Bryston B-135 SST2 Integrated Amp Is Now Here!

Bryston B-135 SST2 integrated amp front.

Rear view of the Bryston B-135 SST2. My only gripe? No balanced or XLR inputs!

No amplifier manufacturer wants to be caught without a high end integrated amp in their line up these days, and Bryston is catching up. With today's homes being more compact, most urban folks have learned to do more with less. That's why the high quality integrated amps such as Bryston B-135 SST2, which is rated at 135 watts @ 8 ohms and 180 watts @ 4 ohms load, seems like a good solution to saving space while offering optimum sound quality of audiophile grade.

I had the opportunity to sample the B-135 SST2 powering a pair of PMC PB1i loudspeakers and came away impressed with the degree of bass control and definition in the sound. Fed by Bryston's very own BDP-1 digital media player and BDA-1 DAC combo, with all Wywire cabling, the sound was not only well controlled, but possessed a degree of transparency and rhythmic sure footedness rarely found on lesser integrated amps. Fact is the PMC PB1i loudspeakers are not exactly the easiest to drive, let alone for an integrated to exert control over, which is credit to Bryston for the new found SST2 circuitry and new short signal path pre-amp, which based on the latest SP-3 AV processor's design.

The said system is now on demo at AV Designs showroom, located at Rohas Perkasa in KL.

Please contact James or Tony at 03-21712828 for enquiries or demo appointment.

Most Significant Changes In My Hifi 2011.

For me 2011 was the year the CD format went obsolete, well not totally, only because I still use them in my car for routine drive time listening. I rated the Bryston BDP/BDA-1 combo so highly, I decided to get them for my own listening pleasure. Yes, they require a totally changed mindset in terms of handling, storing and music playback. However, once I got used to the new practices, it just became another part of my autonomous audiophile habit, taken for granted! 

The Bryston BDP/BDA-1 combo is just perfect for me and my digital music files.


Having lived the Bryston combo for nearly a whole year now, I am still in the process of finishing all the rips from my CD collection and storing them in to my hard drives. I've also downloaded plenty of hi-rez files from the likes of Linn Music, HD Tracks, 2L, Chesky, amongst many other legit pay for music sites. The coolest thing about the Bryston combo is that I can access my music via my iPhone 4 any where from my home!

Isn't she sexy? The "cool" iPhone control interface that is!


The Bryston combo can be said to have the best compromises between convenience, sound quality, and life style all in one product. I've never look back towards my CD collection with fondness, only because 16 bit AIFF or FLAC files just sounded better, compared to the original disc it self, playing in a CD player!(I must however, qualify the statement with "unless the CD player is a TAD D-600") Hi-rez music is just icing on the cake, even if some of the files are of questionable quality. 

The Torus Power RM8A twins. The AVR version below is the best for those residing in ares where voltage in-stability is a major concern.  


The next item that took my system performance a few notches up is the Torus Power RM8A AVR. This it self is a further up grade from an RM8A isolation trans, from the noisy and unstable power supply in the Subang Jaya area! While some have questioned my wisdom for spending way too much on what is, essentially a power conditioner, all I can say is this, "to each his own, as in hifi there is no wrong nor right, only what sounds right to my ears, as it should be yours too!" 

The 3 piece Pass Labs X0.2 is cumbersome for sure, but once I heard it, I no longer wanted the X1 pre amp, which was my original up grade target!


The final piece in the 2011 up grade puzzle came in the form of a Pass Labs X0.2 pre amp. If you've been reading this blog for the past year or so, you'd realised that 2011 is the time we went all out to listen to some of the best pre amps in the market today. So why did I choose what is essentially a dated, last generation product when I have tasted some of the latest and greatest? I offer you two excuses. First, all those super duper, latest and greatest high end designs are simply out of my reach financially. The JRDG Corus sounded particularly "out of this world" in my system, but I simply can't afford it. The next excuse is what some audiophiles call synergy. I simply found the older X0.2 to have such complementary synergy when mated to my Pass Labs old dog, the Aleph 0 power amp. While the latest top pre amp designs, including the XP-20 that Odiosleuth bought, have improved lower noise floor, and better low level transparency with overall neutrality, I've always thought the X0.2 brought a degree of warmer tonal palette and romanticism that is more in line with my system's sonic synergy, and audio preferences.

I still love my music in all forms and genre which I consider as most important criteria when assembling, or up grading a hifi system. While I aim to take it slow and easy this year, who knows what 2012 has in stored?

10 Qs For Brian Russell Of Bryston Ltd.

Brian Russell hokding the award winning Bryston BDP-1 Digital Media Player. That's hard work Brian, one more wood fire pizza for you. Ha! Ha!

It's been more than 2 years since I met Brian Russell, marketing head honcho at Bryston Ltd. The Canadian company has had a successful run with their amplifier products and has since branched out in to the digital arena, first with the BCD-1 CD player, then a BDA-1 DAC and lastly, the TAS 2011 Product Of The Year Winner, BDP-1 Digital Media Player, which incidentally is also my resident reference digital source.

AV Designs invited a few local hifi scribes to ask Brian 10 Qs, which are not all entirely mine, however, I cherry pick the 10 best bits for your reading pleasure!

Big E: Welcome back Brian, what brings you to these shores again?

BR: I am en-route to Bangkok after attending the Australian Hifi Show, held in Melbourne last week. However, since Bangkok is now flooded, I'll stay here instead.

Big E: Congrats for the success of the BDP-1 Digital Media Player, which I heard just won TAS 2011 Product Of The Year!

BR: Yeah! The BDP-1 is quite the game changer in the digital music market, because it allows music lovers to interact with their whole music libraries with a different experience. It's like when people just went from LP to CD, now that was a fundamental shift in music experience. Now the same is happening all over again when people move from CDs to music files.

Big E: Do you use a BDP-1 at home?

BR: Not yet, due to the fact that it's so successful in the market place, our production output is still catching up with market demand. I am now taking my sweet time to ripp all my CD collection on to the computer for storage. Once my collection is ready, I'll take the BDP-1 back home with me. I am currently using a BCD-1 as digital source. By the way, we are now shipping the last of the BCD-1 CD players out of the factory, because Philips has officially stop ed manufacturing the VAM series transports. We've been thinking about building a final Bryston CD player that you can buy, and we're thinking to make it the best CD player we can. What do you think?

Big E: Actually, there are two ways of looking at it. I believe there are people like me who already have a BDP-1 and would like a integrate it with a state of the art CD player that allows DAC input capable of the next generation of 32/384 hi rez file precessing. The other way is just a simple but well engineered transport to be added on to the existing BDA-1 DAC, which in my opinion, is a very high performance unit.

