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Background: I have had the Bryston 3B-ST for about two weeks now. It was manufactured in February 2001. It is powering a pair of Paradigm Studio 60v2 speakers that are about 6 months old. They are bi-wired with Home Depot 12-gauge wire. The source is a Sony SCD-C555ES SACD player. I am using the preouts on a Denon 3802 that I have had for about 4 months. Comparison: I had been using the Denon amplifiers to power the Paradigm speakers and have done plenty of listening to regular Redbook CDs as well as SACDs. One difference that I noticed between the internal amplifiers of the Denon and the Bryston is that it is a touch “brighter” but for me that is not an evil thing. I have a large room with a 10-foot ceiling, fully carpeted with large sound absorbing furniture. Also, when playing at low or high volume levels, the Bryston has an iron grip on the woofers. I guess that is what having “tighter bass” means. And yes, the Bryston does seem to be able to pull those low notes up to a good listening level. Again, not overbearing at all, just very musically pleasant. Changing back to the amplifiers in the Denon, the sound is just slightly mushy – not bad mind you by a long shot, but just in comparison to the Bryston powering the speakers. I was not able to clip the amplifier (make the twin green lights go to red). I played it loud enough to the point where I thought if I turn it up any louder, I might damage my speakers. Build Quality: Removing the dozen or so screws to pop the top off reveals a seemingly simple, solid design format. For me, it was quite remarkable to look at. The outside build quality is, as everyone states, “built like a tank”. It has to be both inside and out, otherwise with Bryston’s fully transferable 20-year warranty, they would be out of business. As a side note, it has a nice small footprint. Overall: Aesthetically pleasing appearance; however, I do not appreciate my equipment looking like pieces of art – I value the solid engineering look. Musically pleasing and did not require second mortgage ($1300 Cdn. – private sale). A solid piece in my setup. As a side note, I am giving the Bryston a 4-star overall rating, because it is not... "far better than I imagined" (5-star). I did a lot of research, and I expected an outstanding product and that is what I got.

Similar Products Used:

Denon 3802 internal amplifiers

The unit was well built for the money and the 20 year warranty a plus.

The Bryston had a number of weaknesses that included a lack of midrange dynamics and detail,and a somewhat poorly focused soundstage.In comparison the Bryston just didn''t create a believable musical event in a 3 dimensional space. I wanted to like this amplifier because I like the attitude of the company and I thought that in 20 years real progress must have been made in SS electronics. While this is only one comparison, it was disappointing.

I recently did a comparison with some friends between the Bryston 3B and a 20 year old Audio Research D120. Both units were the same power rating and both were SS. The differences were quite pronounced.

Similar Products Used:

Audio Research

Full bodied sound,smooth but detailed mids

None so far

I hooked this unit up to my NAD 304 preamp section,not expecting too much. Well I was wrong! The overall sound had more body to it and the extreme ranges filled out a bit. I was using a subwoofer with my mains, but after listening to this amp I'm debating about loosing the sub. Anyone that thinks "all amplifiers sound the same" should give this amp a listen.

Value for money, very good bass control, packs plenty of wallop despite the "low" power rating, extremely low floor noise

Aesthetically could be better looking

Have been using this amp for close to 2 years now. It is an amazing and capable performer. Right now, its driving a pair of Hales Design Group Revelation 3 speakers and it is driving them very well indeed. It certainly lived up to its bass control fame.

I also had an opportunity to compare it against a Classe CA200 amp, a considerably bigger box (both size & power output) and of course more costly. The load being driven was a pair of Pro-Ac 3.5 speakers. The smaller 3B-ST actually came out a winner, in terms of sonic performance, against the CA200. This just proves that size sometimes does not matter. Its what inside that counts. In this case, the people at Bryston had certainly did a good job with this amp.

My only upgrade in mind would be to move on to their 5B-ST mono-blocks but will probably take a backseat for a while. In the meantime, I will just enjoy the great performance that the 3B-ST gives, plus the added assurance by Bryston on its reliability (a cool 20 years warranty).

Equipment :

CEC TL-5100 CD transport
Parasound DAC 1600 HD
Anthem Pre 1L tubed pre-amp
Bryston 3B-ST amp
Hales Design Group Revelation 3 speakers
Cables : Silver Audio's Silver Bullet 6.0, Appassionata, Silver Symphony 48, Silver Stream digital cable.
Power cords : Wireworld Aurora, LAT International AC2, Silver Audio Power Burst
Power Conditioning : API 212P
Tweaks : DH Cones (Large & Jumbo) & Squares, Vibrapods, Radioshack ferrite rings

Similar Products Used:

Linn Majik, Classe CA200

HW Flexibility - RCA & XLR Inputs
Construction - Solid construction.
Noise - Background's blackness and contribution to resolution

Rear Panel Labeling - Inputs labeled Ch1 & Ch2. Speaker outputs labeled Left and Right.

Observation Basis - Upgrading from "mid-fi" to "hi-fi".

Differences: compared to a Rotel (980BX)that it replaced:
1) Ability to resolve more detail
2) Base control and dynamics
3) Blackness (low noise)

Compatibity: Provides plenty of dynamic power for speakers with medium (>91db) sensitivity and moderate impedance (>3 ohms min) dips.

