No question, that's true. There's a lot of good amps out there with flat frequency response, good load driving capabilities, low noise, low distortion, and good stability.
What Bryston brings to the table is a track record of reliability, high build quality, reasonable pricing, and a history of standing behind their products.
The Bryston I heard stood out for its ability to drive an average sensitivity speaker to very high SPLs with zero, audible tonal aberrations intruding - this is something the vast majority of amplifiers aren't capable of, still, as demonstrated by the nearly all the other units I heard at the recent hifi show when significant volume was called for.
An amplifier should be/ un essence is... is a straight wire with gain. Enough clean gain, enough amp. Any one who wants anything more than has no understanding. Only special loads require special amps, Amps are now a closed equation requiring nothing more than refinement based on economics. There will be no detectable sonic difference between a good xWatt rms amp now and one of 30 years ago, Lighter more efficient, different topology but no discernable sonic difference at all. I will also go so far as to say the days of all analog recording and playback gear save mics amps and speakers are over and no one should be considering anything but a pc/pad/phone amplification and speakers. In all honesty JRiver Media Center and a top end multichannel pro card into a great amp and speakers is the end of the line for audiophiles, it gets no better. Need snake oil? Enough digital VST that actually does affect the signal for a lifetime of tweaking. With the added benifit of actually learning too!
If a Bryston is not right for your speakers then there are issues beyond components and choice. Certainly nothing audible. Special Speakers? Special people too. Reality? Bryston.
Total agreement, and if it were not for people spouting snake oil bs sonic properties one could look at the specs, look at build quality, style and have a field day of choice. But no, instead we need to rely on a solid sane reputation built over time. Plenty of other great amps but those I can always count on and say "you cant go wrong" period.
Petaloni, I mostly agree with you, only, I've found that Linux, MPD and a few other free software packages makes a nicer, lower footprint system. Yes, a crossover is available, yes, other digital filters are available, and you can control it from your phone or tablet. I find my old Pentium II laptop is enough to work well.
Not sure what "real oil" means, but MPD, Ecasound, ALSA, and SOX are all free software, which certainly helps my budget.... I looked at JRiver, and liked it, but with the baggage of Windows, well, um, yeah. I have enough systems with Windows on 'em.
I know that is the direction: " Media servers" But, right now the user interfaces are still terrible and the engines need some work. I was in a store to get a demo on current products. The (young) salesman pulls out his iPhone and in about 50 flying thumb presses, got it to play one song. I go home, press ON, and the radio plays. I pop in a CD, hit play and guess what? it plays. No drama. No i-gizmo crap. No waiting for it to boot, no on-line subscriptions. It just works. I was looking at one AVR and to change the FM station, yo had to sequence through the menu. You could not even map them to the numeric pad! I kept my old Rotel because you could walk up and push the button for any of a dozen stations. I will admit, it was so stupid, if you had it turn on and from from the remote, you could not turn it on and off from the front panel. No, right now, we have half-designed kluges and not consumer appliances. Industry has a lot of work to do.
Am I afraid of technology? No, I make my living implementing technology that is ten years ahead of anything you have heard of, but I insist it is USABLE.
I am not impressed with any internal sound cards. I tried emu and m-audio. My Chinese $40 DAC sounded better. Even for speaker measurements, I use an external Focusrite, but alas, USB is not a real-time protocol. Fire-wire was, but it is dead. Progress? Windows is not a real-time OS either. OSF-RT would have made a great media server.
What really upsets me is that this is not a technology problem. We have the technology. We have the engineering and production. It is 99% BAD SOFTWARE. Seriously, if any of the WInTel based music servers were presented to me in my business, they would be completely rejected. I am a serious hard-aXX with my fellow citizens tax money. Instead, what do we get? HDMI plugs that fall out and media servers that won't play an album, but make you define a play list for the CD you just loaded.
Am I too impatient? I think not. I bought an oppo because I was tired of turning on my old one and going to the kitchen to fix a bowl of popcorn just in time for the player to boot Java and decide to open the tray. Nice picture too, I might add. Yea, there is a lot of code in a BD, but when I press on and open, it should freeking open. That code is not hard.
About one more sets of caps and my amps should last as long as I can still hear. By then, I'll retire to someplace cheap and have a table radio/media server so I can sit around and bitch things aren't what they used to be. 😀
Bryston also brings a price for their quality that raises them above most budgets. Fortunately, there are some very suitable amps we mere mortals still can pay for. Sad to say, one by one many of these traditional quality companies are failing or caving in. Even the new Mac's are starting to look like cheap copies of their style on a Denon.
Per above, there are really no better audio devices available better than pro audio interfaces, and if there are you will never or rarely hear them pre- unsullied by the adc's our pro audio intefaces (-:
Hardly an apt comparison considering there are tangible differences in the performance of decent cars and absolutly none at all between amps with the same specs. Put 'em all in the same case and you will have the same amp both to look at and to listen to. Yeah that is exactly what I said. Are there some bad amps? Yeah, but you have to want to buy one. Heard some great sounding chinese amps lately as well. We can tweak amplifiers from now till forever make them lighter heavier last longer crappy looking great looking invisible whatever, but in the end, a good power amp has not been worth discussion for decades. Why? Because the good ones have been perfect for decades and that means a straight wire with gain. We have been there forna while. Now they can get cheaper and lighter and that is about the size of it.
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As an audio power amp designer, I know the differences between amplifier designs, and there has not been a perfect one made yet. That is why I keep designing them, and improving them when I can.
In truth, a Ford is all anybody generally needs in the USA. If you want more, it is either for prestige or performance. You don't need more performance to take the family out to dinner. However, IF for any chance that you want to take your auto on a more difficult run, then maybe the Ford will let you down, compared to a BMW, etc.
With amps, it is similar.
In truth, a Ford is all anybody generally needs in the USA. If you want more, it is either for prestige or performance. You don't need more performance to take the family out to dinner. However, IF for any chance that you want to take your auto on a more difficult run, then maybe the Ford will let you down, compared to a BMW, etc.
With amps, it is similar.
A big Ford is a Lincoln Towncar, every bit the car as anyone elses. You can redesign all day and get the same car on a road. Long been the road not the car.You can design in as much longevity as you wish, but its still a wire with gain, You can pick cars out of a DB but you cant pick amps. Amps are done.
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Trying to argue a poor analogy with a guy who financially and socially benefits from the promotion of fashion and snobbery is not going to be useful. Save it for the people who are the intended victims.
Yes I am a snob, but I build a pretty good amp for under $1000, and it's reliable too! Use it every day for general listening. All that I need for most things.
Yes!!tvrgeek said:
I want a button/switch to turn something on (and I want off to really mean off, not standby). I want a set of buttons or a switch to select track or radio station. I want a knob to control volume. I want an instruction manual which is printed on paper and written in English.
I don't want to carry all my music in my pocket, yet actually own none of it. I don't want to go through four layers of menus just to listen to the news.
At present I can't reset the dashboard clock in my car because it is buried too deep in menus. They set it at the annual service but it drifts slow by several minutes (why? is a decent quartz crystal too expensive for a car?). Maybe I am just too dumb, as I only have a PhD in EE.
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