bring on the Bryston

Anyone else heard these? Having waited God knows how long to get my hands on a pair to dem, have just spent the day listening to a pair of Bryston 7BSST monoblocks. They're new, and were stone cold, so the sound is still changing, but I'm well impressed already. They really grip my B&W N802s - a very clean sound (started off if anything sounding a bit lean, but this changed as they warmed up), oodles of detail in the bass, which has really changed the character of some of my trusted old listening reference tracks. For example , I've always heard the Yes Album as fat, burbly bass (and assumed this was the intention and enjoyed it) - but these really tighten it up and bring out the instrument definition. Voices again very clean and neutral, possibly losing a bit of warmth compared to my Alectos but picking up texture and background ambience. No strain at all as the volume goes up - no distortion and harshness - just more and more volume (the handbook point sout that at their max, drawing 900w, that's pretty much all the juice on a household ring, so they would need their own ring - but I think my eardums would have popped well before that! Very fast and dynamic - I feel i should be reaching for HiFi Plug's book of superlatives.. Looking forward to see if the sound gets even better as they break in - but already wondering how much my Alectos might go for...

 

I've got a 14BSST...
Sounds a tad lean for about 30 minutes from cold, then it's the business; as you say - amazing bass definition, and more dynamic power than I'll ever need!
As the old adage says - there's no substitute for cubes...

 

I found it a bit dry and lacking clout even with my power station that doesn't do anything hooked up , however they are very good amps and have a bomb proof warranty, mind you the big B&W's need all the help they can get in the bass, to stop em' going wobble-wards, should prove a good match if you have a more fruity source, that will bring out the warmth a tad.
However a quality product without question

 

I think the 7 and 14 are very closely related under the skin. I've had them running for a day now and there's definitely more warmth in the sound - and fantastic resolution on orchestral pieces. Did the 14 change much as it ran in? Also, out of interest, what kind of preamp are you using with it? I had my previous amps biwiring the speakers with 1m VdH revelation. The brystons only have one output. I've been using the spare VdH cables to link the two speaker input pairs, assuming that's better than the nasty little wires provided - but I was wondering whether you would biwire off the Brystons by having one wire on each binding post connected thru the wire grip hole and the other stuck in the banana socket. What do you reckon?

 

I don't biwire my speakers, mainly because I've found the only difference it makes is to the amount of speaker cable I have to buy! If I was going to I'd probably attach both cables to a spade connector and Bob's yer uncle...
And yes, the 7 and 14 are very similar - the 7 has a slightly higher rated transformer (though with my amp certified at 645w/ch into 8ohms it don't need much more!!!), and of course is a monoblock..
Anyway, I run it balanced from a Bow Warlock pre, which has a balanced feed from Advantage cdp, and single ended from a Clearaudio/EAR phono..
All very clean and transparent, with prodigious bass - which is nice.

 

I made my mind up and bought them last weekend and have been digging out every bass-laden CD I have just to wallow in it... . I see you're using balanced mode (not that my pre accommodates it, though the Krell sacd and Brystons do) - what kind of difference / benefit do you find that brings over single ended?

 

To tell the truth I haven't actually noticed any difference in pure sound terms... Although a m8 came round who hadn't heard my system with the Bryston, and his comment was "impressive height".. Nowt like damning with faint praise
I only went balanced because the pre-amp is a bit noisy in single ended mode (it's foreign you know ) - it's reduced that hum to very little indeed!
But I'm glad you're enjoying the Big Black Beasts - it wasn't long ago that I swore by big valve amps, but now I'm a born again solid-state man.. Perhaps the 20 year guarantee helps on that score!