[math-geek]

Hello out their, I am new to the Bryston owners family.  I bought a Bryston 2B (circa 1985) off from e-bay a month ago. 

I am a college student at Western Michigan University (electrical engineering) so funds sort of limit what kind of equipment that I may buy.  My current set up consists of a PS Audio Model 4.6 preamp, the Bryston 2B and finally the icing on the cake, a pair of Dynaudio Contour 1.3 MkII loudspeakers.  I have around $600 total into this outfit if you can believe that.  I think that this would probably cost me around $5k to buy all of this brand new.! My friends stop over and listen to my stereo and look for the hidden subwoofer because they cannot believe that such a small set of speakers make this much music.

The reality is that it is just a well matched system.  I am hoping to at some point upgrade to a Bryston 4B or 4B st (3Bst for that matter) in the future, seeing how these Dynaudios are a fairly difficult load to drive.  Truth be told though for the small apartment that I currently live in the 2B is astounding.  It has the biggest 60 watts that I have ever heard.  Before this amplifier came along I was using a Yamaha receiver that supposedly produced 100 wpc.  No comparison!  This Bryston sounds sooooo much better and stronger.

Thanks for letting me ramble on for a while on this site.  I have read about some of your systems and I will have to wait quite some time before I am in the position to have some of that equipment, but for now I have a simple system that is just a knockout.  This will bring me smiles years down the road with fond memories.

Talk to you later. Earl Y.

[mvwhiting_83]

Welcome Earl!

[James Tanner]

Hi Earl,

I thought you had become extinct or at least were on the endangered species list.

It's really nice to hear from a young man in college who has interest in audio beyond MP3 and Ipods!

Welcome Sir!

james

[math-geek]

Thanks for the uplifting words.  I know what you mean about being on the endagered species list.  I do have an i-pod but only for having music on the go.  They just don't sound good at all, as a matter of fact I really don't listen to it much because it is not up to my now elevated standards of quality music playback. 

It is really a sad state of affairs when one gives it some thought.  SACD and DVD-A are dying out which is a shame.  The torch is basically in the CD's hands which is a 25 year old technology and it is getting clobbered by a high loss, compressed music file format which cannot come even remotely close to the sound quality of the CD.  It baffles me that with all that people seem to expect from the world that most will accept, without question, absolutely crummy sound quality. 

My beginnings into the upper end of audio started with a trip to Bekin's Audio in Grand Haven, MI.  I went along with a friend and his father and entered a world that I did not know had existed.  The advisor treated us all very graciously then he sat me and Mark in a listening studio with a set of Revel Ultima speakers being driven by Mark Levinson electronics and a bunch of CDs.  I will never forget that!!!  I never knew that music could affect a person so deeply.  There were no price tags in that world but in my investigations I now realize that I was probably listening to a $40k-$50k system. 

Even on my thin budget I have acquired quite an expensive sounding audiophile system.  I cannot believe the differences that are noticeable with the change of a piece of equipment.  The addition of the 2B was a dramatic improvement over the Yamaha receiver (then used as a preamp).  Quite honestly though the most dramatic improvement came with the addition of the PS Audio 4.6 preamp.  This unit is truly stunning and I think it would be worthy for anyone on a budget to very closely look into one of these.  Three is a note to add about this preamp that I found out while researching it on the internet, it was available in three configurations with varying power supply output.  The basic maodel had a 50 watt power supply, for an additional $150.00 you stepped up to a 250 watt outboard power supply, and $400.00 got you a 500 watt power supply.  Mine is the 250 watt unit.  My brother compared his NAD to this and he is now looking for one of these!  I would like to compare this with a Bryston preamp someday and just hear what the differences are.

Thanks again for your graciousness, Earl Y.

[mvwhiting_83]

Check out the BCD1 reviews and you can see that CD's have a new lease on life. 25 years ain't such a bad thing, since it has led to this. One must take it upon one self to show if not educate those that have settled for less (mp3's at 126 kbps! )that HiFi can bring so much more enjoyment into what life really is all about (for those that consider music a passion).

I had some friends out from Colorado that have no experience with HiFi.  I took them to a dealer of mine and showed what 37K$ sounds like.  PMC PB1i, McIntosh 500watt monos, Primare CD31, among other things... I pretty much changed their lives right then and there. Not that cost alone means anything, but the playback was at a level that not too many people have heard, and it can definitely make an impression.

[James Tanner]

OK my turn to tella story regarding Audio Virgins:

We had a Bryston Day at my home a few years back (I wanted people in the factory to experience what they actually build).

So I had the 7.1 system setup in my theater room and would bring people in 3 at at time and let them listen to two stereo cuts then a couple of surround music videos.  After one session which included 3 of the lovely ladies from our office area, I played Sarah McLaughlin's cut on  Carlo Santana's music DVD. When I flipped on the lights one of the ladies Norma, was sitting there in tears. She turned to me and said -"James I have never been moved like that before"!

I said to her "Norma that's the whole point -it's not about the equipment its about the ability of the system to draw you in emotionally".

