Bryston or Classe audio ? what do you think of both?

I found Bryston to be a little too flat in the mids and too bright in the treble for my taste, but I'm a tube lover so maybe I'm biased. No pun intended. I owned Classe for a number of years and was very happy with the sound. To me, the Classe amps sounded a little sweeter, more robust, warmer, but not too extreme. Classe is a good match for neutral to dry sounding speakers like my Thiel CS 1.5's.

I have since moved more toward the sweet musical sound of tubes with my Conrad-Johnson and Audio Research gear. I guess this doesn't answer your question but it's really a matter of personal taste and component matching. I lean more toward a slightly sweet, warm, and musically engaging sound. I prefer Classe over Bryston for SS gear and I even prefer Classe over Krell. I didn't like Krell at all. I found Krell to be powerful but dry and almost harsh.

The Brystons are good, tough and reliable but in back to back comparisons in the same system a friend who sells audio and myself both preferred the simaudio 4070SE and the moon W-3 were also much more musically compelling on vocals.....I haven't heard the newer classe but an early 90's amp I heard seemed uninvolving but my audio friend owned an old classe monster that ran full out classe A....a dark sounding musical old monster.....however I should point out if we hadn't heard the sim amps back to back with the brystons we would have been happy with the bryston sound....hope this helps. Remember, you should get to try in your system before deciding....have fun....cheers, bluenose

I have owned both brands. One was an old Bryston 4B ( 250 @ 8 / 400 @ 4 ). I had purchased the unit used via the net and it arrived in poor condition. I ended up sending it back to their US repair facility.

While Bryston's customer service and warranty are second to none, i was not impressed with the unit when i got it back. It did not seem to be nearly as powerful as it was supposed to be and was constantly going into clipping. I was guaranteed by the service tech that the amp was running better than factory spec when it left their shop. I sold it shortly thereafter.

Using the same set of speakers, i tried a Classe' 70 ( 75 wpc @ 8 / 150 wpc @ 4 with 3 db's of dynamic headroom ).
While this amp was last made in 1994, it was WAY newer in terms of parts & design as compared to the Bryston. Not only did it drive tough loads much better than the more powerful ( on paper ) Bryston, it sounded much more musical. While both amps were somewhat lean sounding, i would have picked the Classe' if it came down to either sonics OR "power".

Please keep in mind that each "system" is a sum of all the parts combined. As such, try not to look at things "piece by piece" but as "what will work well together". Good luck and do as much listening in person as you can. Sean
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WOW!!!
Thank you to all of you for the great answers :)

this kinda stuff really helps me learn about all that :)

ok ..presently..the only speaker i own are Mirage Om-10
( running on an old akai receiver wich is shit for power but reallllly warm in stereo at low volume level and costed me 0$ :)

i really really enjoy my MIRAGE and i really think that all my speakers are gonna be part of Mirage OM since i have yet to hear a speaker that please me more in the same range of price
i'll be getting OM-9 later on to use as front speakers, and i'll shoot the OM-10 to the back for HT..and get OM-C2 center and a BPS150 or 400 (powered sub )

i didn't wanna get the powered OM cause they are double price for the same components except the amplifier
so the OM-9-10 are cheap..same quality and i can useand change the amplifier as i wish :)

are the OM consider warm ? dry ?
i really have some difficulties telling that though..
( with my poor receiver and input.. )

how do you guys get to hear all the difference in sound like that ? i should do a lot more listening i think..

for the preamp ..i am in the same dilema as for the amp
at first i was looking to get a powered receiver..

was looking into Nakamichi AV-10 ...cause i really enjoy Naka sound.. but then i thought that this wouldn't be upgradable and it's not as musical as i wish to have..

so i was looking at either Classe SSP-30 i think..
and the bryston SP1 wich both seem nice..and analog bypass :)

wich preamp brand is good ?

should i be matching AMP brand with pream brand?

thanks again:)

( hey .. MIRAGE,CLasse audio,bryston ..that's Canada power system :) haha )

If you have a chance, check out Belles "Hot Rod" version of their amps, they have the 150A and 350A. Both have serious power/current capability and an amazing musicality that is really hard to resist. Others may disagree, but these two amps will give Bryston and Classe a serious run for YOUR money.

The 350A can be purchased with either 2, 3, 4, 5, or even 6 channels.

The 150A is rated at:
Power20 to 20,000 Hz
125 Watts per channel 8 ohms
225 watts per channel 4 ohms

The 350A is rated at:
Power 20 to 20,000 Hz
250 Watts per channel 8 ohms
400 watts per channel 4 ohms

Belles 150A
Belles 350A

Here's some reviews of the 150A to give you an idea of how highly rated they are:
Soundstage 150A review

http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/belles_150a_hotrod.htm

Audiophile Audition 150A review

http://www.audaud.com/audaud/MAY01/EQUIP/equip3MAY01.html