Bryston VS Musical Fidelity


Hi gang,

I'm looking for opinions on this. Has anyone compared
The Bryston 4BSST to the Musical Fidelity A5 power amp?
greg_lett
I might point out that Bryston, in an effort to justify their pricing and quality differences, other than the obvious warranty differences, would intentionally show much better spec's than their OEM Lexicon counterparts.
I would bet that the spec's are identical on both pieces, and that the difference is one of marketing. Smart, and meaninginless in terms of differences.
I. E. Why buy a Bryston, other than the 20 year warranty unless the spec's are different?
I know you like the Bryston, and well you should. It has been a staple in the industry for years, and only a 'taste' difference, in terms of 'sound' would lead one to a different product. I prefer it overwhelmingly to Krell's high frequency 'hash' for example. My preferences lean to tubes and their delcate presentation relative to solid state. The distortions of tubes are pleasant versus, unpleasant in solid state, with odd order harmonics.
Think about your system, and how the Bryston sounds better in some ways. That has to do with the speakers, capacitance etc, as much as anything.
Lrsky, are you implying that Bryston is publishing fraudulent specs either on their own website or on the Lexicon website? If so, I'm stunned. Honestly, stunned that you would level this accusation.

I'm not posting here because I am a standard bearer for Bryston. The man asked opinions about Bryston and Musical Fidelity amps with some pricing constraints...specifically a $2000 price point. I know that Bryston offers a good product that is within reach...certainly better than Rotel, IMO.

Let's move beyond the Bryston debate. What alternatives would you offer Gregg_lett at a $2000 price point?
Musical Fidelity is overrated but more musical to me than the Bryston.
Yet there are many tube amplifiers that have more musicality than either. So I guess I am a tube groupie, in that regard. Tubes sound more like music to me than solid state, and further, hybrid combo's of tubes and solid state, with tubes as pre's and solid state as the amplifiers sound most life like.
For example, in the past an Adcom amp, with a conrad johnson amp had a more palpable sound with regard to sonic realism to me, than many other combinations.
There is a reason why amps use mosfet designs, and it has to do with the sense of tube like sound.
The question is, what do I recommend. VAC is a good place to start. Oftentimes Kevin Hayes of VAC has used pieces for sale on his website. Or just call and talk to him. You will learn more about tube gear from him in minutes than I could write in hours.
I've compared and used many solid state amps. The Brsyton SST series amps offer great sound quality within their price range and up. As a matter of fact the only amp that has sounded better (in my current system) than my 4B-SST, has been a Pass Labs X-250.

Bryston amps have some of the best bass I have ever heard, solid, fast, and extremely well controlled. The SST series have very competitive mids and none of the exaggerated highs of the much earlier models.

As far a a MF to Bryston comparison, well... you can see I have no MF gear. They make fine products and I have never heard a MF piece that made me say, ugh!