Sadly many people never experience audio/video systems capable of transporting you.

james

[AnthonyH]

Great comments here. 

I almost feel like a "HiFi evangelist" these days as I've managed to convert 2 friends just by sitting them down with my system and playing some music. Both were moved almost to tears (but boys don't cry;) by what they heard.

I'm in the process of helping them both put together entry level systems. As James said, most people just don't know what they are missing and just how moving music should be.

2 down, 2 billion to go

Cheers
A

[math-geek]

Wow, there is a light of insight here.   I have a subscription to Stereophile magazine and I can't help but notice that it seems that they are out of touch with reality.  James really called it.  Listening to music should be an emotional experience.  It is nice that some audiophiles can afford to drop thousands of dollars on cables alone, but that is just out my league in my present situation.  Besides if I had the money I do not know that I would buy some of the items being peddled it seems some of the claims border on the absurd.

I am not attempting to judge whatever the next guy does to achieve his audio nirvana, I just feel that high end audio has somewhat alienated the more common man.  There are many other issues as well not the least of which is the big box chains burying the privately owned stereo shops.  We had a place in Kalamazoo here named Classic Stereo which was around for 25 years.  Best Buy literally opened there store 300 ft from Classic.  Classic closed 4-5 months ago, what a shame.  They had a nice mix of the very esoteric high end down to the mid-fi level that was so much better than Best Buy could offer.  But what is really missing is being able to walk into a shop and being able to talk to someone that had extensive knowledge of his equipment and would complete a sale from purchase to the set up in your home.

I am currently on spring break so I have a little more time to get into these discussions than I would otherwise.  Currently I am listening to a Willie Nelson CD.  Is there a sadder song than "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain"?  It felt as if Willie were in front of me on a stool strumming his guitar and singing.  Yes, that is what it is all about!

Talk to you guys a little later, Earl.

[95Dyna]

Earl,

As a contemporary of my daughter and her friends I wish I could have you talk to them on this subject.  My daughter will actually make fun of the old man for being technologically challenged (read:  I don't have an IPOD or a phone that plays music) while standing in front of my 7 ft. high column of components flanked by a pair of 5' high by 2' wide Infinity 9 Kappas.  My wife and I recently held an engagement party for her.  I slid Ray Brown's "Live at Scullers" into the box and watched as her friends gathered in front of the Kappas like they were a campfire on a mid-October evening.  They had that "what the hell's that?" expression on their faces.  Priceless!!

Regards and best wishes with your studies (the best way to get to the 28B!!),

Bill

[werd]

OK my turn to tella story regarding Audio Virgins:

We had a Bryston Day at my home a few years back (I wanted people in the factory to experience what they actually build).

So I had the 7.1 system setup in my theater room and would bring people in 3 at at time and let them listen to two stereo cuts then a couple of surround music videos.  After one session which included 3 of the lovely ladies from our office area, I played Sarah McLaughlin's cut on  Carlo Santana's music DVD. When I flipped on the lights one of the ladies Norma, was sitting there in tears. She turned to me and said -"James I have never been moved like that before"!

I said to her "Norma that's the whole point -it's not about the equipment its about the ability of the system to draw you in emotionally".

Sadly many people never experience audio/video systems capable of transporting you.

james

I hope u got lucky that nite!!!! aa

[mvwhiting_83]

wow

[werd]

Wow what? i wouldve been all over that

[math-geek]

  aaHere I am late at night listening to some old rock and roll.  Cd's that used to sound horrible are now listenable.  I can't believe how good these little Dynaudios sound, the adjectives big and authoritive come to mind.  These little fellas can plain rock the house but at the same time their resolution is fantastic.  They are everything lesser monitors are not.  They absolutely dissapear with any decently mastered music.  A guy on a budget has got to love the used marketplace.  I scored these for just over $300.00 incl. shipping.  They have the walnut veneer upgrade which my research tells was a 10% premium on a $2200.00 pair of monitors!  They are so pretty that you can just stare at them and marvel at the woodworking that went into their manufacture.  It is also nice that my facebook set friends also notice the difference in how these are made compared to lesser speakers.  It is better that they notice the wow factor in the sound quality.  At least some of them can discern that there is flashy and then there is quality.  I will continue to choose quality.  I hope that some of my friends become converts to quality when funds permit.

New (used) piece of equipment update.  I picked up a Yamaha rx-v1300 for $75.00 to use as a Dolby Digital/DTS decoder.  It is running into the PS Audio preamp through the tape input.  Anyways me and the girlfriend watched Terminator 2 on this hookup last night.  Holy cow!  It was astonishing and all from only two channels when a girl notices sound quality you know that you are getting it right.  You could feel the explosion of the Cyberdyne building in the sofa, it was rattling glass!

As a final note to you previous posters.....I did get LUCKY!!! aa

[vegasdave]

You need a Bryston preamp! And you also want to get some floorstanding speakers!

[rob80b]

Stick with the Contours, they'll scale quite well as upgrade your chain, just add a nice Velodyne 15"er.

Robert