Finally took the Bryston 4B Cubed plunge

And no, the 100 hours of run-in at the factory is clearly not enough. The 200 hours are on top of that. :) 

Late to the party, but I’m currently reviewing the 4B3, so thought I’d chime in. Initially, I found the sound with the BP-17 Cubed preamp to be underwhelming. It lacked resolution and was rather dull and lifeless. How much of this was the pre vs. the amp I’m not sure, but thankfully with a LOT of burn-in, it improves immensely. Now I can say that the 4B3 is a quite excellent amp - powerful, neutral and smooth with terrific bass. It’s not quite at the level of the really high-end stuff I’ve heard (Ayre, Pass, Chord, etc.) - those brands have a bit more resolution, sense of space, inner dynamics, harmonic completeness and sweetness - but you need a pretty high-resolution system and picky ears to notice it. On the other hand, I think it’s easily more neutral and musically accurate than a high-end Naim stack I’ve heard.

Anyway, my point is, if you think the 4B3 sounds a little uninvolving, make sure you’re listening to a unit that’s fully run in. I’m at least 200 hours in and I’m pretty sure it’s still improving. Given the warranty, bullet-proof build and features, and considering the stupid amount of money you can spend on gear these days, it’s an excellent value.

BTW the BP-17 pre is MUCH more transparent than past efforts, no doubt because it appears to be (and sounds) direct coupled. All the older models (even the BP-26) used bipolar electrolytic coupling caps in the signal path which killed any chance of them being really transparent. I’ve compared the BP-17 to no preamp at all and it is quite excellent, with great dynamics and bass and only the tiniest hint of upper midrange/treble glare.

Some more thoughts here:
http://taww.co/post/175557320172/top-10-impressions-bryston-4b-cubed-bp-17-cubed

Cheers,
TAWW

@fsonicsmith in fairness and full disclosure, I'm actually a reviewer so it's my job to try to be as objective as possible. :) And the Brystons are on loan for review. I try not to be a brand groupie, and ultimately all I care about is how good the gear and sound is regardless of brand, but hey I'm human and there are a few that I have a soft spot for. Anyway you raise a LOT of great points and questions that I could go on and on about, I will try to respond as succinctly as I can...

Re: Bryston missing the mark on "transparency and inner detail," I think this is a fair criticism. I'm not as familiar with the SST2 and older lines, but my friend Marty DeWulf spent some time with them and I think he would agree with you. My best guess is the Cubed series makes pretty big strides here, and gets much closer to hitting the mark. It's still not Pass or Ayre, but it's pretty good. 

Re: why they don't try to go after the super high-end crowd, I think it's pretty simple: culture and business model. I don't think our target market is a very good one from a financial perspective. It's way too niche and full of crazies like me. We're super subjective and fickle and it just goes against the grain of the pragmatic, engineering-centric and quality-driven culture of Bryston. Also in terms of design philosophy, the types of things that matter to purist audiophiles - minimalism, zero feedback, etc. - actually go against the grain of what Bryston designs for. Everything is a trade-off, and they make certain design decisions based on specific objectives. One of them is absolute reliability - the protection circuits in a Bryston amp may actually take a little away from the sound, but they make the unit bulletproof. A 4B3 would thrive in environments - studios, stages, theater basements, school auditoriums, etc. - that would make a typical high-end amp cry, or probably burst into flames. Case in point - I accidentally pulled the power cord out of the 4B3 mid-operation. The amp instantaneously muted as if I had turned it off properly, surely and gracefully. Not a single thump or moment of drama for my speakers or ears. Same for the preamp. The stuff is indestructible and impervious to idiocy, and if you do somehow overwhelm the failsafes, there's a good chance Bryston will fix it for you anyway. That takes a certain commitment and design ethos that while not diametrically opposed to the purist approach, certainly isn't congruent with it.

I think when you factor the above and the warranty into the price of the Bryston, it would be reasonable to expect their $5k amp to be in the same sound-quality league as an audiophile amp at about half the price. Again, trade-ofs - all that design stuff takes time and money that could have been spent on tweaking ultimate sound quality. The fact that the 4B3 actually sounds very much in line with its price, AND checks all the traditional Bryston boxes, is kind of remarkable methinks.

