[ian.ameline]

So I had a good day today.

My story starts a week or so ago, when I emailed James Tanner noting that
the silk-screening was coming off my 10 year old BP25 -- I wondered if I
could buy a replacement 19" rack mount faceplate for it. James put me in
touch with Mike who said that the silk-screening should require an angle
grinder to remove and that the replacement would be covered under
warranty. (A 10 year old unit, with a cosmetic defect that could easily be
ascribed to "usual wear and tear", and it is fixed for free under
warranty! THIS is why all my audio gear business goes to Bryston, and why
all of yours should too.) At the same time I asked James to introduce me
to a local dealer to purchase a new 4B SSt2-Pro. Which he did. And so
today, I drove out to bryston, got my new faceplate for the BP25 and the
same day picked up my new 4B SST2-Pro.

Before I give my A/B comparison review of a 10 year old 4BST-Pro with a
4BSST2-Pro I have another small story to share

James gave me a little tour of the Bryston engineering department, where I
saw an SP-3! Let me tell you, this piece of hardware looks very
impressive. The general picture is that from the front it appears to be 3u
high (1 u == 1 rack mount unit == 1.75 inches). From the back, it is 2
units sandwiched together. A 2U at the bottom, and a 1u unit on the top.

At the front is a vertically mounted circuit board for the control panel
and display. At the bottom is a board occupying pretty much the whole area
of the bottom of the unit. It looked like more than half if it was covered
with op-amps identical to those found in a BDA-1 or BCD-1 -- I counted 28
(or was it 32?) of them! Being a fan of balanced in/outputs, I noticed
that this beast has 2 sets of balanced stereo inputs and 8 balanced output
channels!. A daughter board held the computer controller for this beauty,
(It even has an ethernet connection -- Dan has probably got it
programmed for browsing for porn in the background to fill out his
collection ).

At the back is a vertically mounted 2U board with the back-panel analog
connections (and there are alot of them).

The 1U unit that is bolted on top (from the front and sides the SP-3 just
looks like one unit. You can only tell it is composed of two seperate
chassis if it is disassembled) contains the power supplies and voltage
regulators (which use the slab of metal between the upper and lower units
as a heat sink as well as an RF noise shield) The upper unit also has the
HDMI video board in it.

This is great design -- keep all the noisy parts away and shielded from
the analog parts. And needless to say it is built (in the usual
Bryston way) like a tank.

I don't *think* I drooled on (or in) the unit. But there might be a wet
spot on the floor nearby

I'm saving up my money already for one of these.

So, on with the new Amp review. I've only had it set up for an hour or so,
but my first impressions are that the low end is more tightly controlled
and has more authority and "slam". The high end sounds both smoother and
more detailed -- more revealing. The sound-stage feels more defined -- it
is easier to imagine where instruments are placed -- it feels a bit more 3
dimensional. (As an engineer I hate using these wishy-washy audio reviewer
terms, but there it is.) The older 4B-ST is a great Amp but the SST2 is a
noticeable improvement right away.

My system is a Mac-mini feeding uncompressed CD-Audio (44.1/16)
signal (via toslink) a Bryston BDA-1 (upsampling on), connected to a
Bryston BP25 (with MPS-1), feeding a Bryston 4B-SST2-Pro. I made the
cables myself -- Canaire 4 star balanced microphone cable with gold plated
neutrik XLR connectors, silver solder. The cables from the dac to the pre
are 12 inches long, and from the pre to the power amp are 30 inches long.
Speakers are PSB Stratus Gold-i, connected with 10 gauge belden speaker
wire (8 foot run for each).

The power conditioner is a 20A Furman PL-PRO.

I have to say that it is a complete pleasure to do business with Bryston.
They really know how to treat their customers well.

To anyone considering buying bryston equipment, I can say with complete
certainty that your purchase will be extremely well designed, hand built
with care and dedication, and backed up by the absolute best warranty and
customer support you could possibly imagine.

-- Ian.

[Dilbert]

Nice story Ian - thanks. Even though it is technically difficult to define why, my experience with the SST/2's has been that things will improve dramatically over the next 50-100 hours of use.   

What software are you using in the Mac to rip CD's? Do you find the mini has sufficient storage capacity when ripping at full resolution? I am planning on doing the same thing except communication with my BDA will be via wi-fi and a Squeezebox.

[ian.ameline]

I use ITunes to rip to apple losless. (with the error checking on while ripping.) The macine has a 2 terabyte hard drive plugged in to the firewire port, so space is not an issue.

-- Ian.

