Bryston Electronics and Digital Components

Bryston Ltd. is a Canadian company which has been designing and manufacturing state of the art specialty electronics to both the consumer and professional audio marketplaces for over 35 Years. Known primarily for their outstanding amplifiers, Bryston has received rave reviews for their new digital offerings.

Bryston has a major commitment to produce the most accurate and reliable product available. Indeed, they’re known for one of the strongest warranties in the industry, a full 20 Year transferable warranty, parts and labor, on all analog products. Digital products carry a full 5 Year transferable warranty. Note: products must be purchased from an authorized Bryston dealer to validate the warranty.

We've highlighted just a few of their most popular models here, but Bryston has a wide range of offerings including seven different two-channel and mono amps, five multi-channel offerings, three preamplifiers, phono preamp, surround processor two integrated amplifiers and a host of other products. Visit the Bryston web site for full details on all their products.

 Power Amplifiers

2B SST²

The first 2B started life way back in 1979 and has become a Classic among discriminating audiophiles worldwide. This latest version of our 2B incorporates all the new SST² circuitry and provides twice the power of our original 2B.

From input to output, all the circuitry in the 2B SST² amplifier has been optimized for the most accurate performance possible. The Bryston 2B SST² amplifier is a compact, high quality 100 watt per channel, (8 ohms), stereo amplifier intended for use in home sound systems requiring a musically accurate, extremely reliable, no compromise power source.

While the 2B has for years been thought of as an exceptionally lucid and transparent amplifier for traditional two-channel stereo setups, it is now finding additional acceptance in such installations as multimedia surround-sound systems, and in the most ambitious music systems with multi-amplified speakers using electronic crossovers.

Features & Specifications:

• 100 watts per channel 8 ohms, 180 watts 4 ohms, 350 watts bridged 8 ohms
• New SST ² output devices
• Power Supply Capacitance - 30,000 mFd per channel
• Selectable Balanced or Unbalanced inputs
• Ultra low noise and distortion
• Two Independent ultra-low-noise power transformers
• Computer modeled, high efficiency heat-sink design
• Selectable gain - 1 Volt or 2 Volt
• Available in Silver or black finish with 19 or 17 inch faceplate
• 20 Year Warranty
• $2650

Reviews:

Soundstage  NEW
UHF Magazine

4B SST²

The Bryston 4B is something of a legend. As the company's most popular model, it has attained international status as an amplifier suitable for the finest and most sophisticated sound systems. In its latest incarnation, the 4B SST², it is a dual mono design delivering a massive 300 Watts per channel into 8 Ohms. Whatever the venue, be it recording studio, concert stage, broadcast facility, home theater installation, or state-of-the-art stereo system, the 4B SST² continues as the number one choice.

Features & Specifications:

Reviews:

• Soundstage - Editor's Choice 2009
• CANADA HiFi
• Bound For Sound
• HiFi Media
• Audio
• HiFi Test TV-VIDEO
• image Hi-Fi
• HiFiCHOICE
• HiFI & Records
• Stereo

28B SST ²

A significant part of the design criteria for the 28B SST ² was to develop a very powerful amplifier that would drive any speaker on the planet but maintain an ideal power curve at 1 watt as well as at 1000 watts and every power level in between. Most amplifiers exhibit a power curve whereby the best noise floor, drive capability and distortion is maintained from about 1/3 power and up.

The Bryston 28B-SST ² Mono amplifier maintains its power curve right from the first watt. This results in a BIG POWERFUL amplifier that sounds incredibly detailed and musical at very low levels and maintains that same sophistication and drive capability with even the most difficult, inefficient speakers, large or small.

The Bryston 28B-SST ² is a fully balanced output amplifier (BRIDGED), which has reduced THD and IMD to unprecedented low values, (typically 0.001% or less), for a new degree of transparency, musicality and ease of listening. Superbly low noise floor, typically below – 115dB, yields an inky black silence between notes for hauntingly realistic reproduction. Tremendous power reserves give the 28B-SST ² virtually perfect freedom from overload on any type of speaker or music, bringing the performance and realism directly into your listening environment. The 28B’s ability to resolve subtle musical details has to be heard to be believed – it truly sets a new standard.