BR: There are few things we're considering at the moment but our market feedback shows a preference for top loading CD players in the premium market. Do you agree?

Big E: Actually, I have neither preference for top loaders or tray drawer based CD players, as long as the drive is well designed with equally high attention to build quality. Of more importance is the elimination of jitter error. Other then a next generation CD player, what other products can we expect from Bryston in the near future?

BR: We've just successfully launched the SP-3 Surround Processor and we have a back log of orders to clear at the moment. However, the next product on the launch pad is called the BHA-1, a head phone amp. It's already in the final stages of design, and will be ready for production very soon.

Big E: A head phone amp? Wow! Is it a portable unit or a regular hifi sized box?

BR: It's actually a full size unit, just like a BP-26 pre-amp box, without most of the knobs. We've designed the BHA-1 to have multiple inputs, and a front panel volume control. The circuitry is designed to drive any, and I mean ANY head phone design you can find in the market, including the very demanding high end electrostatic models. We feel this is an area that we can draw a new generation of hifi consumers who are now just using an iPod for their music and are used to head phone listening habits. We hope that once they experience the effects of a great head phone musical performance, they'd feel more comfortable about stepping in to the high end audio.

Big E: What is the expected price of BHA-1 when it hits the market?

BR: We have not finalized the product pricing of the BHA-1 just yet, however in Bryston tradition, we'd like to price it afford ably, so more people can have access to our quality products.

Big E: How is the Bryston affected by the current turbulent world economies, especially in the US and Europe?

BR: I'd be lying if I say we're not affected in any way. However, I dare say that in the scheme of things, we are less affected than many other high end audio companies. You must believe me when I tell you that times are really bad.... out there right now.

Big E: Since you're rather less affected than others, do you see this as a good opportunity to pick up some other high end brands out there for portfolio extension?

BR: Well, I wouldn't say it to you even if I have any such plans! Not here any way, but seriously, NO, we are not looking grow via the acquisition or merger route.


Jo sharing some insight on the BDP-1 and future Bryston CD player with Brian.


Big E: What did you do prior to joining Bryston?

BR: I was actually a chef, would ya believe me? Then one day, I woke up and asked my boss "If I wanted this, and that, in my life, would I be able to achieve my goals here?" He said no! And told me to look elsewhere in pursue my dreams. Joining Bryston was easy, because my father was one of the founders of the company! That's how I achieved my dreams, because everyday, it just doesn't feel like I am going to work! See, I am now here having fun just chatting with you guys. Hey! I am very hungry now, where's wood fire pizza we're talking about? Ha! Ha!

At this point, all the cakes and coffee became meaningless, and so we adjourned to have some wood fire pizza, and Brian shared his killer recipe of it too! Yummy, yum, yum. He's right, this doesn't feel like work after all.

We'd like to offer our thanks to James and Tony at AV Designs for making this fun session possible.

AV Designs at KLIAV 2011

AV Designs is going full Bryston / PMC this year. The system will be used for demo-ing both stereo and 7.1 channel home theatre.

The main highlight is the hot off the production line Bryston SP-3 pre-amp processor. KLIAV showgoers will be the lucky ones as we are the first country in this region to experience the Bryston SP-3 in action.

The loudspeaker system will consist of the award winning PMC IB2i that impressed us so much recently. They will be driven by Bryston 28B-SST2 monoblocks that give out a mind boggling 1000w/8ohm.
To make the surround system complete, there will be the matching IB2i-C for the centre channel, and four PMC Wafers for the surrounds. They will all be driven by Bryston amps too.

The frontend for 2-channel will be none other than the Bryston BDP-1 media player, paired with the Bryston BDA-1 external DAC, by the way this pair is Big E's reference frontend in his system too. You will have the chance to listen to high resolution audio files as well as CD-rips.

For home-theatre, there will be both 2D and 3D demos, shown on a curved 130-inch 2.35:1 format screen from Screen Research. Do not miss the 3D home theatre demo especailly, as it is 3D done in an anamorphic 2.35 widescreen format, not the 16:9 format. We are made to understand that this is something that few if any exhibitor will be showing. This is surely one of the not-to-be-missed highlights in KLIAV 2011.

Video will be done via Pioneer blu-ray players and JVC's entry-level 3D projector, the RS40. To project in 2.35:1 format, an anamorphic expansions lens from Panamorph will be used.

Living With The Bryston BDP-1/BDA-1 Combo.

I was very impressed by the Bryston BDP-1/BDA-1 media player combo when it spent nearly two weeks in my man cave. Impressed enough to wanna buy them! I waited more than a month for them to arrive and since then have lived with them for two months. As some may say, it's easy to find a new best friend, but living with that person could open a whole dimension to that relationship. Here's my take so far on living with the Bryston combo.

The Bryston BDP-1 top, and BDA-1 bottom shelf.

When I first set up the Bryston combo, I just wanted to start off quickly with some music. So I set them up just by dumping them stacked on to the top shelf of my FE clone rack, on the space last vacated by my beloved Marantz CD 7. I just re-used all the cables available at hand to start things going and at the very least have some digital music during the long Chinese New Year holidays.

Using my way too cool iPhone 4 as the interface to access my music.

I fired up the player and was greeted with sound. However, I was not prepared for what I'd describe as a discrepancy in the sonic results that I had known from during the time of the review, more than a month ago. The Bryston combo sounded horrible with digitalis symptoms a plenty. However, having a few buddies on the band wagon, is really reassuring. Jo and Felix, both who got their units from an earlier batch assured me that they need some time to run in.

150 hours or so of continuous playback, had proven them right. The Bryston combo finally opened up and blossomed. I heard some of the sonic characteristics that made me wanna buy it in the first place. Both my Bryston buddies were on the express tweak experimental highway and their daily updates of what worked and didn't, came on a daily basis. I just followed the path laid down by them. Kudos to these two enlightened gentleman who proved time and again that hifi need not be a selfish hobby.

Bryston BDP-1 cables in white! From left, AOR Ref 003 power cord, Voodoo Reference AES/EBU digital cable(out), Telos Gold RCA cap, and LAN cable for WiFi router.

I started by experimenting with power cords, and found that the BDP-1 is not too sensitive about one power cord choice. However the BDA-1 would benefit from careful consideration of power cord choice. I found that Felix made AOR Ref 003 power cords suited the Bryston combo way better than the PS Audio xStream Statement SC. The sound with the PS Audio seemed incoherent, bass heavy with lumpiness, and constricted overall sound. The Felix made AOR Ref 003 is just way more open sounding, with better tonal balance, if a little less smooth on the highs. The PS Audio xStream Statement SC found new lease of life powering my Pass Labs X-Ono phono stage, with superb results.

