Who has experience with the bryston 4bst? I have one on loan right now..

240sx4u

240sx4u

Lunatic Member
I have had this amp here for weeks and have been too lazy to hook it up because I had to remove the spades from my speaker cables etc.. well today I finally bothered to hook this baby up. I know the SST is supposed to be far superior but I have never had a Bryston here and am looking forward to listening to it. Right now the TV is on, it hasn't been used in a long time so some time will be left for it to "warm up" before really giving it a shakedown.

Anyone else here have or had the chance to use one of these? All the silver face talk around here about vintage gear and all of the sudden I have a silver ARC preamp and a silver Bryston amp. Best of both worlds :)

Evan
 
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i'm curious to know what you think! i tried one out for a while. personally, i think you should try to form your own opinion before you read the responses here.
 
Very few folks here more capable of forming his own opinion than Evan.

Evan, I haven't owned that piece but I have listened to it. Keep in mind that I've long felt that Bryston is a bit clinical sounding for me. Just a bit too austere in the middle. That said I heard a big Bryston (pretty sure it was the 4BST) power amp with an Audible Illusions pre amp and Thiel speakers one time that sounded heavenly. As per usual I guess it's about putting together a system with complimentary pieces.

I don't remember the digital source and they were running a VPI turntable. We listened primarily to the digital source with music that I brought.
 
About the cleanest, clearest sounding amp you will hear. Kind of the anti tube amp. It really is a spectacular piece of equipment. You're gonna have a lot of fun.
 
Bigerik said:
About the cleanest, clearest sounding amp you will hear. Kind of the anti tube amp. It really is a spectacular piece of equipment. You're gonna have a lot of fun.
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Plus one. Used one to drive Thiel 3.5's many years ago and it was a great match.
 
I had an early 4B for a while years ago - DQ-10s, using Bryston, early CJ and Audible Illusions pre-amps. Built like a tank with solid bass, big dynamics and tons of headroom - really a good match for those speakers and much nicer than any other SS amp I tried with them.

Clean and clear for sure but I also found it a little dry and clinical - really benefited from putting a tube pre-amp in front of it but then I really am more of tube guy. The big tube amp I ended up replacing the 4B with (CJ MV75A-1) did a lot more to my liking than the 4B but the Bryston killed the CJ in bass and dynamics and I'm sure that amp is still going strong wherever it is - amazing build quality and support (apparently - never missed a beat for me).
 
Not much of an update, but I have already formed some opinions on this amp when I had the Vandersteen Quatros here. Some of what I thought were weaknesses in the Quatro may have actually been this amp.

I will save the details for a later post. I need to get a little more time in. In the meanwhile here is what my system consists of;

Audio Research LS3
Boulder modified squeezebox (the full monte)
My regular amps are PSE studio V monoblocks
Martin Logan Vista
Powered subwoofer (custom dual 10")
APC H15 power conditioner
Audioquest Gibraltar speaker cable
Various AQ and transparent interconnects.

I probably won't be using my analog front end. I do generally prefer a highly detailed and large presentation FYI.

I will update this later tonight after some real listening. We were out with friends last night.
 
240sx4u said:
I have had this amp here for weeks and have been too lazy to hook it up because I had to remove the spades from my speaker cables etc.. well today I finally bothered to hook this baby up. I know the SST is supposed to be far superior but I have never had a Bryston here and am looking forward to listening to it. Right now the TV is on, it hasn't been used in a long time so some time will be left for it to "warm up" before really giving it a shakedown.

Anyone else here have or had the chance to use one of these? All the silver face talk around here about vintage gear and all of the sudden I have a silver ARC preamp and a silver Bryston amp. Best of both worlds :)

Evan
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I have not heard that model, but I have listened to the 3B-ST. Its a fine amp. Power wise, can drive anything...sound stage was a little forward, strong points are the bass and mid range....while clear, a little colored and a little dry....can be a little fatigue so system matching is a must for the 3B-ST...so if you want a little more passion and romance from it, carful matching is a must. I assume the 4B-st will be more of the same. If you match that amp with the right components, it will serve you well in low level detail as well as everything else.
 
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240sx4u said:
Not much of an update, but I have already formed some opinions on this amp when I had the Vandersteen Quatros here. Some of what I thought were weaknesses in the Quatro may have actually been this amp.