System:
B&W P6 Speakers
Bryston BP20 Pre-amp
Bryston 3ST/THX
Kimber 4TC Speaker Wire
Kimber PBJ RCA (CD->Pre)
Bryston XLR (Pre->Amp)
Nakamichi MB3 (CD)

Rating:
Value -> Exceptional warranty and customer service
Overall -> Top of its perfromance class at its price

Comments: Are there better -> Yes. Most cost a lot more.

Similar Products Used:

Rotel 980BX

Recently purchased this amp. after listening to many comparable components and for the price I believe that this one is hard to beat. For years I know Bryston has been thought of as just "heavy bottom-ended solid state stuff". But those days are truly past as witnessed several years ago by the release of the NRB series of amps. Having used the 3B-NRB I can say with confidence that the 3B-ST is a substantial improvement further still. While auditioning this amp. I found it could handle any type of music program effortlessly. The sound is wonderfully transparent and detailed with minimal colorations, and put simply, very pleasant to listen to for hours on end. At the approx. price of $2000 Cdn I would strongly recommend that anyone in the market for an amplifier in this price range, give this one a listen. It's a gem!!

amazing Base, clarity, able to handle any type of music beautifully, build quality is second to none. 20 year warranty

none

Love this amp. I have the silver edition factory rated at 162 Wpc 8 ohms. I listened to many amps and having a fairly good power amp budget of $5000, I was initally looking at Pass Labs, smaller Krells and Classe. When I was at one of the NUMEROUS shops listening to a McCormick amp I noticed a little silver thingy sitting quietly in the corner and when the dealer fired that sucker up I knew I was taking it home. The music just sounded right. Clean, crisp, deep well defined base... could go on and on... bottom line is for less than 2G there is nothing that comes close. You can do better I am positive of that, I have heard better but not under 5G. Actually that statement is absolutely true but under the condition that supporting equipment is first rate. All this talk about grain and darkness and stuff like that about this amp is garbage and untrue again as long as you have excellent supporting equipment. In my case JPS superconductor+ interconnects have just raised my level of sound to incredible levels. So before plopping down tons of money on a esoteric amp, do yourself a favour and give this amp a listen. It is truly all the power you will ever need unless you have hard to drive speakers. I can tell you honestly that I can scare my neigbours if I want without any distortion in sound and without even clipping this puppy. I can't imagine anyone wanting to listen to their stereo that loud:) I hope I don't come across as negative towards other amps because that is not my intention, all of the ones I have heard would be welcome in my living room, its a matter of this logic:)
cost/benefit... and thats a no brainer. (wife agrees with
this logic:)

easily 5+ stars
Bonus is that Bryston as a company is first rate and 20 year warranty is just icing on the cake.

Similar Products Used:

dna 1, classe, Krells, Onkyo Integra, Pass Labs

Quality, Build, Warranty.

May not be what the tube crowd likes. Unforgiving to bad recordings. These are not real weaknesses.

How anybody can give a product like this a 1 star rating is beyond me. A 1 should be reserved for bottom of the line junk. The 3B-ST isn't anywhere near junk.

Lets face it, this is an expensive hobby. The 3B however is actually and excellent value on the performance/price scale. When people rip on audio equipment it makes me wonder if they actually know anything about sound reproduction at all.

Some equipment just doesn't fit in some systems. Some equipment does things differently than other equipment. It doesn't make it any better or worse than one or the other, just different.

I have listened to the 3B-ST in a number of different rooms and settings, with a number of different speakers, sources and cables here's what I have found.

Power: Excellent power for the rating of 120/chan. It is a conservative rating.

Imaging: Excellent, centered, focused, real.

Soundstage: Very good. The speaker choice will make a lot of difference, I would suggest something better than what the guy who gave this a 1 was using.

Reproduction: The sound is right on. This amp is accurate and will not smooth over a crap recording. This amp offers great bass and clean highs. There is a break in period. I have found with my Bryston 7B-St's that 3 weeks of hard listening will make a difference.

The 3B-ST mated with the right equipment is a 5 star amp. It's a simple straight forward piece of equipment. The quality is as good as most of the other High End gear. This amp does exactally what it was designed to do.

Similar Products Used:

Acurus A200, Bryston 4B-ST, Claase gear.

Built to last for decades, low distortion, 20 year warranty

Looks

Bryston continues to be one of the best values in high-end audio today. The 3B-ST is ideal for not too difficult to drive speakers and cannot be beat for the price in my opinion. Bryston amplifiers give you the music as it was recorded, good or bad, without veiling the music, with no noticeable distortion. Last but not the least, Bryston customer service is the best that I have encountered in the industry thus far. There's no reason for me to look further unless I upgrade to speakers that present a more difficult load. A 5 star rating if there ever was one.

Similar Products Used:

Classe Aragon Bryston

To my amazement, using the balanced connections really picked up the sound of my 3bst/bp25, with the sound becoming much smoother and distant. This is a different level entirely from the standard RCA terminated cables. Give it a try.