Comments on Bryston SP-1 Pre/Pro

Mike,

Have a look at Audio Review (I know, I know). But occasionally someone with a brain makes a sensible post there. Check out Robert's review - most laudatory in its tone (Shane's also). Awaiting delivery on mine and will post my impressions here after I get the little devil up and running. Am an unapologetic fan of Bryston. Have auditioned it and think it superb. But you will always find someone who will criticize anything, including Rowland, Apogee, EAD, Levinson, what have you. You pays your money and you takes your choice.

Doubtless, there may be someone who reads this and will presume to correct the great unwashed (me).

Adamanteus,

Thanks for the response, I talked with Bryston today on the phone. I downloaded the manual from their site but couldn't find anything about bass management, they assured me the cutoffs are changeable from 40Hz up to 100. They have a memo attached to the manuals when they ship and will have it posted on the website shortly. I love my 4B-ST amp and if this pre is anything like it, it will be a winner for sure. Would be very interested in your report/review when you receive yours. How long have you been waiting?? They also told me they are down to about a 2 week turnaround when they receive an order.

Hi Mike,

Are you working with a local dealer? If you are not, you may want to send me a private e-mail (I think you can get if from this site) and I can give you some real interesting info that may save you time and money. Actually my wait has been slightly more than one week; I should have it within the next couple of days. If you do get one, you are going to love it. Forget the naysayers. Some people just have a problem with Bryston because they don't go in for the "bells and whistles" approach to design and performance. And you are going to find it a wonderful match with the 4B ST, a real synergy occurs, although it will "sing" with any Bryston amp of later vintage.

Fairness compels me to point out my bias in finally settling on this unit: being an inveterate audiophile, I still do a lot of serious stereo listening. While there are some wonderful pre/pros out there, none I'm aware of except Bryston uses a pure analog bypass. There probably is one or two, I just couldn't find them in my neck of the woods. No matter how carefully executed, running a signal through a DAC does not necessarily help things sonically. I auditioned a number of units and the only one that does a real nice job on stereo (other than the Bryston, of course) is the Theta Casblanca(?). Not sure of the model, just remember that at 10K it is WAY beyond my point of diminishing returns. And the other point is more philosophical: I simply like Bryston's design philosophy by which they'd rather avoid the RF problems associated with video switching. My monitor has sufficient inputs, so that makes the switching problem irrelevant to me. Someone with a monitor whose inputs are limited to one or two would obviously have to look elsewhere.

Will post my findings when the beast is up and running and properly dialed in.