[Dilbert]

Wow, 2 TB. Is that the Apple Time Capsule?

[Daniel Datchev]

I'd like to express my delight of owning Bryston-PMC combo which takes me to another dimension, the dimension of almost presenting the real atmosphere at recording studio or stadium.Last night I attended a concert in the open, in an ancient Roman theater in Plovdiv.Here is the link as it looks like.http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/RomanTheaterPlovdiv.jpg/800px-RomanTheaterPlovdiv.jpg
 This was the opening tour day for Jon Lord, keyboardist and former member of the best hard rock in the world Deep Purple, and Plovdiv symphonic orchestra. I knew every note they played, just because I am using Bryston for reproduction of audio material.
Daniel

[redbook]

Great story Ian. I too have a BP 25 and a 4bst(regular). I am  seriously considering the new sst2. Is there a special reason that you go with the pro version over the C series.? ..........  Redbook.

[ian.ameline]

The answer comes in two parts;

1: My other bryston gear (BP25 and BDA-1) both have pro series faceplates -- 19" with rack-mount holes, so the faceplate of the pro amp matches the appearance of the other gear it shares the rack with.

The C series looks nice, and from what James has said, it is very popular, but it doesn't really suit my tastes. To me the curves look a little feminine (and feminine curves can be very nice, don't get me wrong ). The 45 degree beveled angles in the pro series to me look cleaner and more masculine, and in my opinion bryston products are not "she" but most definitely "he".

2: I find that the BP25 has quite alot of gain. From a full range input to the BDA-1 fed through the BP25, I want the amp to just start to clip when the BP25 volume control is at about 75 to 80%. 23db gain is too much for this -- about 18db of gain in the amp does the trick nicely. So I set the gain switch on the back of the SST2 to 23db, and knock off another 4 or 5db with the attenuators that are only present on the pro amps.

Of course, I haven't managed to make the SST2 clip yet.... the lights remain stubbornly green no matter how much I crank it up. The ST used to start clipping at those levels. Anyway, in my room, at those levels, hearing protection is in order.

Setting things up this way also has the added benefit in that it gives finer control over the volume of the system when listening at lower levels.

-- Ian.

[Dilbert]

Ian your comments about gain adjustment prompts me to mention that if you have a BR-2 - a further 1, 2 or 3 dB drop in output can also be achieved with BDA-1. It helps a little, especially when running off the balanced outputs.

[ian.ameline]

I must be getting old. I prefer my attenuation to be done the old fashioned way -- with resistors. Not in the digital domain. I'll just go away now and adjust the onion on my belt.

-- Ian.

[Dilbert]

I must be getting old. I prefer my attenuation to be done the old fashioned way -- with resistors. Not in the digital domain. I'll just go away now and adjust the onion on my belt.

-- Ian.

Yes - good point and I concur. I am not so sure it occurs in the digital domain. James, perhaps you could clarify?

[James Tanner]

I must be getting old. I prefer my attenuation to be done the old fashioned way -- with resistors. Not in the digital domain. I'll just go away now and adjust the onion on my belt.

-- Ian.

Yes - good point and I concur. I am not so sure it occurs in the digital domain. James, perhaps you could clarify?

Yes it is done in the digital domain but because we only allow a very small amount of adjustment there is not much downside.

james

[Mad Mr H]

The C series looks nice, and from what James has said, it is very popular, but it doesn't really suit my tastes. To me the curves look a little feminine (and feminine curves can be very nice, don't get me wrong ). The 45 degree beveled angles in the pro series to me look cleaner and more masculine, and in my opinion bryston products are not "she" but most definitely "he". .

Yep last time I checked my 14B SST had a serious pair of bollocks 

[vegasdave]

The answer comes in two parts;

1: My other bryston gear (BP25 and BDA-1) both have pro series faceplates -- 19" with rack-mount holes, so the faceplate of the pro amp matches the appearance of the other gear it shares the rack with.

The C series looks nice, and from what James has said, it is very popular, but it doesn't really suit my tastes. To me the curves look a little feminine (and feminine curves can be very nice, don't get me wrong ). The 45 degree beveled angles in the pro series to me look cleaner and more masculine, and in my opinion bryston products are not "she" but most definitely "he".

2: I find that the BP25 has quite alot of gain. From a full range input to the BDA-1 fed through the BP25, I want the amp to just start to clip when the BP25 volume control is at about 75 to 80%. 23db gain is too much for this -- about 18db of gain in the amp does the trick nicely. So I set the gain switch on the back of the SST2 to 23db, and knock off another 4 or 5db with the attenuators that are only present on the pro amps.