Bryston BDA-1 DAC cables from front to back, AOR Reference 003 power cord(with Furutech IEC plug), Telos Gold RCA caps for inputs, Voodoo Reference digital cable(in), and Audioquest Sky XLR(blue) analog output.

I then set about to split the combo by giving them each a shelf of it's own. However, that meant re-configuring my rack space. It was a lot of work, as in the process, I also re-tensioned all the joints on the FE Spider clone rack. Trick to getting good sound from the said rack is to first tighten the joints on the outer legs, as solidly as possible. Then work towards the joints on the inside of the centre crown hub, where all the four legs are linked. However, the joints here need only be finger tight. I know it appears wobbly at first, but once all 3 tiers are done, one by one, starting from the lowest, working towards the top shelf, will result in a just as solid rack. By the way, if one has the FE Spider clone(or the original one for the matter), it's worth investing in the Ceraball Spider too for each tier, and a set of Ceraball universal for the feet of the four outer columns. The Ceraballs do make a huge difference to the sound, even if they're insanely expensive!

Odisleuth came over for a quick listen, and remarked " What did you do? the Brystons didn't sound like this the week before!" I replied, "I did a few things".

The Bryston combo as set up on the first day in my man cave. Do not stack them like this, as it's very bad for the sound quality.

If there was one thing that turned me away from CD transport/DAC combos all this while is due to the fact that the digital cable linking the two could make or break the sound. The Bryston combo is no exception! The AES/EBU cable that links up is one of the most important component, that will shape the final sound. I am in the process of checking out my options and you'll certainly read more about it in the near future.

In the mean time, I am also checking out other things that will affect the performance parameters of the Bryston combo, again which I'll report on in the future. I've discovered many other things that I normally take for granted when it comes to audio, but the Bryston combo makes me work harder, just to squeeze more performance out of it. There's really too much to write about in a day.

Simultaneously, I am also cataloging my entire CD collection, only this time, in to a 2 terabyte hard disk in my PC. I am also working on back up copies of the data, just in case the worst should happen. If there's one thing I hate about living with the Brystons is the amount of CD ripping required to catalog all my 2000 plus CD collection, not huge, yet it's still many hours of work. However, more importantly, as I go along, I rediscovered my music collection. To find rare albums in my collection that I've long forgotten about. Even then, my analog rig too, is benefiting from the new found perspective when setting up the Bryston combo.

It's all hard work, but it's worth all the effort, because I am finally advancing, and much nearer to achieving my sonic goals. More updates to come.

Starting A New Musical Journey. Bryston BDP-1 & BDA-1 Combo.

Where have all my CDs gone? Perhaps Jack The Ripper can answer that? Ha!Ha!

My Bryston BDP-1 Digital Media Player & BDA-1 DAC combo is finally here, after a long wait.

Can't wait to start my new musical journey during the CNY holidays. There's so much to do, so much to learn and lastly, so much music to enjoy.

I'll report more on my journey as I go along.

A Better Way Towards Hi Rez! Bryston BDP-1 & BDA-1 Combo.

This is the most high end USB thumb drive I've seen, it comes with a hair line finished metal cover and the Bryston logo printed on top. Bryston will include this thumb drive with 8 Chesky hi rez files pre loaded to start you up, only if you're the first 100 buyers of the BDP-1 and BDA-1 combo.

The past 2 weeks has been the most exciting time of my audio blog/reviewing life so far. The excitement is driven by a new format in the form of a USB thumb drive as a music carrier. There are merits to use the USB as a music carrier. It does not involve any mechanical device, i.e. no moving parts to degrade the signal or reliability issues. It's small, portable and cheap to purchase. Lastly, never did I imaging it'll sound so........ life changing good(for a dyed in the wool audiophile)!

This leads us to a new product range in the market called digital media players. The player in question today is the Bryston BDP-1. Bryston is not the first company to enter the market for this product niche, but it comes in with a bang!(a very big bang indeed) by offering the most bang for buck sound quality that any self proclaim high end hifi equipment can do for RM$8,400.00. One can argue that the humble PC or Mac computer, strap along with the latest USB DAC will do the same and much more for less, yes! I agree that much. But no, I've not heard any PC or Mac based music system reach the level of musical satisfaction that the Bryston combo offers. Read on if you're still interested.
The Bryston combo in my man cave! Note the 2 USB thumb drives in the front panel, and 2 more USB inputs in the back. The center alpha numeric display scrolls track information, but lacks a track timer like CD players have.

The Bryston BDP-1 is designed to match the Bryston BDA-1 DAC sonically and visually(finally, I now know the BDA-1 was meant for bigger things to come!). I came away impressed with the BDA-1 DAC when I played with it 2 months ago(refer to it's very own review dated 24/10/2010), but when partnered to the BDP-1 as a combo, the sonic results just completely blew my mind away! AV Designs, the local distributor for Bryston supplied the BDP-1/BDA-1 combo together with a computer router to link up with an iPad as system remote and a QED AES balanced digital cable. The BDP-1 is built in to the same solid casing as the BDA-1, and the spartan rear panel sports an AES digital balanced output, a BNC output, a network plug(for the a fore mentioned router) and an RS232 for future firmware up grades via the www. There's also four USB 2.0 input on the Bryston, two at the rear panel and 2 on the left side of the front panel. The front panel features a center display window with 2 rows of alpha numeric scrolling menu. Just on the right is an up/down, left/right navigation for the scrolling menu. Further right on the panel are the usual play, stop, pause, forward, reverse and power ON/OFF buttons. By the way, Bryston supplies a BR2 all aluminium body, with back lite buttons, remote along with the combo to access the music files just like a CD player remote, if one does not wanna splurge on an Apple iPad. However with an iPad, the music file access and management just got all the more fancier, sexier and just a whole lot more practical. I'd get an iPad for sure if the Bryston combo was mine!

If you're expecting the Bryston BDP-1 to do more than just play back, you'd be disappointed! Yes, just like your average CD player or turn table, the Bryston is a one trick pony, just specialising on playback only. You'll still need the support of a PC, connected to the Internet to do the down loadings and manage the music files for you.
Another look at a matching Bryston combo. They are available with either anodised black or silver front panels. I think the black one's look cool, but Malaysians tend to like silver panels more though.

I used the XLR balanced output from the BDA-1 to my pre amp and the rest of my system remains the same, but with the Marantz CD 7 player decommissioned. James also thoughtfully supplied me with a few USB thumb drives pre-loaded with some of my favorite CD rips @ 16/44.1 resolution and some other hi rez down loads from Chesky, HD Tracks, Linn Studio Masters and 2L web sites.

