Hafler 9500 vs Bryston 4bsst Class Rating B vs A


Thinking of upgrading my 10yr old Hafler with a new Bryston How much differance will I notice ?
Is it worth 3 times the price ?
When tried many amps i liked the Haflers detail and extra mid Qualities , however these new Brystons look to be pretty good .
Would like to hear from people who have compared directally these two .
What I have.
Anthem AVM-20
Energy veritas 2.8 ( I like much better then new versions )
5 Hafler amps xl280s , 9500 , dh500 , se120
Revel B15
Energy center and 22 referance rear
Thanks
Brian
krazyclocks
I guess its a matter of perspective. I own the Bryston 4bsst with the bp-20 preamp. I owned a parasound. They are both fine amps but to my ears the Bryston is more neutral with clear highs, great mids and very good bass control. It goes to show you that different ears hear different things
Thanks for quick replys .
A little more about myself and system my hafler is slightly modded by myself .
I too have sold gear in the past but now just repair and watched the amps change over the last 30 years .
I have had a bryston 4b but was old model and was ok but not up to speed .
Really looking for direct comparisons for these 2 amps as I no longer can try anything out just buy .
I just put back together an old Sansui 9090 so many of these (70s rxvrs) are still out there as they were built tough do not run with high bias , but the parts just were not avialable at that time to sound like they do now , for example the matched Fast types used in Bryston and many others .
But as an audiofile my budget is not that high , that is why Bryston looks good to me ,and if ever resell be no problem .
Hafler 9505 slew rate blows away the paltry Bryston. Parasound Halos also have a high rate.
Well will start by saying this is my point of view.....
After reading many peoples comments about cables , wiring etc etc decided while reworking my system would give some a try once again .
First will start by saying i'm not like alot of members here that change their stuff faster then change thier socks .
For example the stand that houses the stereo I found the material bill is from 1985 , still using it although not very modern lookin....
The last couple years after a non change for 10 years has meant a new processor Anthem AVM-20 , new center Revel C-30 , Sub Revel B15 Behringer DEQ , 2 new amps Bryston 4bsst and 9bsst , rewire to all balanced inputs / outputs rewire a/c .
Start with the Balanced cables used Canare star quad DIY with Neutric gold XLRs , how much differance very slight maybe a little more s/n but only small amount , frequency wise perhaps no differance .
A/C , went all out put in 2 dedicated runs with 12 Gauge wire hospital grade Hubbells . This was great deal of work crawling under house and running wires (sore next day ) .
Also made new cords from amp to wall Marinco and 10 Gauge mil spec silver plated copper wire , shielded dirrectional and covered over 3/4 inch diameter that made ends hard to use had to dremill out to fit .
Now this made slight differance not in sound so much as used to have interferance when turned on quartz lights a clunk now gone so perhaps power is little more stable , I think biggest differance is the ends fit very tightly .
Also biwired the speakers (Energy Veratas 2.8s ) using old ofc 12 Gauge and 10 gauge mil spec silver plated wire , treated everything with progold too . If this made differance it is also very slight , not so easy to a-b dirrectally .
Anthem very good processor , do not want just a stereo system for music want home theatre as well . This made very noticable differance , hard to explain but more detail in mids and highs and more music from darkness .
Revel Center C30, always center is hard to get right this one is good better then all tried , was improved alot when got 9b into system .
Mostly more natural vocals most noticable lower mids better .
Revel B15 sub . This one took awhile to find the right one , perhaps the hardest decision wanted sub sound good on music but can overkill on movies . My old passive jbl bx380 sounded better on music then the regular Paradigms etc . The Velodyne was great but was just not enough over kill for movies . This one does it all at a cost of fairly big bucks but overall one of the best if not the best upgrade sound wise .
The Behringer DEQ many people do not believe in Eqs , this one is very good and fixes room glitch quite well , now that have will keep in system , this is worth the money for education purpose alone .
Bryston 4bsst and 9bsst , very fine amps , very quiet very good from top to bottom 4bsst is better bargain for perfomance , both will likily stay in system for long time if never replace is fine with me .
Still looking for Cd player , however with using Anthem as DAC they sound so far pretty much the same so no clear way to upgrade for me .
Put Denon tt back in system sad to say cd sounds much better , but depends on music somewhat I listen to alot older Rock and was not so well recorded and the remastered cds are much better to me .
Cds One upgrade not so much money all the remasters are great so far , lean towards Mfsls but there are alot of good ones .
My old Energy 2.8s still do well compared to modern counterparts as well as other brands , perhaps just used to the sound they produce or maybe they just got it right with these .
Quite often I listen to music at around 90 -95 dbs and these new little driver bookself speakers just do not work ( for me ).
I also like the speed and imaging from dome mids , they just work for me . Overall very happy with the system and sound and should not give any troubles for years.
The bottom line as this tread started , the Brystons were an excellent upgrade.
Anyways this is my experiances latily , sorry about typos ...
Couple Pictures...
[img]http://oberon.ark.com/~bngserv/img/StereoFront.jpg[/img]
[img]http://oberon.ark.com/~bngserv/img/StereoBack.jpg[/img]