound over the multi-channel inputs.  It is certainly a solution that is not that bad.

[ralph1950]

Phil, I have an Oppo bd play I received a week ago.  I have not had time to fuss with it other than watching some blu rays and dvd's.  I have the thing also hooked up for analog 2 channel & it sounds good on bypass.  I think a little better than stereo with the sp3, but like I said, I just got it.   I have not done much music listening though lately.  Mostly movies.  Good machine though.
I have been having a few glitches with the sp3 lately, mostly with IR.  And a few times i had to re- boot because it would not adjust volume.  I need to keep an eye on it to see if it needs to be sent in or if it was just one of those things we have with electronics not obeying thier masters from time to time.... 

[Phil A]

Phil, I have an Oppo bd play I received a week ago.  I have not had time to fuss with it other than watching some blu rays and dvd's.  I have the thing also hooked up for analog 2 channel & it sounds good on bypass.  I think a little better than stereo with the sp3, but like I said, I just got it.   I have not done much music listening though lately.  Mostly movies.  Good machine though.
I have been having a few glitches with the sp3 lately, mostly with IR.  And a few times i had to re- boot because it would not adjust volume.  I need to keep an eye on it to see if it needs to be sent in or if it was just one of those things we have with electronics not obeying thier masters from time to time.... 

I've compared the BDP-83 to the Marantz DV9600 in the main system.  I was surprised how good the BDP-83 was on the analog outs.  Based on what I heard from the Oppo 980, I didn't expect them the BDP-83 to be that good.  Now it wasn't as good as the the DV9600 IMO.  It was a bit better balanced than the DV9600 on the lower octaves but was not as rich on the rest of them.  Certainly not horrible at its price point.  I have the Oppo 980 in the bedroom system on the other side of the wall to the main system.  I've run digital and HDMI cables both ways (expecting a pre/pro with a digital out and enough HDMI inputs) in anticipation of evenually interconnecting them.  I also have analog cables sitting behind the BCD-1 going to the bedroom system an a pair of balanced cables made (anticipating getting a pre/pro with balanced inputs so I can use the RCA outs of the BCD-1 in the bedroom system).

The Oppo 980 is much better on SACD over HDMI (I have a Marantz SR6300 in the bedroom system - see systems link below).  I've heard the BDP-83 is better over HDMI than the Oppo 980 and sometime in a month or so when I have some time I'm going to compare the HDMI performance of the 980 to the BDP-83 in the bedroom system  I have 250+ SACDs and  probably 65-70 DVD-As and I'd like to improve especially on SACD over the DV9600.  I can always move the  DV9600 to the basement system.

Much depends on the pricing that comes in on the  SP3, trade-in on the SP1.7 on which direction I head.  I can live with what I have now.  The BDP-83 works quite well on movies and I can leave he DV9600 in the system too and have the DV9600 (or BDP-83) modded like change the clock or other things that won't be silly expensive.  There's always the Sony 5400ES CD/SACD player too that is $1.5k list (and can be bought for about $1.1k with shipping).  So I'm going to wait and  see what happens.  Hopefully by CEDIA in Sept. James will have a bit better info and hopefully shortly after CES in Jan. things about the SP3 will be finalized.

[ralph1950]

I would really like to stick with Bryston (SP3), and hope it  is a real deal with the trade in.  But at this point  with the economy the way it is, I have not been as busy as last year.  I am working, but the big spenders are far & few between.  Lets keep our fingers crossed! 

[CR]

I would really like to stick with Bryston (SP3), and hope it  is a real deal with the trade in.  But at this point  with the economy the way it is, I have not been as busy as last year.  I am working, but the big spenders are far & few between.  Lets keep our fingers crossed!

I would agree.
Perhaps James will make available to some of us  a DIY version of the SP3!!!!

[1oldguy]

Hi James
Wondering if there has been any concession with regard to  making the SP3  upgradable when the SP4 is made?

[James Tanner]

Hi James
Wondering if there has been any concession with regard to  making the SP3  upgradable when the SP4 is made?