I had the Bryston combo set up and ready to play within 20 minutes after arriving home. I first listened to the CD rips which the musical contents that I am very familiar with, namely Charly Antolini's Crash, Diana Krall's Quiet Nights, Linn Super Audio Collection Vol.4, Dream Of An Opera by Rhymoi Music, Youn Sun Nah's Voyage, Danny Wright's Black & White and Jz8 by Lydia & Cher Siang. With the CD rips, the sound is even more transparent and truer to source than most CD players can muster. There's a lack of grain in the highs, full bodied mids with a bold & tuneful bass. On Charly Antolini's Crash rip, I found dynamic contrast and transient response of his drum kit and the bass guitar on the titled track to be even more extreme than the usual. The snare drums had real energy, and percussion tracks can swing to a dizzy musical spiral nearing sonic nirvana dom, as if such place existed. There's not much of a tonal quality to speak about here, and neutrality does not come to mind either. The chameleon like Bryston combo just gets out of the way and allows the music in the recording to speak for it self. The tonal quality and colour is therefore what the recording it self represents. It has shown me how awfully coloured my Marantz CD player was, for better or worse, and the weakness in the mechanical factor of the CD transport removed! I found that out when playing Danny Wright's Black & White solo piano tracks. If in the past, piano tracks were the sole digital advantage over analog, due to the later's poor speed stability, then the USB has shown up the flaws of jitter and it's correction factor apparent in the CD transport. I never suspect anything of such a miss with the CD player until I heard the Bryston combo. Practically every CD rip I played on the Bryston sounded consistently better than the CD player in so many ways. The back grounds were certainly quieter and darker, making musical nuances easier to absorb in to one listening experience, without the need to actively look for it.
The optional iPad remote interface is more user friendly and give more information about the music playing. It also allows one to program a play list and store favorites or recently played track listing. The picture above shows a Linn Studio Master down load playing at 24/192 sampling rate.

Another screen interface common with the iPad. The touch screen menu operation is cool too!

Now if the CD rips were impressive, then hi rez files, played back thru the Bryston combo is the deal breaker here. The whole hi rez experience is altogether in another league of it's own. I've certainly not heard hifi musical experience anymore life like than this, period. For once, I could just forget about digital, or analog? And just let the music take me away. The hi rez downloads musical experience is emotionally intense. Words just fail to describe how I felt after each long session of satisfying hi rez music, but it does not stop me from trying to share with you, our dear readers.

Playing my current fav, the Linn Super Audio Collection Vol,4 on hi rez Studio Master download is a whole new experience again, comparing to the CD rip and the CD playback it self! Maeve O' Boelye's Pray It Doesn't Happen renders her more life like, with much more guitar notes that the CD rip and CD play back it self missed. Playing track 9, excerpt from Aria: Sehet, Jesus Hat Die Hand where the Diva is even more clearly separated and relief ed from the mass strings in the back of stage. The mass strings do not sound like a lump of sound, but clearly separated individual string each in their own place, this level of detailing is breath taking to say the least.

The hi rez down loads simply blows any CD or LP based play back system in terms of sheer musical transparency. There's so much resolution loses in the CD and LP play back system, that when compared to hi rez, one is like trying to fill in the gaps/blanks within a sonic picture without even realizing it all this while. The hearing of minute instrument textures, harmonics and timbre with each note just lingering around a bit longer than before is just astonishing. Dynamics is un restrained, with out compression and every beat just hits harder and every pitch is more accurately defined. The highs are smooth and never piercing, totally devoid of digitalis, mids more highly dense than CD rips, not only mouth, head and chest, but there's body to the imaging. Bass is bold and tight when need be, or supple and organic too when a tune calls for it. Listen to hi rez down loads also reminded me of the naturalness of analog, perhaps more so....

If the back ground of the CD rips were already dark, then comparing to hi rez makes the back ground of the former seemed a little hazy white. This allows imaging to prop up of a 3D staging that much more convincingly, with hall acoustics and spatial cues a plenty, easily transporting the listener to the recording venue, all the more enjoyable with classical and "live" recordings. I've seldom have listening sessions longer than 2 hours usually, but during the time of the Bryston combo with me, I often stay up till way past mid night in sessions exceeding four hours. The easy going naturalness, non edgy and fatigue free sonic character of the Bryston combo just make me wanna try out hi rez music file after file! James managed to bring over a Paul McCartney & The Wings hi rez file towards the end of the review period, playing the track Band On The Run just made me re-discovered, why I liked this song so much when I was a kid, but hearing it on hi rez also made me discovered how much of the notes in music I did not hear then! There's also a feeling of imeadiacy in the Paul McCartney recording that makes it so endearing.
A CD player's worst nemesis?

Now the Bryston combo also showed me that not all hi rez music files are created equal, and higher sampling rate does not automatically means better sound either! This was the case when I compared some of the Linn Studio Master files at 24/88.2 against Chesky's hi rez at 24/96. At best we can probably call it even on sound quality, but I always find my self drawn to the Linn Studio Master files more than the Chesky, despite Linn's lower sampling rate. I found the Linn sound to have more crystaline clarity quality, and opposed to Chesky's more muted and slightly opaque characteristic. A matter of preference at play here perhaps? I guess it doesn't really matter either way, because these files are operating at SACD/DVD-A sampling rates, but I must question why did I never experience the same intense musical pleasure from either hi rez disc based format? It's just a thought, but hmmm.......

However, it was the recordings from Linn Studio Master files and 2L, a Swedish web site offering mainly classical music down loads, operating on the edge of the Bryston BDA-1 DAC's sampling frequency at 24/192, offered the most superior sound quality of all previously mentioned by comparison. I won't even go there and repeat to dissect the sound all over again, but I urge all audiophiles to at least try and sample these wonderful hi rez files on the Bryston combo for your selves.
The Bryston BDP-1 rear panel. By the way, the BDP-1 is less sensitive to after market power cords compared to the BDA-1 DAC.

The cost of the Bryston combo, as reviewed is as follows:
Bryston BDA-1 DAC - RM$8,800.00
Bryston BDP-1 Digital Media Player - RM$8,400.00

Then there's the cost of an AES digital cable of your choice and should one fancy a sexy iPad remote, then add a dedicated router to the cost of setting up the Bryston combo.

To be honest, I am not sure if I can return to normal CD or analog vinyl playback after this prolonged hi rez experience. I know a fellow Linn LP12 owner and good friend certainly couldn't and have already purchased this combo. James tells me the first batch of this Bryston combo bound for Malaysia is already sold out(Only this review pair is on demo at the AV Designs showroom for now). And should you be impressed enough to buy one after reading this, or an experience with it at the showroom, then please form an orderly queue to get yours, right after my dear friend!

