Bryston VS Musical Fidelity

Tvad, that is why I was surprised by your post saying it would be bright. You recent statement is more accurate IMHO, neutral

Ehoehn,the Bryston's were bright with my Aerials, and I may have incorrectly compared the Aerial and B&W sound to be similar in the top end, thus my comment.

Bottom line, IMO, if a Bryston amp is under consideration, it's a no-brainer to buy an SST series, try it, and re-sell if it's not what the listener wants. Almost no risk involved.

Tvad,
How would you compare the Bryston with the VAC Tube Amp.
Forget conventional wisdom and all the techno talk, just, how do they compare?
Which is better in your humble opinion, why, and so on.

My assessment, humbly is, that the Bryson sounds, although, I dislike this characterization, slow and lacking in fine detail.
Inasmuch as tubes are finely detailed though somethat flawed in the bass region, the Bryston sounds unrefined and slower than I would characterize as being accurate musically.
It is the proverbial workhorse versus the thorobred horse.
It lacks refinement and detail, but has good bass and other good qualities.

I don't know what slow means. If it means instrument get fuzzy and blurred and blend into each other, then I did not hear this in my system when using the 4B SST or 14B SST. I know my 14B SST imaged like crazy and threw an expansive soundstage. When the dog barks behind my right ear, and the telephone rings behind me during Roger Waters' "Amused to Death", I know the amp is doing something right. The VAC throws an expansive soundstage in the zero global feedback mode, but it loses bass and sounds unbalanced toward the highs. The VAC regains the balance and bass when run with global feedback, but it loses its soundstaging width. The VAC has no serrated knife edge in the highs like I occasionally experienced with the Bryston.

But, this is not a Bryston vs. VAC thread. Greg_lett, is asking for comparisons between the 4B SST and A5. While I have never heard the A5, I have heard two Bryston SST series amps, and I have absolutely no reservations suggesting buying a used 4B SST and trying it in one's own system. The re-sale is rock solid, and you just can't get hurt in the wallet, making the experiment completely worthwhile, IMO.

As an alternative to the Bryston, you might seriously look into the $1600/pair NuForce Reference 8 mono amplifiers.