"Since I first reviewed this 1000-watt monoblock (issue 189), Bryston has twice updated its innards, each an audible improvement over the original. Yet it is the latest version (SST˛) that is, putting it simply, a solid-state breakthrough, so much better than the original that I am flabbergasted (and a bit perplexed). It is faster by a good bit, with absolutely no edge or enhanced “definition”; indeed, it sounds much airier (particularly at the top) and more relaxed than did the original, while exhibiting more subtle dynamics, both at the micro- and macro ends of the spectrum. All of this is bathed in a pool of ambience that never sounds like too much second harmonic distortion (or, to these ears, euphonic in the colored sense at all)."
         "Need I say this is the most musical solid-state design I’ve heard, and from what I once would have considered the unlikeliest source?" Harry Pearson.

Features & Specifications:

• Selectable input - balanced (XLR) or single ended (RCA)
• Selectable gain - 1v = 29db or 2v = 23dB
• External power on off control - 12v trigger
• New micro controlled soft start
• All A/C is totally shielded from Audio circuits
• Maintains exceptionally low noise and distortion from very low to very high power demands
• Optional 17" Faceplate (no handles) or 19 inch rack mount (with handles) available
• The Absolute Sound Editors Choice 2010
• $8500 each

Reviews:

• 6moons.com
• HI-FI+
• Inner Ear Report

Digital

BCD-1 CD Player

BCD-1The reviews are in, the Bryston BDC-1 CD player has become an instant classic! A great sounding CD player from one of the most respected companies in the business.

The Bryston BCD-1 is a State-of-the-Art Redbook CD player using fully discrete analog Class-A proprietary Bryston circuits, a quality Drive, and a 192K/24Bit Crystal DAC.

The advantage of an all in one box solution for a CD Player (as opposed to a separate outboard DAC and Drive) is the elimination of jitter. For optimum performance the Drive and DAC must use the same MASTER CLOCK. If the clock signal of the drive is not synchronized with the clock signal from the DAC then jitter develops. In external DACs the digital input must be re-clocked in order to reduce the jitter. Jitter is defined as mistiming of the digital signal. The timing of all those ones and zeros is of extreme importance. It isn’t enough to get the bits right; those bits have to be converted back into music with the same timing reference as when the music was first digitized. These timing errors (jitter) are the bane of quality audio. With the Bryston CD player the master clock and the drive are synchronized perfectly to eliminate any possibility of jitter affecting the sound quality of the player.
The DAC integrated circuit (chip) provides the conversion of the digital signal to the analog domain.

The chip used in the BCD-1 CD Player is a Crystal CS4398. The CS4398 is a hybrid multi-bit delta-sigma DAC. This is a rather tongue-twisting description that refers to an advanced generation chip using a combination of several different methods to optimize the conversion process. This DAC uses a process to over-sample the digital input 128 times.
Over-sampling is when the samples are re-read (2x, 4x, 8x, etc.) to create a new sampling frequency. The new samples are then run through an interpolation filter to create a more analog-like waveform. The output of this process is a very sensitive analog signal and it is critical that the timing of this process is very closely controlled by a low jitter clock.

Features & Specifications:

DBA-1 Digital to Analog Converter

The Bryston BDA-1 is a state-of-the-art external Stereo DAC (digital to analog converter) using fully discrete Class-A proprietary Bryston analog circuits, two independent linear power supplies and dual Crystal CS-4398 DAC chips.

The BDA-1 is RS-232 software upgradeable, making it the most flexible high performance DAC on the market.

The BDA-1 features an impressive array of inputs for USB, COAX, OPTICAL, AES-EBU and BNC equipped digital devices. For audio outputs, the BDA-1 offers both balanced XLR as well as unbalanced RCA stereo connectors on the rear panel.

The Bryston DAC employs a very sophisticated jitter reduction circuit. Jitter is a mistiming of data being moved from point A to point B in any synchronous digital system. Think of jitter as individual ticks on a clock—however each tick is not occurring at exact one-second intervals. Some are slightly less than a second and some are slightly longer, and they average out so that no actual time is being gained or lost over a large number of seconds. Jitter is the difference between the shortest and the longest second, and in digital audio systems this specification is usually measured in nanoseconds. Both the frequency and the jitter characteristics of the system’s digital clock will affect the accuracy of reproduction. The frequency, if not accurate, can cause the pitch and speed of the music to change, and in some systems cause drop-outs if there is no data available.

Features & Specifications:

Son and Image Review