MEMO - Bryston Customer Feedback
SUBJECT – Bryston 4B SST Amplifier
March 6th, 2008
Comments:
It’s been over a month since the Bryston beast arrived. I say beast because of its sheer mass and power output. Sonically speaking there's no perceived heavy-handedness. This amp is more like a crystal vase, filled with mountain spring-water. It is this clarity, this lack of color or flavor, which I feel is the signature of the SST amplifier.
It’s difficult to classify the perceived fidelity of music reproduction with this amp. I had a similar problem in trying to describe my previous amp, the 3BSST. They both excel at getting out of the way of the music. They both do the soundstage thing quite well. In fact the soundstage effect here is almost limitless, even if it does vary from one recording to the next. Recording engineers often use their skill and creativity to produce an acoustic mix of simulated reality thus generating virtual placement of instruments and performers. The effect is most notable in high-resolution systems. Resolution is about how much of the recording you can actually hear. Is that the horn section that you're listening to, or do you hear a trumpet, trombone and sax playing in harmony? Resolution allows you to grasp the music's aspect. It permits to you hear the breath of a soloist between notes. It exposes the character of the recording venue. It clearly articulates the spittle vibrating in the mouth-piece of a horn. While I'm not endorsing laser-etched hyper-detail, I do want to hear all that there is to hear. The Bryston is all that.
The (no-noise) low noise floor is the foundation for this highly resolving apparatus. While listening, the other night, to McCoy Tyner (New York Reunion, Chesky JD51) a sax solo caught my attention (track 5, Ask Me Now) There was this clicking sound that I had never noticed before. Being a paranoid audiophile I immediately got up and went over to the one of the loudspeakers. My wife was nearby reading a newspaper and paid no attention to my sudden movements, she's quite used to my audio-related OCD. Shit, the CD must be glitching, no, maybe one of the preamp tubes is going microphonic." I played back the passage and turned up the volume slightly, there it was again! That clicking sort of noise. Then it came to me all at once. The sound of the valves on a wood-wind instrument being briskly pressed and released, I never noticed that before. I needed to know if my audio-related OCD was becoming a psychosis. I glanced at my wife. "Do you hear that clicking sound?" She looked up from her paper "yeah, what is that?" Gleefully I blurted "the resolution of this amp is friggin' amazing!"
Regards,
George Osai, Brooklyn NY