As to why they are going into tables, again, simple - market factors. Analog is hot and distinct from the high-end market - LPs are actually cool and hipster and there is a younger demographic buying them. Compare this to the typical crowd at an audio show, that, no offense, is more likely to be collecting Social Security benefits than paying off student loans. Analog has become a viable, sustainable market (for now at least), and in business, either you cash in or get pushed out. 

And you can't fault Bryston for going after a solid business model. What's the point of offering a 20 year warranty if you can't stay in business that long! :)  In fact you could say that in order to take care of their core customer base well into the future, they did the math and made some business projections and decisions to ensure financial health. The audio industry is deep into an existential crisis and I don't blame anyone for trying to stay alive.

@jafant for interconnects I'm using either Audience Au24 SX (admittedly a little out of whack price-wise with the Brystons) or DH Labs Revelation. I also have DH Labs Air Matrix and some assorted other budget things lying around, but most of my time has been with one the Audience or Revelation.

For speaker cables, Audience Au24 SX or DH Labs Q-10 Signature. Power cable has been Audience powerChord SE-i, DH Labs Corona or the stock 14-3 cord which is actually pretty ok on the 4B3. 

The funny thing is early on when the Brystons weren't broken in, I much preferred the DH Labs wires - the Audience made the darkness and murkiness worse. Then as the gear opened up, the DH Labs became a bit too forward and I went back to the Audience, and now everything is lovely. The Audience are more refined cables and cost a pretty penny more so this isn't an indictment of the excellent DH Labs cables at all, but I also think it points to how it takes time for the Bryston to balance out. If gear works well with the Audience that could be taken as a good sign we're getting closer to the big leagues, as they are outstanding wires used as a reference in some extremely impressive ($$$) high-end systems. 

@professorsvsu I'm glad you're enjoying your 4B3 even more now after some more run-in. TBH, when you said it was only a little better than your Parasound, I raised my eyebrows a bit and thought to myself, that Bryston either isn't set up properly or run in enough. ;)

@elizabeth I haven't used the BP26 but I have experience with the preamp section of the older Bryston B60, which is pretty much the same as the BP6 which in turn uses the same fundamental discrete op amp circuits as the BP25 and BP26 and shares the same sonic signature. (Bryston says this themselves and isn't shy about showing this in the schematics.)

Based on this experience the Bryston preamp circuit is very musical and nice, but fundamentally colored by the electrolytic caps. There simply isn't any electrolytic that's truly neutral. The old Black Gates were the best sounding I had heard and the recent Mundorfs are very nice (I'm using them in my B60), but they're not anything like film caps, much less straight wire. The funny thing is these caps are often warm and fuzzy sounding once broken in, generally softening the highs and adding fullness (some would say bloat) to the lower midrange and bass. This actually works out great in the Bryston as it balances out any potential hardness/brightness in the op amp circuit, and it also adds warmth that helps make their amps sound better (synergy!). I think if you swapped out the 'lytics for a better film cap that's very fast and clear, the preamp would actually sound worse. Ultimately holistic balance in the circuit/system is more important than absolute correctness of a given part, and this is why it's worked for so many years. It might sound like damning with faint praise but hey, it's your enjoyment that counts! 

@jafant my friend is sending me some of the older Audience cables, I think possibly the original Au24, for comparison with the SX. So I should have a sense of how they work with the Bryston, if you decide to pick up an old set or what not.

Just got my new speaker in, Audiovector SR 1 Avantgarde Arreté. Ruthlessly revealing 2-way monitor. The Bryston sounds very, very good with it, better than my Ayre AX7e. The speaker is one of those small not-that-efficient (87.5dB) monitors that is deceptively power-hungry, and the 4B3 fills it out better than the Ayre which is pretty limited in current capability. The AMT tweeter extends to 52kHz and doesn't cut an unrefined amp any slack whatsover. The Bryston combo is impressively smooth, not a hint of solid state coarseness. Pretty impressed, it's a good amp for sure.