I will save the details for a later post. I need to get a little more time in. In the meanwhile here is what my system consists of;

Audio Research LS3
Boulder modified squeezebox (the full monte)
My regular amps are PSE studio V monoblocks
Martin Logan Vista
Powered subwoofer (custom dual 10")
APC H15 power conditioner
Audioquest Gibraltar speaker cable
Various AQ and transparent interconnects.

I probably won't be using my analog front end. I do generally prefer a highly detailed and large presentation FYI.

I will update this later tonight after some real listening. We were out with friends last night.
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Cant wait to hear your thoughts on the amp....I had a similar experience with a Conrad-Johnson preamp and amp and Dynaudio Contour t2.5's. I thought the problem was the Conrad which was syrupy. Got to switching gear around...in and out, and discovered the Contour t2.5's where 90% of the problem.
 
I owned one for a number of years.

It was a great solid state amp.
It ran really hot

My rotel rb 1080 st sounds just as good, to my ears(except at low level listening, bryston kills there) and runs significantly cooler. (heat is a problem when you live in the desert)

YMMV.
 
I just want to know what it feels like to have owned/heard so much gear that the prospect of hooking a Bryston amp up to my speakers takes a back seat to watching TV ..... :scratch2:
 
Erik, I would have been fumbling with those speaker terminals the instant I got the amp through the front door. From that point on, for at least 48 hours, the TV could have burst into flames and I doubt that it would have worried me. :D
 
estreeter said:
Erik, I would have been fumbling with those speaker terminals the instant I got the amp through the front door. From that point on, for at least 48 hours, the TV could have burst into flames and I doubt that it would have worried me. :D
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All seems logical and rational to me! :)
 
As life has gone along I have pretty much lost interest in endless gear swapping. That said, it makes sense to try something out when you've got the chance. This amp has been sitting in my rack for a month now. For about a week it ran a pair or Vandersteen Quatros. I am still questioning my judgement for not purchasing those, especially now that I think some of the things I disliked about them was the amp.

I find this amp to be almost too polite. I like a wide soundstage with good imaging and a lot of detail. This amp does all of those things well, except soundstage width. It seemed like my normal width of soundstage had been smooshed to fit in between my speakers.

Honestly? I do like this amp, but I like my PSEs better. I don't find it particularly dry, but I really prefer a dry sound. The LS3 ARC that I have is often chastised as being too clinical and brutally revealing. I like detail, there is a finite balance between detail and music for me.

One thing I really like is what I perceive to be a little brighter presentation on the top end. I don't really think the mids are all that "forward". It's difficult to say what's really happening since I also run a subwoofer which adds a bit of bass, therefore minimizing any emphasis the amp may be putting on the midrange.

Honestly, this isn't really a review but more of a critique. This is a very nice amplifier with a brutal amount of power. I do prefer it to the EDGE M8 that I had for awhile, but don't prefer it more than the PSE amps that I already own. I did have two choices either give the amp back or pay for it. I don't feel it's an "upgrade" from my current rig. I am thankful for the opportunity to have my PSE's kick another contender off of the podium though.

Take these thoughts with a grain of salt, there are so many variations between preamps and sources it's impossible to say if this amp would be a good match with your system.
 
Another beast of a solid state amp fails to impress. Ask me if I'm surprised...

(hint...I'm not surprised :)).

Oh well, you just saved yourself a lot of money and satisfied your curiosity. I can't believe you let it sit in the rack that long! Something tells me because of that, you may have felt this would be the outcome? Maybe I should have bought those PSEs that were local and CHEAP. Grrrrrrr
 
JohnVF said:
Another beast of a solid state amp fails to impress. Ask me if I'm surprised...

(hint...I'm not surprised :)).

Oh well, you just saved yourself a lot of money and satisfied your curiosity. I can't believe you let it sit in the rack that long! Something tells me because of that, you may have felt this would be the outcome? Maybe I should have bought those PSEs that were local and CHEAP. Grrrrrrr
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I have the PSE V's John, I had the IIs before and can say the V's are a better amp. I may bring these to Bobs house for the next get together.

Yeah honestly after having the PSEs kick so many amps out of my house I wasn't expecting the Bryston to win the battle. That, and the amount of money it would take to "upgrade" to the Bryston would be a lot. Mind you these PSE's also booted a very well modified pair of Dynaco MKIIIs out of here too.

For that matter, I have had these PSE amps for almost a decade now. When you're pretty content with a system it's difficult to get around to rolling gear. I know there are improvements to be had here, but time and time again I am shown that amplification isn't my Achilles heel.
 
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