It's quite possible that I've not heard better sound quality from a source component at any price.(Well, perhaps except the most esoteric of turn tables, cartridge and phono stage combos, which we are are clearly looking at well in to six figure price tags no less!) Clearly, this Bryston combo is the better way towards hi rez music files, if not the best yet!

Bryston is sold by AV Designs, contact James Tan at 03-21712828.

Music Carrier Of The Future?

Yes folks, it's the ubiquitous thumb drive or USB stick. No joke! As a matter of fact, any USB compliant hardisk drive will do, but you'll need SSD(Solid State Drives) to get seriously good results. Me and a few other buddies have just experienced a new audio nirvana, in fact the experience was so out of this world, one remarked it was like as if he had visited the Messiah and back! By the way, if you need to know, this was coming from a fellow Linn LP12 turn table owner.

Welcome to the age of hi rez down loads and SSD data storage technology. And just in case you're asking, what has all this gotta do with the Apple iPad?


Well, the iPad is just an optional interface, or the icing on the cake! It's that indispensable bit that makes hi rez down loads so...... very sexy and the user experience ergonomically complete.

Stay tuned! More to come..........

Digital Music Center. Bryston BDA-1 DAC.

The Bryston BDA-1 DAC, front and back view.

This review might come in some what late for most people who are already on the media server band wagon. This Bryston BDA-1 DAC isn't exactly new product either. It's being reviewed many times over, and in the process have garnered a string of industry awards and accolades. If anything, this review serves to only re-enforce that stellar reputation.

Priced at RM$8,800 each, the Bryston BDA-1 isn't exactly short of competitors either, mostly of newer and more advanced designs too! That puts the Bryston DAC in a technical disadvantaged position today. However, it more than makes up for it in serious sound quality as you shall read on.
Digital stack, top to bottom: Sony DV-NS730P DVD player, Bryston BDA-1 DAC and Marantz CD7.

The Bryston is very well built in a sturdy case design matching those found on their BP-26 pre amp and BCD-1 CD player. Bryston has put in special emphasis on stiff power supply and regulation stages plus the discreet class A output circuitry, around the garden variety Crystal CS-4398 DAC chip, implemented in balanced pair configuration. The Bryston also has 8 digital inputs of various types, including one USB.

I tested the Bryston BDA-1 in 3 modes, first using my Marantz CD7 as a CD transport connected via the coax 1 input of the Bryston DAC. I evaluated the BDA-1 with and without the up-sampling engaged, but ended up preferring the more airy spatial, and detailed qualities of the up sampled sound. I normally do not favour up sampled sound, so here's a little unusual. The rest of the review description is based on the up sampling engaged, unless mentioned otherwise.

I found the Bryston DAC to offer class leading sound qualities, competitive with the likes of the Metronome, Wadia and Esoteric x-03(all previously reviewed here and the Esoteric is my reference CD player) as it's equal playmates. The tonal balance is near neutral with a twist of sweetness in treble and warm mid range reproduction. The bass is tight, extended and powerful. For the first time, I felt there is beauty associated with near neutral tonal balance which isn't normally exclusive either. The level of transparency is startling, and puts the Bryston in the same league as the Wadia and the Esoteric mentioned above. Sound stage is huge, enveloping with great depth perception. Imaging is solid, and packed with density. Each musical performance, irregardless of genre, comes alive. I've never enjoyed digital gear quite like this since the Wadia and the Esoteric. There's a musical element present here(very much like the Linn LP12's ability to carry a tune), that seldom comes with digital gear.

Next up, I thought since my Marantz CD7 uses the highly rated Philips CD-Pro transport, I'd try and use the Bryston with something a little more generic, like a DVD player for transport duties? The unit used is an old Sony DV-NS730P DVD player. Like the Marantz, I used the coax connection to the Bryston DAC. I found that with the generic Sony DVD transport, the sound qualities of the Bryston changed little, except there's now less low level recording detail and resolution on offer. Otherwise, the beautiful near neutral tonal balance and big enveloping sound stage plus musical qualities remains unchanged. In both cases, a Wireworld Starlight coaxial cable and PS Audio Statement SC power cord was used.
Another look from the back.

Finally, who'd buy a DAC these days without a USB input for use with media servers? So I lugged the Bryston BDA-1 to my buddy's place for a DAC shootout and evaluation session. My buddy is an expert, when it comes to the topic of computer audio. So anything he says goes with me. First he said that comparing the Bryston DAC against the other newer designs is quite futile, as the former does not have an asynchronous USB input, on top of that, it locks the input bit rate at 16/44.1k only. Music files of higher resolution would be down sampled to the locked input bit rate of the Bryston USB input. My buddy said "the Bryston would be fighting the other newer DACs with one arm tied around it's back!".

In the 3 DAC comparison session, the Bryston goes head on with a state of the art DAC costing at least 3 times the price, and one newer competitor of the latest design in the same price range. I cannot reveal the identities of the other 2 DACs for they were not officially submitted to me for a review. In the interest of keeping everything the same, only 16/44.1k rips stored in a Mac Mini were used in the evaluation process. All the DACs had their up sampling feature dis-engaged.

In terms of sound quality, I taught the Bryston to be surprisingly competitive with the latest batch of DACs. All the sonic qualities mentioned above was still there, only this time when compared to the super high end DAC costing 3 times more, the Bryston sounded a bit noisier in the back ground, as in a bit of whitish hazy compared to the jet black back ground of the later. The mid range of the Bryston is slightly forward against the creamy rich mids of the more expensive design.

When compared to the newer competitor of the latest design in the same price range, I thought the Bryston to sound more refined and less edgy. Overall, the most expensive state of the art DAC still wins by a small margin. The Bryston and the other competitor is virtually neck to neck in terms of overall sound performance. The newer competitor had more snazzy and up to date features like an asynchronous USB input that allows up to 24/96k input resolution files. The newer competitor also features a volume or gain control pot for output level matching, or can be used to by pass the need of a pre amp. In all three DACs a Wireworld Ultra Violet USB cable and Wireworld Silver Electra power cord was used to standardised the variables. All three DACs were also level match as close as possible for the comparison.

I think if one is shopping for a DAC in the ball park of up to RM$10k for price, one can find quite a few options, all featuring newer technology and offering more features for the money. However, if one uses sound quality as the sole criteria for evaluation, than I believe the Bryston is a champ! Ignore it at one's peril, as they say.

I can see the Bryston BDA-1 DAC being put in to service to upgrade one's aging CD player's(preferably one with a good quality CD transport) performance, at the same time function as a digital music center for computer audio and other secondary digital component requirements. And by the way, the BDA-1 does respond rather well to good quality power cords and isolation cone tweaks.

This Bryston DAC has shown me new found respect for the Crystal CS-4398 DAC chip and it's capabilities, and not necessarily the better the spec list, the better the sound. Why does that sound so familiar, especially when it comes to audio products?

