Comments for Bryston 4B SST2 Stereo Power Amplifier at http://www.sdinfo.com , comment 1 to 13 out of 13 comments http://www.sdinfo.com Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:00:05 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.sdinfo.com/power-amplifiers/673-bryston-4b-sst2-c-series.html#comment-2966 No way this guy used a receiver for his pre amp with this top notch amp. Unbelievable. Even an older pre amp with balanced outputs would have smoked the Marantz. this was exiting to see such a mainstream affordable amp get reviewed by you guys, just to have it dashed with the setup. Not unlike 'for speakers I used Bose 301s...' Not splitting hairs here, this is just a silly way to evaluate gear. He could not have borrowed a decent pre amp for the Bryston? Even the lowly Benchmark DAC1 used with it's own cheap volume control would have been eons better than the catastophic system the author used. surely secrets will do a follow up with a proper system to save face? - greg Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:54:43 +0100 http://www.sdinfo.com/power-amplifiers/673-bryston-4b-sst2-c-series.html#comment-2640 how does it compare do you think? - pendo Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:51:01 +0100 http://www.sdinfo.com/power-amplifiers/673-bryston-4b-sst2-c-series.html#comment-2245 This amp is as powerful as pro amps and tender sounding as highest-end amps! I had 4BSST and now am a happy owner of a pair of 7BSST monoblocks. In my eyes they are unbeatable in terms of quality. Crystal clear sound without too much philophy. And - They are not expensive at all considering what you get for the money. - Pete B. Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:43:13 +0100 http://www.sdinfo.com/power-amplifiers/673-bryston-4b-sst2-c-series.html#comment-2129 Well, heck, might as well just get some of these power amplifiers, which are rated at 575 watts RMS x 2 into 8 ohms. They only cost $499. http://www.musiciansbuy.com/Mackie-FR2500-2500W-Stereo-Power-Amp.html#specs And, instead of a Ferrari, just buy 20 Toyota Prius cars. - JEJ Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:39:42 +0100 http://www.sdinfo.com/power-amplifiers/673-bryston-4b-sst2-c-series.html#comment-2127 All other things being (sound) being comparable....love that warranty guys. Never needed it and thats the point. I have traded in and out of equipment throughout the years racheting up the food chain along the way. Good Bryston pieces make good investments. They offer great sound and lots of assurance to any prospective buyer of quality used equipment. When money's and issue, getting a great piece of gear used with no worries about something breaking is a super way for someone to get into good sound. I currently own a pair of Bryston 28B SST monoblocks for 2 channel with a 9B SST2 for surround. I could never have done that if I had bought lesser gear and watched it depreciate. By the way a good example is a used 14B ST. These have really outstanding sound that no new amp of any make can touch for less that 3,4 or 5 times the current cost. These usints are about 5 or 6 years old with 15 years remaining on the warranty and they have gone up in value. This cannot be said of any of the current esoteric hi-end makes. - Ray Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:57:16 +0100 http://www.sdinfo.com/power-amplifiers/673-bryston-4b-sst2-c-series.html#comment-2125 If, for example, you can get a Crown pro audio amp with equal or superior power for 1/10th the cost, who needs a 20 year warranty? Just buy a bunch of pro-audio amps, replace if/when they fail (which they probably won't; pro-audio gear is built to take a beating), and devote that saved $$ something more worthwhile. If you insist on something that looks like home audio gear, the big Emotiva amps are just as powerful as the bryston at about 1/4 the cost. Also, I am music-centric, so I sometimes fail to consider HT demands, for which prodigious power is certainly desireable. In music, the most demanding parts are big orchestral crescendos, snare hits, and kick drums, which my inexpensive 8 watt SETs (that have a LIFETIME warranty, by the way) reproduce more convincingly than the 2000w crown, which is currently pressed into dubious service in my 'home theater' (read 'the basement, where old equipment goes into semi-retirement'). Sheeit, for $4200 I could put together an entire system that would be totally class F. A class F system is one where the guy who spends $50K on a top-shelf system only to hear a thoughtfully put together $4K system that trounces his and says 'F*** me!' That's a class F system. - ds Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:44:22 +0100 http://www.sdinfo.com/power-amplifiers/673-bryston-4b-sst2-c-series.html#comment-2118 If you had the choice of buying XP for $50, or exactly the same OS but with a guarantee that it would never get a virus, or ever crash - but for $100. Which would you buy? Me - I don't like having two steps back and fix things. When my Quad 66 broke (bought 1989) for the first time - it didn't even cross my mind that this might be out of support. Why? Because its a Quad. Quad (like Bryston) are a treasures of a company. The sound from some amplifiers changes at different volume levels. Usually, the HF gets more distorted / spitty - leaving you with - ok, I need to back off a bit. The £2k Bryston, the £6k Mark Levinson, and a they don't change. To my ears, the ML sounds