Hi
I found the Plinius SA-250 v4 a lot smoother and more refined than the Bryston ST series.
The Plinius is very warm, lush, and euphoric with a stronger emphasis on bloom, decay. Its one of the more traditional tubey-like sounding solidstate amps that Ive heard, (but doesnt quite 3d like the real thing). I heard the Plinius driving a pair of the bigger Martin Logans and Diana Krall was swonderful, but when I tried the 250 v4 (heavy sucker) on my Maggie 3.6s it was excessively euphoric. Everything sounded too smooth, liquidy, and lacked dynamic impact and PRAT Krall was still swonderful, but Basie was boring. I got it to swing with a strong, dry, dynamic preamp like the ARC LS-25. Highs were excellent, midrange and bass tightened up and lost some of the bloated feeling, but never got the PRAT right for me. I like it much more on leaner or brighter speakers like Thiel or Logans.
The Bryston, although cruder was more neutral or truer to the source than the Plinius. Much stronger (in your face) attack with a lot of grunt (great for rock and heavy hitting music). Bass is excellent, but overall esp. the highs were too raw and lacked finesse. I havent heard the SST personally, but Bryston may have corrected the highs and refined the sound a bit on the SST series. Check for congestion and how well the images stay focused when pushed, I notice the ST seemed to loose it too quickly for a muscle amp.
If you find want a muscle amp thats more nimble than the Plinius and way more refined than the Bryston; check out a McCormack DNA-500 or DNA-2 with Rev A mods.
I found the Plinius SA-250 v4 a lot smoother and more refined than the Bryston ST series.
The Plinius is very warm, lush, and euphoric with a stronger emphasis on bloom, decay. Its one of the more traditional tubey-like sounding solidstate amps that Ive heard, (but doesnt quite 3d like the real thing). I heard the Plinius driving a pair of the bigger Martin Logans and Diana Krall was swonderful, but when I tried the 250 v4 (heavy sucker) on my Maggie 3.6s it was excessively euphoric. Everything sounded too smooth, liquidy, and lacked dynamic impact and PRAT Krall was still swonderful, but Basie was boring. I got it to swing with a strong, dry, dynamic preamp like the ARC LS-25. Highs were excellent, midrange and bass tightened up and lost some of the bloated feeling, but never got the PRAT right for me. I like it much more on leaner or brighter speakers like Thiel or Logans.
The Bryston, although cruder was more neutral or truer to the source than the Plinius. Much stronger (in your face) attack with a lot of grunt (great for rock and heavy hitting music). Bass is excellent, but overall esp. the highs were too raw and lacked finesse. I havent heard the SST personally, but Bryston may have corrected the highs and refined the sound a bit on the SST series. Check for congestion and how well the images stay focused when pushed, I notice the ST seemed to loose it too quickly for a muscle amp.
If you find want a muscle amp thats more nimble than the Plinius and way more refined than the Bryston; check out a McCormack DNA-500 or DNA-2 with Rev A mods.