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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
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!
jazzdude
332 posts
 
Depends alot on the kind of music you enjoy and the venue you are trying to recreate. I think the Bryston is one of the best amps at recreating a live club scene for rock, blues, or jazz.

There are much better amps if you want to recreate symphonies or large orchestral works in a music hall.

Also Bryston doesn't do much to beautify the music. Those with tender ears will prefer tubes.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
Dave, shortly saying for the entry- level Brystons are perfect - no comment. Much better than Classe, Krell or even Edge. They worked real great with my Totem Forest speakers. I used Bryston 11b preamp for a while and realized that it sounds too far away from music and I stepped into the different level when I traded 3b-st/11b for VTL MB100/passive preamp instead of Bryston components and entered entirely different world of musical reproduction. Let Stevie Wonder love Bryston but some of the home recording studio owners have Manley electronics and this is believe me alot different.

Aball, bipolar transistors have the highest rate of parameter instability. If you analyze the output curve set for different impedance loads and freequencies you'll realize when and where the bipolar element will "choke". Bipolar elements compared to MOSFET or tubes need an extreamly deep negative feedback in order to work in linear operation wich certainly causes the signal to be compressed.
adamanteus
80 posts
 
Find myself once again agreeing with Karls. Audition one of the Brystons and ignore what we're all saying. You may love it, you may hate it. I used to have a bias against their stuff, but that changed dramatically with the intro of the ST series - much more refined amps! Now own two of them and am completely happy. Have auditioned Classe and found it to be very smooth and non-fatiguing, albeit lifeless and uninvolving. Krell comes across as harsh; Levinson is very controlled, almost too much so, and very expensive.

As I've said before, the Bryston products are at the perfect point of my law of diminishing returns. But remember: YOUR ears are the judge... opinions are like ***holes. Everyone has one.
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