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Bryston amps VS the rest... too clear and neutral?

Ok right now i am on the market for an amp..
need something in the 100W+ range stereo..
My speakers are Mirage OM-9 wich i really love!
( really nice in my small room because of small reverb times so it increases the volume and the presence alot with their bipolar setup!:)

Everytime i listened to mirage amps ( mostly 3b or 4B + )
i was really impressed by the clarity of the sound and the really nice neutral tonality of thoose amps.
Is it me or the Bryston are really neurtral amps that reproduce the sound really close to how it was input?
( like cheap records really sound cheap and everything sounds clear )

So i was asking myself is it is really good for a music used amplifier to sound almost perfectly the same as the input signal ? I mean, theorically this is what we are loking for right? but then, does it makes some music "hard" to listen to ? or gives fatigue quite fast on long listening periods?

So how does Bryston compares to most other high quality amps?
SS and tubes...

The only time i've been listening to other high end sutff is at the Montreal's Sound and image show and they all use different sources or speakers...it's so mixed up that you can't really put characteristics on any part of the systems but rather have to qualify to the complete system.

I've heard some $$ Logan sounds like crap on Classe amps because the source ( i think ) was really bad..
So it's pretty hard not having auditionned with a fixed system any or almost no other god amplifier brands to decide on wich path to go!

i hope that some of you have any input on that :)
thanks! :)

JIN

PS... i'm not even sure how my Mirage sounds since i didn't even try them on more than 2 amps ( yamaha and old akai :p )
jinmtvt
aball
2,016 posts
 
you mean Porsches? I am curious as to how bipolar devices don't reproduce extremes very well. The weather, speaker impedance, and temperature affect all devices. However, temperature is by far the most important since output impedance in a good design will be very low anyway. It is true MOSFETs are better at handling temps (read stability) due to their negative temp coefficients but their transconductance is terrible compared to BJTs. The BJT temp problem is easliy remedied with a good design and its excellent transconductance remains. I am not knocking either of them since they each have advantages and drawbacks but linearity is what we all desire the most.
dave1117
29 posts
 
Marakanetz, your comments about Bryston are confusing. If I read correctly your are not a big fan of Bryston, however, your system link shows a couple of bryton components. Only asking because I to am looking into the Brystom 7bst monoblocks to power my legacy focus speakers. What I have heard of brytosn amps, sounds clean and full. While I have not heard to monoblocks the 14bst had very pleasant sound quality. While I auditioned the Krell line I was not impressed. I was truly moved by the Audio Research vt100 but am not sure I want the tube problems that go along with the sound quality. As always, questions comments and learning are what this is all about.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
Pbb, if you look from the right angle, the United States are also green:^)
spraglow
32 posts
 
I have had both Bryston 3BST and Classe CA200. Classe although warmer and a bit richer in midbass, it had terrible vocals. Bryston was always very honest and pure. I think the only time I heard it sounding grainy was in the bridged mode. I have heard the ST and SST series head to head and must say that SST is more refined, vocals float ,bass is more defined and overall soundstage is improved. After trying numerous amps one thing I observed was that movie dialogs through Bryston are perfectly understandable. Their amps is very coherent, they don't color anything and paired with neutral speakers will show all the weaknesses in the upstream. I've moved to Spectron Musician since then but I believe Bryston offers very good value, reliability and value.
karls
332 posts
 
I've owned several ST Brystons although I don't have any currently, and I have nothing but good things to say about them. Bombproof as they come, extremely neutral, and nothing that gets in the way of the music. In my experience, they are vastly better and more musical than any Krell or Levinson anywhere near their price, not to mention more reliable and better resale value. (That ought to ruffle some feathers!) Granted, they're not the last word in detail or refinement, but they come awfully darn close for a fraction of the price and headaches of most other amps. Don't let the above comments dissuade you from trying one on the used market (the 4B-ST is an easy recommendation, stay away from the earlier versions), you can always resell it for close to what you paid for it if you can't stand it. But my bet is that you'll end up keeping it. Good luck!
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