slightly different. Now wheel other amps and compare. Me - I like this feature. Rob - another others that think that 500Watts is absurd. Go to a hi-end shop that has a Nautilus 801D. Take some rock music that you like - and a sound pressure meter (Tandy/Radioshack). Listen to it on 500W amplifier like the Bryston. Play it at an engaging level - and see what level of SPL you read. Now go to your home system, and play the same track on 100W amp, on similarly (90dB/watt) speakers. What you find is that you probably listen to the N801Ds at 10 times the sound pressure level. Regards, Antony For reference: I currently make use of Denon monoblocks, Bryston 4BSST, Crown K2, AVI, WiredSound, Classe, Technics, and Quad amps. Oh - and I recently Switched to Apple and have never any any issues, crashes, virus, or any setup problems what so ever. - Tuckshop Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:27:32 +0100 http://www.sdinfo.com/power-amplifiers/673-bryston-4b-sst2-c-series.html#comment-2112 Bryston is built like a tank, very powerfull, and has great warranty, no question about that. I question however, the objectivity of the reviewer. He is a long-time user and is in love with the brand, obviously. There are SO MANY good sounding amps out there for a fraction of the cost. This is a relatively new phenomena - but many manufacturers now get 95% of the way there for @ of the cost of Bryston. A Naim Nait for example, is arguably just as refined, is built also to last 20 years, and somehow does not need mamoth electricity-sucking high power to sound sublime. That's for Naim, but there are a least a dozen others that could be mentionned. OK they are not warrantied for 20 years but...do you really think such protection is not factored in the price of the amplifier ? Nothing is free, last time I checked. This is not a put-down on Bryston - it IS a fine amp in a world of solid offerings, most less expensive, some a lot more, and MOST of them (even the most expensive ones) not needing this absurd quantity of watts to power loudspeakers adequately. A design for Machos and thick-faceplate braggers for sure. If you have that kind of cash to spend on toys, spend less money on a low-watts-quality-watts unit and hear the difference. It might not shake the house, but it WILL sound like music, and you will have money left to buy some too. - Rob Fri, 21 Aug 2009 04:59:33 +0100 http://www.sdinfo.com/power-amplifiers/673-bryston-4b-sst2-c-series.html#comment-2110 Compare it with a car. A Fiat can make 180 kmh. A Mercedes make 250 kmh. Normally you drive 120 kmh, so why do you need more? The difference is that at 100 kmh the Mercedes drives much easier than the Fiat. With this amplifier it is the same. - Joost Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:22:21 +0100 http://www.sdinfo.com/power-amplifiers/673-bryston-4b-sst2-c-series.html#comment-2104 ....no man ever said, "Gee, I wish I had gone for the wimpy amp. The one I bought is just too powerful for my home theater!" - JMW Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:03:54 +0100 http://www.sdinfo.com/power-amplifiers/673-bryston-4b-sst2-c-series.html#comment-2102 You can never have too much power. You can only not have enough power, because that's when you get clipping, which can damage the speakers. With a big power amplifier, you still watch movies at a normal level, but when the transient demands come along, such as explosions, gun shots, crashing windows, etc., the big amplifiers can deliver the required extra power. - JEJ Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:59:45 +0100 http://www.sdinfo.com/power-amplifiers/673-bryston-4b-sst2-c-series.html#comment-2101 but who on earth would need this? The only reason you need such prodigious power is if you are using horribly inefficient speakers or trying to fill a very large venue with sound. Or to give yourself a warm fuzzy for having really top-notch gear. For home use, this is just ridiculous overkill, and could be accomplished at about a tenth the cost using pro-audio amps, or about one quarter the cost if using something like Emotiva components. In either case, there would be no appreciable or measurable difference in sound. I suppose if you have the money to burn, more power to ya. If I were going to blow this kind of money, I would consider the Pass Labs class A amps before the Bryston, as they actually do sound better than common AB amps, which I believe the Brystons are. And if you use the Brystons up to their potential, better buy stock in Phonak. - ds Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:19:48 +0100 http://www.sdinfo.com/power-amplifiers/673-bryston-4b-sst2-c-series.html#comment-2100 I have 7 channels of Bryston power amps in my home theater. After about 8 years of faithful use, I decided to change the terminations on my cables. Not the best of decisions, as I messed up one of the channels of the 5 channel model. I contacted Bryston, and they immediately had me send in just the "bad" channel (a huge cost savings in shipping because of the whole amps weight). They must have repaired it in record time, as I received it back instantly. It's been working perfectly ever since. This was no doubt my fault, but there was never any blame placed on me. No cost! Try that with any product you can think of in audio/video; and to think, I only have about 10 years left on the warranty. - Norm Strings Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:05:53 +0100