Yes, I just bought a pair. Amazing. Effortless and Boundless are two apt descriptors. Gobs and gobs of effortless power. Now the volume is only limited by my pain threshold. There was a little glare on the top end but this has smoothed out nicely with about a week of continuous playing (iPod set to loop its playlist). Now very smooth and very dynamic. Just this single change (the amps) has revealed details in the music I had not heard before. The separation and detail of the instruments and voices is remarkable. Did I mention very dynamic? The spec sheet from the final bench test at the Bryston factor rated each amp at 1200W into 8 ohms before clipping. The worst THD for either amp was 0.00421% @ 20KHz, the best number was 0.00077% @ 200 Hz Of course, we all know that the numbers don't tell the story, the music does. But, these are impressive numbers and they do bear out in the final sound.
I also had a chance to visit the Bryston factory over the holidays and met James Tanner who spent about 90 minutes chatting with me and touring me around the plant. Very, very nice people who are dedicated to their craft. Their products are essentially hand built and all are torture-tested before they leave the factory. I saw several amps on the burn-in bench and others in various stages of production. I also got to see the new SP-3 that I wish they would bring to market right now but I'm told won't be here for another 8 months or so.
I'm very satisfied with these amps and am in the process of upgrading other parts of my system. Using a Benchmark DAC-Pre right now that is very nice but I can now hear its limitations. I know the Bryston DAC is very nice but I can't decide on a suitable Pre-amp. My Dealer likes the Audio Research and I've heard the AR Pre on a Bryston 4B which had a very nice synergy; better, I thought, than the AR power amp. Haven't compared the Bryston Pre-amp and that would also be a consideration.
One small criticism I would make of these amps is that the binding posts have large plastic shrouds that make it difficult to fit Cardas spades. The reason for this is that they really want to prevent you from shorting across the posts if the amp is on when you're connecting the speakers (very bad idea!) or if the connectors somehow slip and short out. But, it's awkward and I'm not happy with the connection and have ordered some Vampire spade to banana adaptors. I eventually plan to send my Golden Reference cables back to Cardas to get them cut is half (so that I can bi-wire my speakers) and refitted with bananas.
I'm also planning on getting a 240V service put into my listening room so that I can get a Torus Power Conditioner to supply these monsters with enough current. Each amp has the ability to trip a 15 amp circuit on their own. So far no problems but we all know the difference that a dedicated AC circuit can make. Bryston recommends the Torus for these amps. I currently have them drawing their power from a pair of Shunyata Copperhead power cables off of my Hydra 8 but this is also supplying everything else. The Hydra has it's own dedicated 15 amp circuit on a 10 gauge line into a Hubbel cryo'ed outlet. The Copperheads are an improvement over the stock power cable, even though the Bryston folks don't necessarily believe that this makes a difference - to my ears it does.
I recommend that you go and listen to these monsters (100 lbs each!) and hear for yourself.
I also had a chance to visit the Bryston factory over the holidays and met James Tanner who spent about 90 minutes chatting with me and touring me around the plant. Very, very nice people who are dedicated to their craft. Their products are essentially hand built and all are torture-tested before they leave the factory. I saw several amps on the burn-in bench and others in various stages of production. I also got to see the new SP-3 that I wish they would bring to market right now but I'm told won't be here for another 8 months or so.
I'm very satisfied with these amps and am in the process of upgrading other parts of my system. Using a Benchmark DAC-Pre right now that is very nice but I can now hear its limitations. I know the Bryston DAC is very nice but I can't decide on a suitable Pre-amp. My Dealer likes the Audio Research and I've heard the AR Pre on a Bryston 4B which had a very nice synergy; better, I thought, than the AR power amp. Haven't compared the Bryston Pre-amp and that would also be a consideration.
One small criticism I would make of these amps is that the binding posts have large plastic shrouds that make it difficult to fit Cardas spades. The reason for this is that they really want to prevent you from shorting across the posts if the amp is on when you're connecting the speakers (very bad idea!) or if the connectors somehow slip and short out. But, it's awkward and I'm not happy with the connection and have ordered some Vampire spade to banana adaptors. I eventually plan to send my Golden Reference cables back to Cardas to get them cut is half (so that I can bi-wire my speakers) and refitted with bananas.
I'm also planning on getting a 240V service put into my listening room so that I can get a Torus Power Conditioner to supply these monsters with enough current. Each amp has the ability to trip a 15 amp circuit on their own. So far no problems but we all know the difference that a dedicated AC circuit can make. Bryston recommends the Torus for these amps. I currently have them drawing their power from a pair of Shunyata Copperhead power cables off of my Hydra 8 but this is also supplying everything else. The Hydra has it's own dedicated 15 amp circuit on a 10 gauge line into a Hubbel cryo'ed outlet. The Copperheads are an improvement over the stock power cable, even though the Bryston folks don't necessarily believe that this makes a difference - to my ears it does.
I recommend that you go and listen to these monsters (100 lbs each!) and hear for yourself.