Of course, I haven't managed to make the SST2 clip yet.... the lights remain stubbornly green no matter how much I crank it up. The ST used to start clipping at those levels. Anyway, in my room, at those levels, hearing protection is in order.

Setting things up this way also has the added benefit in that it gives finer control over the volume of the system when listening at lower levels.

-- Ian.

Hmm...I have the gain switch set to 29db with the level controls all the way up on my 4BSST Pro.

However, I'm using a BP6P. So, that makes a difference?

I've clipped the amp a few times, but this is when the volume control was all the way up.

[Viajero5000]

The C series looks nice, and from what James has said, it is very popular, but it doesn't really suit my tastes. To me the curves look a little feminine (and feminine curves can be very nice, don't get me wrong ). The 45 degree beveled angles in the pro series to me look cleaner and more masculine, and in my opinion bryston products are not "she" but most definitely "he". .

Yep last time I checked my 14B SST had a serious pair of bollocks 

The pro models are definitely the manly, matter of fact amps that jive with the Bryston image. The C series look isn't exactly the last word in aesthetics and manages to lose out on the 'man' factor to boot due to its slightly curvy look, without any significant gains in cosmetic appeal. I'm ok with the 19 inch C face plates, but I feel that the big 17 inch amps look a bit amputated without the handles et al. (Can't take the 90 pound bull by the horns without em  ) In my opinion. Most people apparently prefer the C look so I'm in a minority here.  (To be perfectly honest, I don't really care at the end of the day as long as it sounds good doesn't look too 'soft'!)

[ian.ameline]

I've clipped the amp a few times, but this is when the volume control was all the way up.

I think there is more gain going on when the pre is connected to the amp with balanced interconnects. (the pre is putting out twice the voltage swing on the balanced vs the unbalanced outs).

[redbook]

I think James mentiond the only difference technically was that the pro model has gain stages in the signal path. I like the tough studio look of the pro but my only concern is; more in the signal path-- more to compromise fidelity? Am I worried about nothing here because the amp is good in either form.? Has anyone noticed differences?  Thanks....Redbook.

[Laundrew]

The C series looks nice, and from what James has said, it is very popular, but it doesn't really suit my tastes. To me the curves look a little feminine (and feminine curves can be very nice, don't get me wrong ). The 45 degree beveled angles in the pro series to me look cleaner and more masculine, and in my opinion bryston products are not "she" but most definitely "he". .

Yep last time I checked my 14B SST had a serious pair of bollocks 

The pro models are definitely the manly, matter of fact amps that jive with the Bryston image. The C series look isn't exactly the last word in aesthetics and manages to lose out on the 'man' factor to boot due to its slightly curvy look, without any significant gains in cosmetic appeal. I'm ok with the 19 inch C face plates, but I feel that the big 17 inch amps look a bit amputated without the handles et al. (Can't take the 90 pound bull by the horns without em  ) In my opinion. Most people apparently prefer the C look so I'm in a minority here.  (To be perfectly honest, I don't really care at the end of the day as long as it sounds good doesn't look too 'soft'!)

I agree, the handles definitely complete the look on the big, 19 inch amplifiers. As for the C-Series - I think that the aesthetics are perfect. I enjoy a strictly minimalism approach to audio equipment, the equipment has the ability to flawlessly blend into its surrounding environment. If I do not need it, I do not want to see in my equipment.


Be well...

[ian.ameline]

I think James mentiond the only difference technically was that the pro model has gain stages in the signal path. I like the tough studio look of the pro but my only concern is; more in the signal path-- more to compromise fidelity? Am I worried about nothing here because the amp is good in either form.? Has anyone noticed differences?  Thanks....Redbook.

The only difference between the pro and non-pro amps is a variable resistor and a standard resistor in series to ground from the output of the input buffer. See the following;



That little semicircular loop above the variable resistor (which would be shorting it out) is not there in the pro version...

-- Ian.

[rmurray]

Hello Ian . Appreciate the info about the resistors. With that I ask; has anyone out there  think or perceive any sonic difference between the two? I like both versions cosmetically....... they both are beautiful. Should I purchase both ? ( just kidding) I want to know if any fellow members can enlighten me before I take the plunge... I , too, like  Redbook, wish to make the best choice from a hi-fi point of view. 

[vegasdave]

An advantage to getting a Pro amp is you can get them much cheaper (from a pro audio store) than the C-series.

I dunno, my 4BSST Pro sounds good to me! It's quiet, never gets hot, puts out a wall of sound, etc.