Bryston is sold by AV Designs, contact James Tan at 03-21712828.

A Friendly Chat With Brian Russell, President Of Bryston Ltd.

Brian Russell a.k.a. "big boy" carrying a mono B28 SST "big amp". I wouldn't mess with him!

A seasoned audiophile used to tell me, that in his days, Bryston stuff was something only one would buy if he couldn't afford a Krell or Mark Levinson. Strictly class B stuff, he said. How times have changed!

According to Brian Russell, President of Bryston, the last 2 years have been a peach for Bryston, whom recently dropped in to KL, AV Designs, to be exact, for a pit stop of his Asia Pacific tour. James Tan cordially invited a few of us friendlies to have a chat with Brian. The Qs are not entirely mine, but are a summation of the few of us whom was there.

Q: How has the current financial turmoil effected Bryston?

BR: In fact Bryston couldn't have been better! We've got rave reviews with all our recent new product launches, like the 28B SST power amps, the recently renewed SST2 amps, the BCD 1 CD player and the BP26 pre amp. The Torus Power range also did surprisingly well in the market. We just couldn't make enough products to meet orders list!

Q: How did the recent Hifi and Audio Shows fared stateside? The recent KLIAV 2009 in KL recorded significant increases, in both trade participants and visitor counts.

BR: Some were more effected than others, like CES, will always be CES! It's the more regional shows, like one held recently in Atlanta, where only a third of total visitor numbers turned compared to last year! That was a pretty depressing show.

Q: How does Bryston test their amps in the factory?

BR: We do not do any listening test in the factory! We only do measurement test in the lab. There's just no space to do so!

Q: So there's no PMC speakers in the Factory?

BR: No, there is no space in the factory, we only use small speaker drivers to ensure there's output from the amps we produce. We listen to our products at home. We have 2-3 employees whom we entrust them with gears to take home for listening trails, where by they report their findings and any faults that may have experienced then. James Tanner and Stuart Taylor does most of those listening trials. James has 3 systems of various set ups in his place, where he'd put the Bryston gears thru its paces. James has amongst others at the moment, a pair of PMC, Thiel, Martin Logan and Magnaplanars, I think. He is constantly changing speakers so when I get home later, it'll probably all be changed?

Q: But many have said that Bryston amps and PMC speakers work best?

BR: For the record, Bryston amps will work best with which ever speakers of your liking, within reason of course! I guess many do feel that Bryston works best with PMC speakers is perhaps, because PMCs have transmission line tuned cabinets, which places more difficult loading on an amp. Our Bryston amps have that capability to control the woofer's forward and aft movement better in a transmission line tuned cabinet, there fore giving more favourable results, sound wise.

Q: Bryston seems to be venturing in to hybrid class D amps in the professional segment, any plans to introduce similar concept to the consumer audio line?

BR: We call it a hybrid because we used a linear(non switching) power supply with a class D module, which is out sourced. We feel that for the PA and piped music applications, a hybrid class D amp would meet the need for a multi chanel, efficient and non absolute audio critical quality. However, we have no plans for a hybrid class D in the consumer high end market. Audiophiles will mostly avoid class D based amp, and I will agree with them that class D sound can never be as good as class A or A/B amps. Maybe in the future, but most certainly not anytime soon.

Q: How many employees does Bryston have in the factory?

BR: We have about 50 employees.

Q: There's been a slew of new product launches from Bryston lately, what's next?

BR: We are hoping to launch the new Bryston SP3 processor for the home theater market in about six months from now. This will replace the Brsyton SP2 processor.

Q: Would the SP2 be upgrade able to SP3 spec?

BR: No, the SP3 works on a totally new architecture, circuit wise. However, we've come to learned from many customers that they appreciate a module upgrade able approach, and we've incorporated that feature to the new SP3 to allow it some degree of future proof. The SP3 has an over sized case and there are empty, unpopulated slots on the SP3 main board to accommodate new cards and video modules should we need to add features later. However, should existing SP2 owners wanna up grade to the new SP3, we may have a program in place by then to make it as financially painless as possible to do so.

Q: Bryston has been doing very well in the last 2 years you've said earlier, what did you do differently this recent 2 years compared to before?

BR: Bryston have always been doing the same things in the last 37 years of our existence. We provide quality products with a realistic mark up, and back it up with the best warranty and after sales services in the audio industry. Who else would offer a 20 year warranty on the audio products? The only difference is that in the last 2 years, there was a proliferation of audio blogs and online consumer feedback journals, such as yours(now remember that's HiFi-Unlimited)! The internet based media offer insights, exposure and reviews of our products at speeds that no traditional print media can hope to match.

Q: Your amps have 20 years product warranty, why 5 years only for digital products like BCD-1 CD player?

BR: Now again, tell me if you know another manufacturer whom will offer you a 5 year warranty on a digital product? You see, digital products component lifespan turns over just too fast. 5 years is a very, very long time in the digital world. Take the Philips transport that we used for the BCD-1 CD player, barely 2 years we've launched the product, Philips now tells us they no longer make the transport! We bought the last batch of transport available from Philips, log, stock and barrel, to make sure we have enough spares to support the BCD-1 for the next 5 years at least!

Brian demo-ing the BCD-1 CD player's reliable CD tray!

Q: Speaking of the BCD-1 CD player, are you ever going to improve the CD tray motion quality? It's the single biggest let down in the otherwise impressive product!

BR: I am gonna throw you a grenade for bringing this up! He!He! Yeah, we know about that problem, but it's really not a problem is it? The Philips sourced CD transport is very reliable, and even if we used an all metal transport, would it had contributed so much more to the sound?(Perhaps? I quietly thought) It would just probably glide in and out smoother and give a better perception of quality, that's all. That'll be something we'll have to think about in the BCD-2, our next CD player. Now don't get all excited and ask me when that"ll come. It's still a white sheet of paper now!

Q: Yes, perception, that's the word! But isn't that important in the market for high end audio?

BR: Yes, perception is important, but that's also why we see so many brands out there selling a 20 thousand dollar amp with fancier quality case and marketing perception at say, 100 thousand dollars. Bryston just would not do that. By the way, do let me know if you are in the market for a 100 thousand dollars amp, I'd gladly sell you one with an emperor's clothing plus my personal signature on it and just for you, it'll come with a 40 year product warranty! Show me the money!(Now I am wondering which part of me looked rich?)

Q: You mean Bryston products are actually priced accordingly to reflect the product's actual manufacturing cost with a fair mark up factored in?

