Bryston Reviews?

[jaxvon]

I know Bryston is some pretty high-end stuff, but I would think that it's in the same league as Rotel and I was wondering if you guys have any intention of trying to get some Bryston stuff in for review.

 

[VolksyGTI]

Jax...

I do not claim to be an encyclopedia of knowledge, but in my experience, people more knowledgeble and with deeper pockets than I, consider Bryston amps to be trully HighEnd Hi-Fi, while in general Rotel is viewed as Mid-Fi. And I am not saying this to knock Rotel in any way...Actually I am in the market for a Rotel amp. They are High End enough for my tastes

 

[Audioholics]

The following has NOTHING to do specifically with Bryston, but there have been several requests for more high-end equipment...

While we do not exclude anyone from contacting us for reviews, we have found that many of the so-called high-end or esoteric companies don't really have an interest in being reviewed by popular, more mainstream magazines. To date we;ve contacted several, and they each cited their own reasons for declining, but ultimately I think they may like their 'elite' status and would not want to be compromised by an association with more mainstream products.

Remember, all they would pay is shipping both ways and having to re-classify gear as B-stock... certianly not a lot to ask for a high-traffic review.

We spoke with a few companies in the past several weeks who were more than content to have their products reviewed on sites with about 1/5th the traffic of ours (at best). These 100% subjective reviews provided no measurements of course.

Some companies may also be intimidated by the thought that they may be compared to some of the mid-fi equipment which is consistently ahead of the curve in terms of features and measurable performance - and don't even mention value.

We don't presume to speak for these manufacturers, but are commenting based on our perceptions from various conversations, etc. We'd like to do some high-end equipment from time to time, but there doesn't seem to be much drive out there for many manufacturers to want to show off their equipment outside of their niche market.

It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just their business model.

 

[outsider]

the shop I deal with regularly recommended Bryston (which they don't sell) as a step up from Rotel (which they sell).

 

[legacy]

I've had a Bryston 6bsst (amp) for a while. The units are well constructed and have an extremely generous 20 year fully-transferable warranty and hold their value very well.

I use a Denon 3805 as a pre-amp/processor. No receiver has come close to the performance of the Bryston subjectly though the 3805 is the most expensive I've tested. If I knew the Denon 5805 amplification would perform as well, I would never buy separates again. As Gene said the corresponding pre-amp/processors (sp 1.7 in Bryston's case) are super expensive and behind on features like DVI swtiching and the audessy system.

 

[gene]

If I knew the Denon 5805 amplification would perform as well, I would never buy separates again.

The amp section in the Denon 5805 is the best we have ever seen in any receiver and in many cases rivals many dedicated 7Ch amps in the $2-3k price range. Brystons do make some excellent amps from what I have seen, but in many cases the amp section in the Denon will certainly be good enough for all but the most demanding speakers with low efficiencies (<87dB, and erratic phase/impedance profiles).

You will certainly be hard pressed to find a dedicated processor at the price of the AVR-5805 that can compete with its feature set and performance level.

Denon has made me a believer of negating the need for separates in this case.

 

[T2T]

In addition to what Gene has stated regarding the Denon AVR-5805, if you move this beast around enough, you can cancel your gym membership.