Mar 22/09
Hot of the Press! Brand New Bryston Power Amp, Available Now.
The Bryston 3BSST2 sitting neat & petite.
"Just got a chance to hear last night, the brand new Bryston 3B SST2. Actually, it's pronounced as 3BSST Squared.
James of AV Designs was in my place to check out how the PMC's were doing and if he could do anything to aid in set up. Now, this is the sort of high end dealer we need, after spending our hard earned cash, a follow up after sales visit is re-assuring indeed. Just to be clear, I did not nor have any intentions to purchase any speaker products for now. James you do this for most your customers??? I hear?? Ha! Ha!
He'd thought it be nice for me to hear the new, latest Bryston sound, if there was one. The 3BSST2, is rated for 2 X 150W RMS. And once plugged in to my system, via the XLR input(with input sensitivity adjusted to 2V), replacing my ageing Pass Aleph mono blocks, boy, the Bryston is indeed very much more louder and more power full sounding! What's more surprisingly, for a class A/B amp, the tonal quality very much approaches the lucidity and the warmness of the class A Pass Aleph. Bass is robust and very well controlled. The mids are open and smooth, plus the highs are very tidy, well extended and have very relaxed airy nature to it. The music flow, or just plain musicality is very much improved over the older SST series, which I always thought to have a slight analytical quality to it. The unit which we played with just landed only 2 days ago. It's not thoroughly run in yet, brings so much sound promise to the table, so to speak. Through out the listening session, the amp's heat sinks only ran moderately warm to touch.
My brief 2 hours with the 3BSST2 , powering the PMC GB1i, was thoroughly enjoyable. James quoted a retail price of RM15K, which is actually quite attractive, considering that it's a Canadian manufactured product carrying a 20 year parts and labour warranty. And that's no bull.
Note: This is by no means a review, rather it's just a quick sound impression."
Panzer