Hi oldguy,

Unfortuately there is no way to know. This whole side of the industry has been a moving target. We had hoped that there would be a natural upgrade path from the SP2 to the SP3 as there was with the SP1 to the SP1.7 to the SP2. The technology just changes too rapidly and at some point there is no advantage trying to retro-fit the old to the new.

Christ just last week we were told HDMI 1.4 changes things again after spending 2 years developing 1.3.  There even saying all new connectos are required.

james

[1oldguy]

WOW......2 Years out the window for nothing.I had a feeling HDMI would be a whole new ball of wax.
By the sound of it I take it HDMI  1.4 will be in the new SP3?

[James Tanner]

WOW......2 Years out the window for nothing.I had a feeling HDMI would be a whole new ball of wax.
By the sound of it I take it HDMI  1.4 will be in the new SP3?

Not sure at this point - we are discussing it now.  It looks as if there is no advantage to 1.4 beyond video and because the SP3 first and formost is an AUDIO product I think we will move on as it is.

james

[brucek]

There even saying all new connectors are required.

I think the new 19-pin Micro connector is for portable devices.

Ethernet channel and the new higher 4Kx2K resolution would seem like the biggest changes.

brucek

[Levi]

Hi Ralph, where do you think you will trade your old SP1.7 or SP2?   Bryston or James as the manufacturer does not accept trade-in.  I was informed that Trade-in if there is any, is through your authorized Bryston dealers. 

Hi James, would there be an exception to the SP3.0 or are we at the mercy of Bryston dealer channel as far as trade-in?  The reason I posted this is my local dealer does not accept trade-in like McIntosh or Krell as an example.

--Levi

I would really like to stick with Bryston (SP3), and hope it  is a real deal with the trade in.  But at this point  with the economy the way it is, I have not been as busy as last year.  I am working, but the big spenders are far & few between.  Lets keep our fingers crossed! 

[James Tanner]

Hi Ralph, where do you think you will trade your old SP1.7 or SP2?   Bryston or James as the manufacturer does not accept trade-in.  I was informed that Trade-in if there is any, is through your authorized Bryston dealers. 

Hi James, would there be an exception to the SP3.0 or are we at the mercy of Bryston dealer channel as far as trade-in?  The reason I posted this is my local dealer does not accept trade-in like McIntosh or Krell as an example.

--Levi

I would really like to stick with Bryston (SP3), and hope it  is a real deal with the trade in.  But at this point  with the economy the way it is, I have not been as busy as last year.  I am working, but the big spenders are far & few between.  Lets keep our fingers crossed! 

SP3 will be a  'special' case and we will work something out directly with current owners of SP1.7/SP2. 

Sorry I misunderstood - when you asked me about trade ins I thought you were asking about 7B amplifiers?

james

[James Tanner]

Heres the info I have so far:

Haven't read 1.4 cover to cover yet (450+ pages, yawn...) but as I suspected from my previous understanding, there's really nothing in that brings any meaningful benefit to consumers.

With 1.3 there was the benefit (?) of supporting transmission of HD (Dolby/DTS) compressed audio to the AVR, which given that that's quickly becoming a standard player feature to decode is no longer a big deal (i.e. it's lossless, so whether you send it out as compressed audio or PCM it's the *exact* same thing). And when you decompress in the AVR you lose BD-live features. So in some respects it's a negative - if you think BD-live has value.

Deepcolor and xvYCC color serve no purpose as there is *no* consumer content in this format, HD or otherwise (i.e. blue ray is 8 bit 4:2:0 YUV encoded - nothing more). I do agree long term it makes sense to allow for, but not as a critical feature.

So against that backdrop we have 1.4.

The built in ethernet "saves" a 50 cent connector and a $3 cable - but you'll need to buy all new HDMI cables and every piece of gear you own has to be HDMI 1.4. (I also have doubts that it will work with long cables - at least not rev 1 silicon).

Likewise the "back channel" SPDIF to get audio from the TV to the AVR replaces a RCA cable - now while the number of people using off the air reception is increasing I suspect demographically they are not your typical AVR customer, which I suspect is more likely to have a full setup of cable/sat boxes - and of course if they're using a projector then ATSC, if they have it, comes from an outboard tuner anyway.

