MEMO - Bryston Customer Feedback
SUBJECT - Bryston BP26 Moving Coil Phono Preamp
August 28th 2009
Dear Mr. Tanner,
It is a surprise and a testimony to your commitment to customer support (not to mention Bryston employees) that I see your name still is the direct customer contact for Bryston owners from your website.
Our last email exchange was sometime around 1997 or thereabout, when I wrote to Bryston with an application question about my then new 7B-ST power amps. (They are still functioning perfectly in my home studio.) I just completed my first purchase of a new Bryston component since then - your BP-26MC preamp - including of course the power supply, with the moving coil phono stage option installed. They replace my prior pre-amp, a McIntosh MC2200 tube unit, which some years ago replaced a Krell KRC-2.
The BP-26 is spectacular!
It offers a wonderful musicality and is pleasure to listen to with any source or style of music, attributes that the Mac tube preamp excelled at, while simultaneously offering a more stable and solid image placement, with clearer distinction between every instru-ment in a live, acoustic recording. The old Krell was quite good at the later, but the BP-26 has a shockingly greater dynamic range in comparison to it. The Bryston is even quieter than the Krell and the Mac (and both are excellent in this regard), yet has the ability to play the most complex orchestral crescendos and the loudest, compressed rock recordings with complete openness and ease.
To me, your ST series products were among the first to combine the best of what both audio professionals and audiophiles demanded back in the '90's. The BP-26MC now bridges the gab between a pure musicality found in a few of the finest tube units, and the total silence from noise, stunning micro-dynamics, combined with the explosive power and detail of world class solid state.
I am not only satisfied, but even a bit surprised at this level of performance. So much so, that after one week of living with the BP-26MC preamp, I just placed an order for your BDA-1 DAC.
Bob Sykes
San Francisco, CA 94105
