Thanks for the review and comparison. I am a BP 26 owner and I can attest that it has a very detailed sound! You are using the external power supply, yes? I have not auditioned the 17 at all. I love that the BP 26 has such heavy duty connectors/sockets for XLR connectors. I am using mine with a Bryston 4B2 amp and a Bryston DAC. My speakers are Thiel CS 3.6 and this system is indeed very revealing of both good and bad recordings. I have been generally able to fix it when the sound is too harsh. Also, my system is hooked up to a Bryston BIT15 power conditioner and everything is VERY quiet.
Bryston BP-26 VS 17Cubed
I have been demoing the Bryston BP-17 Cubed for approx. 50 hours. Friday I received my Bryston BP-26. Two different animals here. Both,great pieces of gear. As indicated in my other posts, my gear is Classe' Cam-600 Monoblocks, PS Audio Directstream DAC and memory player, Joseph Audio Pearl 20/20. (these have the graphene mid-range). All dedicated circuits, with Furutech Power Cables, you guys got the picture. The 17 has slight warm presentation, you could call it refined, with detail, and easy listening. The 26 does not have that warmness, but the detail is unreal! Very black background, way more punch than the 17, incredibly transparent, perhaps more musical...If you don't have the right gear I think the 26 could come across as fatiguing and a little too much in your face. I also have a very large room. But I have the right gear, and this is truly a very cool listening experiment! I only have about 12 hours on the 26 to this point. As James Tanner expressed to me if you like mostly classical the 17 might be the best choice, I do like classical however lots of my listening is Blues, guitar forward, female and male vocals. I think the 17 does better at lower volume, but what the 26 does overall is a more musical presentation. I thought this would be easy, I said to a friend I'll know in the first song which unit I like the best. Wrong! At this juncture I'm liking the 26 more in my set up. After another 20 more hours or so on the 26 I'll go back to the 17 and share what my listening results translate to. Hope this helps for anyone on the fence trying to choose between these two units. John
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