Any Love For Bryston Here?

mrdecibel : I should have asked this as a question. :)

Do you not find that modern amps have less cap failures than they used to, and are you comparing equally aged pieces of gear?


Erik

Eric, I am not only speaking of the storage cap failures, although, there were a number of poor quality caps that I have seen, as well as excellent caps. Many older pieces of gear, with newer components, re soldering of circuit traces, etc. ( complete rebuilds ) would surprise you, as amp design, for what it is today, is not significantly superior today, as opposed to yesterday. Good technicians today ( some I know ) are extremely busy, as re builds are an excellent alternative of  many, as opposed to purchasing a newer product. I hope I answered your inquiry. Best, MrD.

I really like my BDP-2

ozzy

I think the 4B Cubed is a hell of an amp, and a sleeper in the high-end. It won't give you all the tactility and liquidity of the best Class A/tube stuff, but it gets you 90% of the way there with indestructible build quality few in the high-end can touch, and of course that incredible warranty and support. It's not cheap, but one of the best values on the market in the grand scheme of things. I returned the review unit and often regret not having kept it. It would be at the top of my list for a hybrid music/theater system in particular, where you need something powerful and bulletproof but still true to the source with music. (The review is super overdue but I will hopefully get it out in the next couple weeks.)

The 17B3 preamp is quite transparent - not as compelling musically as the amp, but accurate and dynamic.

Cheers,
TAWW

I had a Bryston preamp and amp years ago. I believe that the preamp was the BP25 with a MM phono board. I also had the 3BST amp. I ended up swapping the preamp for a used McIntosh home theatre preamp, which was a huge improvement over the BP25 in terms of sound quality and functionality.  However, the Mac amplifier that I later paired it with did not really improve on the 3BST. So what I am saying is that I felt that the Bryston amplifier was a much better performer than the Bryston preamp that I had it paired with.