Time for an update on my little test of 1 x 4B SST2 v 2 x 4B SST2 that I carried out last week.
Its one of those situations were both setups have their merits, with both offering a different presentation, with neither being right or wrong, just different.
Here were my thoughts after spending a whole day going back and forth, as both 4B's were slightly different spec I used one for bass duties and the other for mid/tweet.
Pro's with 1 x 4B SST2
Cleaner presentation
More balanced and cohesive
Possibly more detailed
Against
Possibly a little lean
not enough drive
Pro's with 2 x 4B SST2
More overall weight and body
Better seperation
More low end bass and drive
Against
Sometimes a little boomy
The bass can be overpowering the rest of the music
So thinking about these findings, I think that 2 x 4B's really get the my speakers working at 100% where as 1 x 4B is probably doing around 80%, by giving 1 x 4B to bass duties and the other to Mid/Treble I'm not sure if the extra weight and body is comming from extra detail in the bass or as 1 x 4B isn't trying to drive Bass/Mid/Treble then the mid has more power and this is were the extra richness is coming from.
On the downside as my room isn't the largest I sometimes got the feeling that it was all a little too much and the bass was becoming too prominent and noticeable robbing the music of the balance 1 x 4B gave.
So in the end I've gone with just my new 4B SST2 and sold the other one on.
So that was last week, but last night was the big night, after a journey of 2 years and many pieces of kit later I finally assembled all the parts I've been accumalting to build what I hoped would be, for me anyawy, the ultimate 2ch setup :-
Bryston BCD-1, BP26MC, 4B SST2 x 1, Michell Orbe TT, Custom Built Hifi Rack,
Black Rhodium Super Jazz Mains Cables and Atlas Navigator interconnects + Atlas Hyper 3.0 speaker cable and not to forget the PMC EB1's.
To say I was a little nervous when powering everything up was a understatement, what if I didn't like it after all this effort, oh well, to late now first of all I put in Damien Rice '0' which I'd used a lot when comparing 1 x 2 4B's and it just sounded so right, there wasn't a hint of brightness, just a rich warm tone that when called upon would go very low I couldn't stop smiling, then it had to be a bit of Massive Attack and Radiohead, all sounding sublime, then onto the Orbe for some Prince and Jean Michel Jarre and then to see if the system could cope with all kinds of music I put on some thrash metal in the shape of Machinehead and the epic 'Halo' Awesome
I really couldn't be happier, for me it sounds 100% right, nothing lacking and nothing slightly out, just an excellent balanced system that delivers loads of detail and clarity but still with a smooth, mellow tone that just makes you want to listen to more and more, I can't wait to pull out some Nine Inch Nails, as I promised myself I wouldn't listen to any until my system was 100% sorted, granted it has taken a little longer than I thought.
Considering also that all the cables and the 4B are brand new I'd expect things to get even better, which is pretty hard to imagine.
On a side note, I sold my Arcam AV888 / P777 today, I thought I'd have been sad to see them go but tbh they could never get anywhere near what a Bryston system can deliver for 2ch.
So to sum up, a very happy and relieved camper looking forward to many many hours of listening to music rather than constantly playing and changing kit.
Oh yeah, one more thing to try, the Bryston phono stage v the Trichord Dino MK2, then thats it