BR: Matter of fact, yes! We will provide a product of the best technical quality and specifications where possible, irregardless of selling price. For instance, if we used a certain grade of capacitors in our amps, and a supplier can come and suggest a better spec capacitor, for example, long life span, we will test it and if confirmed to meet the promised specs, we will certainly adopt it in our parts catalogue tomorrow, even if it means we have to pay more for the better capacitor. Now if the supplier says we can save money on a better capacitor, than I'd be very careful about it, because, there's just no such thing as that, if it's too good to be true, it probably is!

Q: Speaking of the "new" yet to come BCD-2 CD player, with the dawn of hi-rez music down loads, do you still think there's a market for CD players? If so, how long do you see the CD player will still be around?

BR: Hey! They said the same thing with vinyl, right? Look at the market today, the turntable is still around, and a growing market too! Why? There'll always be guys whom have vinyl collections, and they'll still need good quality turntables to play their collection. I see the same thing happening to CD. There'll always be a guy, like my self, I have 5000 CDs, and I'll always need a CD player to play my collection. Down loads or not!

Q: I have been playing with the latest SST2 amps lately, and they are very good! I would consider them to be absolutely sonically superior to the earlier non squared SST series. What's changed?

BR: As electronics specs and quality improved, we will incorporated these newer parts, like transistors in to our designs. The SST2 upgrade was just that. It's got lower noise floor, higher signal to noise ratio and closer L/R chanel matching tolerance. Also, THD is significantly lower in the SST2 series, like 0.005% on the 4B SST2.

Q: Now, can one subjectively hear lower THD in amps?

BR: You probably have to ask James Tanner about that! However, I suppose, you hear what you wanna hear right? There's always the tube guys too remember?

Q: How is the current financial meltdown in the US affecting Bryston?

BR: Despite the financial situation in the states, they are still our single biggest market by taking 45% of our production. Asia/Pacific and Canada are about even at 25% and 27% each respectively.

Q: Who do you consider to be Bryston's biggest competitor?

BR: I'll tell you this as I've told all others whom asked this question before! It's the room! Now, people have suddenly become aware of their rooms, they spend a lot of money to build custom ed rooms! Money, which would have been better spent in my opinion, buying bigger Bryston amps! He!He!

Brian and local man AV Designs, James Tan getting a li'll friendly! He!He!

After that long chat, we all had some refreshments and got all too friendly with each other!

Living With Bryston BCD-1 CD Player & The Full Bryston Experience! AV Designs At KLIAV 2009.

This is an old post of ours in the blog we previously contributed to.

The full Bryston set up. Factory matched synergy can be found here!

This is the last instalment of the "Living with Bryston" series of articles. With the insertion of the Bryston BCD-1 CD player in to the system, now, consisting of the BP-26 pre amp and 4BSST2 power amp pumping my Audio Physic Spark speakers. The Torus Power RM8A does whole system power supply services here as usual, and cables consist of my usual JPS Inwall, AOR Ref 3 and PS Audio Power Plus power cord. Inter connects are my usual Audioquest Sky and Cardas Golden Presence XLRs and the speaker cable this time round is a pair of latest Siltech G7 330L Classic series(review to come).

With the Bryston BCD-1 CD player in the system, replacing my trusty Marantz CD7. The synergy of the full Bryston system is finally materialised. To start with, noise floor is exceedingly low, no hiss or what so ever is heard coming out of the tweeters at idle on normal listening volume. I find the Bryston BCD-1's tonal balance to be very business like neutral, compared to the much warmer balanced Marantz CD7. There's no euphonic mid range bloom, bass is amongst the tightest and goes extends much lower comparatively. The highs may seem a bit forward at first, but on closer analysis, it's rather extended, and non smearing or splashy. Like the Bryston BP-26 pre amp, I also noticed a similar slight high lighting of the high mids, whilst this may seemingly make the vocal's mouth seemed more "in focus" and smaller, I did find it somethimes bordering on sharpness, especially when playing with Chinese audiophile CDs with lots of recorded vocal sibilance(usually female voices). I must stress however, that this is the Bryston's signature truthfulness at work here! Since the full Bryston experience, and amongst the high end gears featured here lately, there seems to be different versions of neutrality, even if they can all be "technically" considered neutral!
From the top. The Bryston BCD-1 and BP-26 pre amp plus the cosmetically matching MPS-2 power supply unit.

The full Bryston set up majors on macro, micro dynamics and bass slam. The pace is always on cue, never hurried nor slowed down. Piano tracks showcases attack, sustain and decay elements clearly. While sound stage is more than full width of my listening room, and some what deep, there's also a typical solid state like dryness, i.e. lack of audiophile "air" within the sound stage, thus never quite fully convincing, or 3D enough in presentation.

However, all the above sonic signature were improved, with the addition of the Elite Acoustic MSI levitating isolation devices(see my last review of them, last week). The mid range now have a little bloom to help further flesh out the vocalist body and density. The slightly dry sound stage, now has "air" separating each instrument within the sound stage, making the layering and stage depth perception more convincing. The musical flows more freely than before. The tweak bring's the full Bryston system closer in audio performance to the 3 times more expensive Bladelius system recently auditioned.
Brothers in arms! The Bryston 4BSST2 with the Torus Power RM8A in the back.

If there's a particular Bryston piece of the three that I, particularly felt carried more performance weight would be the 4BSST2 power amp. I think that if one should build a high end system around it, even with upgrades to the rest of the system, be it source, pre amp or speakers, the 4BSST2 would still remain very much relevant, without calling too much attention to it's limits. In short the 4BSST2 punches way above it's product price range.

The CD tray on the BCD-1 really needs to be improved upon. Note, product warranty is only 5 years for the CDP.

And if there's one thing I think can be improved upon within the full Bryston system, it would be the BCD-1's CD tray! For a player costing RM$11.9k, the said CD tray slides in and out with so much mechanical free play and noise, that I would feel , it's out of place compared to the ownership pride that comes with the rest of the Bryston gear.

The useful BCD-1 remote.

And lastly the BCD-1's all aluminium remote deserves a special mention, the feel is good in the hands, and when listening in the dark, a first press on any button triggers the "cool" green back lighting, whilst the buttons are just of the right size for my big fat fingers! The remote also controls the BP-26 pre amp's basic volume and mute functions, which is handy in an all Bryston system context.

Presto! The night back lighting on the remote. Cool!

I must stress that sonic performance wise, the full Bryston experience is indeed very much greater than the sum of it's very decent parts. Now, that's synergy matched from the factory!

I'll miss returning this full Bryston set to AV Designs for the KLIAV demo. However, I think you should drop by AV Designs booth to check out the full Bryston system on demo, with the 7BSST mono blocks, driving the latest PMC PB1i speakers. Whilst you're there, do check out their outrageously high quality AV installs too.

