Bryston owners ONLY

I have only heard the 7B ST's in my systems. I love them. They have a very distinctive sound to them that I find I really like. At first, I was worried it might be fatiguing, but I have not found that to be true and I really think these amps deserve the high praise they get. They aren't fancy looking or anything, but they do the job very nicely.

I started with one 4B-ST, driving Sound Lab A-3s. Bought an additional 4B-ST for bridging. Read/spoke with several experts about pros and cons of bridging and decided to replace them with 7B-STs, with which I'm very happy. Still wonder if by doing so I in effect simply replaced bridged 4B-STs with "other" bridged 4B-STs (in the form of 7B-STs). The 7B-STs do offer a bit more versatility with the mode switching (series/parallel) feature however.

I haven't heard the 14B-SST, but from what I've read it's a better amp, with even lower distortion. With my present arrangement using monos, I have very short speaker cables, so going to a single amp would require some changes in that respect.

I think if I make any changes in amps it will be to tubed units, such as the ASL Hurricane monos. Hate to think about paying full retail though. With all of the swapping with Brystons, I've managed to upgrade without losing any money in the various transactions, and the 7B-STs were new units at a used price.

I have been using 7B STs for the last 16 months or so and see no reason to "upgrade", "downgrade" or "sidegrade". From what I read, the new SST series is better. The question is: to what extent? I don't think that the introduction of "new" or "improved" amps by Bryston should be seen as indicative that the previous models are, somehow, flawed.

So if you have the money to buy new, I would see what the best deal is and would go with either the 14B SST or a pair of 7B SSTs. I tend to favour monoblocks for all the obvious reasons: shorter speaker cables, totally isolated channels, probably better heat dissipation from the two separate chassis. So, money being equal or almost, I would go with the monoblocks. If you don't want to spend for new, I would use the same logic. Every new iteration of a product is, somehow, perceived as providing vast improvements in sound. That's fine. But if you go with the older model ask yourself a simple question: how significant are the improvements? Hard to do a side by side comparison, I agree, (and I think that is what you actually want to find out here) I would wager that all other factors being equal, the difference is probably very small. On one side we are told of a revolution a week in power amps, and on the other that they all sound alike given the same power rating and decent noise and distortion figures. The truth is probably that they do sound pretty much alike, with small improvements being made over time. Add to that the fact that improvements can be for reasons other than sound quality (heresy!), such as manufacturing efficiencies, improved reliability and marketing pressures, and running equipment that is not of the absolutely latest generation is not a bad proposition.

I posed a similar question a few weeks ago only it was whether to buy and bridge a second 3B-ST or buy a 4B-ST or two 7B-STs. The concensus was that the speakers' load was the issue since Bryston did not rate the bridged 3B-ST at 4 ohms. My speakers would present a 4 ohm load. The pair of 3B-ST amps would probably handle the load, but run hot. If the bridged 4B-STs can handle your speakers' impedance then you have a good option buy buying a second amp. That said, I'm hoping to get 7B-STs. You might write Bryston...

So what is the purpose of the upgrade? I can't imagine you needing more power to drive the Sonatina II's, they are fairly sensitive at 93db. Do you prefer the sound of the 7B-ST or 14B-ST? The 7B-ST operates in high-current or high-voltage mode (series or parallel, I forget which is which). High-current mode isn't recommended for speakers over 3 ohms. The high-voltage mode is essentially the same as bridging a 4B-ST. I had the 7B-ST in my system for a one week audition. The biggest enhancement over the 4B-ST is stereo separation. There was an increase in dynamics in high-current mode and a slight sweetness in the treble but you couldn't use it with your speakers.

If you have money to spend and want to improve your system I would consider power conditioning, power cords for your source, IC's, or speaker cables.