Also, as the SPDIF is placed on the same wires as the ethernet there is this complex scheme to put bidirectional ethernet on the same pair of wires as SPDIF - this is bound to increase SPDIF jitter.

Again, you have to buy a new TV to get this - and the logic of buying a new TV and all new HDMI cables to replace a $1 RCA cable (OK $20 if you buy the Monster one...), err, well, the logic escapes me ;^)

All that being said, the ethernet and reverse SPDIF are handled "outside" of the HDMI chip itself so once a manufacturer has working chips (and I mean working in the real world) it won't be much to add that to our products.

All the stuff for 3D is experimental - the spec labels it all "preliminary, subject to change". I guess the addition of "camera" colorspaces makes sense, though really this is a subset of xvYCC so not clear what true value this might represent. AFAIK Silicon Image is the only chip vendor behind
this; we've talked to the ones we work with and they're in no rush to do anything with 1.4 - and they would be driven by big customers...draw your own conclusions ;^)

BTW: - here we go again: http://www.diiva.org/

[werd]

Hi Ralph, where do you think you will trade your old SP1.7 or SP2?   Bryston or James as the manufacturer does not accept trade-in.  I was informed that Trade-in if there is any, is through your authorized Bryston dealers. 

Hi James, would there be an exception to the SP3.0 or are we at the mercy of Bryston dealer channel as far as trade-in?  The reason I posted this is my local dealer does not accept trade-in like McIntosh or Krell as an example.

--Levi

I would really like to stick with Bryston (SP3), and hope it  is a real deal with the trade in.  But at this point  with the economy the way it is, I have not been as busy as last year.  I am working, but the big spenders are far & few between.  Lets keep our fingers crossed! 

SP3 will be a  'special' case and we will work something out directly with current owners of SP1.7/SP2. 

Sorry I misunderstood - when you asked me about trade ins I thought you were asking about 7B amplifiers?

james

Hi James

With this trade in, what are you going to do with all these old players?

[Levi]

Thanks for the clarification James.  You are the best! 

[James Tanner]

Hi Ralph, where do you think you will trade your old SP1.7 or SP2?   Bryston or James as the manufacturer does not accept trade-in.  I was informed that Trade-in if there is any, is through your authorized Bryston dealers. 

Hi James, would there be an exception to the SP3.0 or are we at the mercy of Bryston dealer channel as far as trade-in?  The reason I posted this is my local dealer does not accept trade-in like McIntosh or Krell as an example.

--Levi

I would really like to stick with Bryston (SP3), and hope it  is a real deal with the trade in.  But at this point  with the economy the way it is, I have not been as busy as last year.  I am working, but the big spenders are far & few between.  Lets keep our fingers crossed! 

SP3 will be a  'special' case and we will work something out directly with current owners of SP1.7/SP2. 

Sorry I misunderstood - when you asked me about trade ins I thought you were asking about 7B amplifiers?

james

Hi James

With this trade in, what are you going to do with all these old players?

Hi werd,

Boy I have been tossing that one around for a while. I was thinking maybe we could remove the digital sections and resell them as a very inexpensive 5.1 analog preamp?

Or maybe run a contest and the best idea gets a free SP3?

james

[James Tanner]

Here's an article on the hdmi 1.4 subject:

http://www.hometheaterreview.com/av-news/hdmi_14_-_another_new_example_of_planned_obsolesce_imposed_on_the_home_theater_market004232.php

james

[Levi]

Normally, manufacturers recycle parts.  Metal such as aluminum, copper etc can be sold to the scrap yard for recycling.  PowerSupplies from SP1.7/3.0 can be used for other preamp or CD player/Dac.  Recycle is the key so nothing is wasted.

I think James you are hoping that you don't get lots of trade-in so you don't have to worry about recycling.  Recycling costs money but it is good for the environment to the very least. 

[Levi]

The best to do is get the SP3.0 out ASAP as the competitors have theirs out already (1.3a). 

Here's an article on the hdmi 1.4 subject:

http://www.hometheaterreview.com/av-news/hdmi_14_-_another_new_example_of_planned_obsolesce_imposed_on_the_home_theater_market004232.php

james