The PMC PB1i speakers on demo at KLIAV 2009.

And lastly, I wish to thank James, for enriching my audio journey.

Posted by Panzer 21 July '09

Save the Best for Last - Bryston's BCD-1 CD Player

This is an old post of ours in the blog we previously contributed to.

Wow, write-ups on Bryston sure come fast and furious on this blog. :-) Well, with this BCD-1 cd player, I am now on my last iteration of Bryston's gears.

I got a of deja vu listening to the Bryston BCD-1 CD Player that Panzer passed to me for a few weeks. Its sonic virtues were so similar to my experience with Bryston's own BP-26 preamp that on occasions I could not differentiate whether I had the pre-amp or the cd player in my system. I did not have the chance to try out a complete Bryston system though, the Bryston pre-power combo went back to Panzer when the cd player arrived. That pleasure is now all Panzer's, let's await his report on this. :-)

The BCD-1 was a slim cd player, in both width and depth, which made positioning easy and straightforward. The display window was a little too small for me, which made reading difficult from, say, more than 3-4m away. The disc tray moved fast but a little noisily, a departure from the slow-motion and relatively quiet operations that I was used to from other makes, though that, of course, would have no effect on the final sound quality. The remote control though was a chunky affair, I loved the feel and the thoughtful back lit feature which made its usage in the dark easy.

Again, the BCD-1 gave the impression of a well engineered and sturdily built piece of gear, pretty much in line with the exemplary build quality of the BP-26 pre-amp and the 4BSST2 power amp from the same stable. They did not feel fragile or delicate, one really did not have to treat them with kid's gloves.

The BCD-1 had what I would call a modern sound. The BCD-1 impressed not just with what it did, but also with what it did not do. The part that immediately gotten my attention was the bass. The BCD-1's bass was all about solidity and impact, there was no added warmth and definitely no flabbiness. Bass notes were well defined and nicely delineated from one another rather than meshing together. Moving further up, the midrange was true and clear, again, the BCD-1 did not add anything to it, there was no hints of romantic tint for example. At the top, the highs were extended, open and crystal clear, it did not sound 'sweet' nor was it smoothened out. Overall, the BCD-1 conjured up terms such as 'accuracy', 'neutrality', 'honesty' in my head again and again throughout my listening sessions.

Coincidentally, like Panzer with the BP-26 pre-amp, I also experimented with a trio of finite elemente ceraballs under the cd player, they expanded the soundstage in all dimensions and at the same time improved the image focus, so it was a worthy addition.

I could not resist comparing the BCD-1 to the memory of the E.A.R. Yoshino Acute cd player I listened to a while ago. These twp players were operating on the opposite end of each other. The Acute did its darnedest to make every cd as enjoyable as it could, regardless of the music and the recording quality, and in the process probably told a few white lies. The BCD-1, on the other hand, did its darnedest to tell you the complete sonic picture without holding anything back, you got the beauties and the blemishes too! Which one you would go for depends on your priority - whether you like sweet talk or straight talk.

I am glad to have made Bryston's acquaintance over the last few months. It has taught me much about truthfulness in music reproduction. Bryston is a marque that pretty much has my high respect.

Posted by hifikaki 15 July '09

Living With Bryston BP-26 Pre Amp.

This is an old post of ours in the blog we previously contributed to.

The two box Bryston BP26 pre amp.

The Bryston BP-26 pre amp is a two box design, and comes with a remote, that only controls volume and mute. This approach is laudable as the move to take away the A/C transformers and power supply board in to another chassis does have theoretical sonic benefits, such as less interference from the A/C transformer's RFI/EMI leakages, and humming amongst others. The main audio only circuit is built in to another chassis, connecting to the power supply chassis via a DIN like terminated umbilical cord. James of AV Designs advices to pay as much placement attention to the power supply box as to the audio circuit box, to yield the best sonic results. I'll come back to that latter.

The Bryston BP-26, is a thoroughly modern pre amp designed front panel layout neatly with fairly conventional 3 large knobs face plate. The three large knobs controls the following. One on the left for source input, another for balance left/right and the last one on the right is for volume. There are also toggle switches for tape/monitor(if you're still in to cassettes), stereo/mono(good for testing imaging when setting up speakers), a mute switch, and lastly my friend, KM's favorite switch, the signal phase invert.

The back panel, with 2 pairs XLR imput(left), and many RCA inputs, and outputs plus 1 pair XLR output.

The pre amp is sounds pretty quiet when no music is played and volume turned up to normal listening levels, exhibiting none of that back ground hash or white noise, or just plain tweeter hiss, which is good. A quiet back ground normally means a more transparent pre amp. The sonic presentation of the BP-26 is slightly on the warm side of neutral. The highs are very tidily extended(i.e. non splashy), if a little dry. The mids have a degree of body to it, perhaps there's a slight high lighting of the presence range and bass lines are well defined, extends very low subjectively and always tuneful. This pre amp presents sound stage in a little more laid back fashion if compared to my resident Pass Labs X2.5. I initially found the Bryston BP-26 pre amp's transparency to lose out a little on the minute details in the music, compared to the Pass unit. But then I was placing the audio box on FE Ceraballs, whilst the power supply units rested on spikes. I later bought another set of FE Ceraballs to try out, based on the advise by James. And true enough, placing the power supply box on to FE Ceraballs instead of spikes, worked wonders to the pre amps's level of sonic transparency, can now rival the Pass Labs unit.

With the level of transparency improved, the Bryston pre amp pretty much functions like a straight wire with gain, and gain there's plenty. I find that I rarely venture past the 10 o'clock position of the volume knob.

The Bryston BP-26 on my FE Spider like rack. Note the FE Ceraballs Spider for both audio and power supply box.

The BP-26 pre amp also seemed to have better synergy with the Bryston 4BSST2(as it should be, coming from the same factory) compared to the Pass Aleph power amp(the sound became overripe, too warm and dynamics suffered as a result). The BP-26 also seemed out of it's depth when matched to the Bladelius Ymer power amp(but that's just not fair to the Bryston either, because the Pass X2.5 also behaved the similarly). What I am trying to point out is, unlike the Bryston 4BSST2 which did not short change a more expensive component like the Audio Research Reference 3 pre when partnered, the BP-26 is probably best matched with Bryston power amps, although I do not discount that there are other more suitable candidates available out there.

If you have an existing Bryston power amp already and wanna update your pre amp, then the BP-26 is certainly a no-brainer, and fitting choice, however if you have a non- Bryston power amp and unsure of sonic compatibility, yet some how love the Bryston BP-26's classical looks and modern full functionality, then my advise is to try before you buy, as always.

Bryston is sold by AV Designs, contact James, tel: 016-3280237

Posted by Panzer 14 July '09