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Bryston Sold

DonH56

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LTig

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Let's hope the manufactoring workers losing their jobs in Peterborough find another similarly payed job. May be difficult in Corona times :(
 

blueone

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27 employees... I would have guessed they were bigger than that. Every time I read an employee count at a high end audio company I always think that their market appearance makes them look bigger than they really are.
 

bigguyca

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The Bryston team and their equipment equipment is, and has been, the definition of integrity, excellent performance and rock-solid reliability. Hopefully this will continue under this new ownership.

The passing of Brian Russell last year was sad. The team a Bryston had been together for decades.

The Passing of Brian Russell | Stereophile.com
 
OP
DonH56

DonH56

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In high-school and college I worked for some audio stores and got to be around a lot of the "big" companies of the day. I was also a little surprised at how small most of them were, often one to a handful of design engineers and a small manufacturing team. I sent my resume to a few, but they weren't hiring new-grads, though I did get a couple of bites and encouragement from people I had actually spoken with. I think I still have the letter from ARC, someplace.
 

garbulky

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Yeah they are in good hands or at least with good people. Bryston Model T speakers used Axiom Audio components and were up-market versions of the M-100.
 

Dundas

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I don't think there is any need to refer to Bryston's speakers in the past tense, at least I hope not.
Given the apparent alignment in philosophies it would be interesting to get Amir's take on Axiom's and Bryston's speakers.
 

Vintage57

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As a brand champion of Bryston products for most of my audio enthusiast years. And as a Canadian I agree with the positive sentiments shown above.
Wishing them every success in the years to come.
 

H-713

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Glad to hear it was another small company. I'm sure the Bryston we all know and love won't change too much. My biggest worry with small companies like Bryston or MC2 / XTA is that they're vulnerable to acquisition from giants like Harman or Behringer. When that happens, something always seems to be lost. Little companies are free to do things the way they like. Bryston builds amplifiers the Bryston way. MC2 builds amplifiers the MC2 way. Some of the passion seems to be lost when they get bought and gutted for profit.

Turbosound is merely a shadow of it's former self. Crown hasn't been the same since they were bought by Harman. The Midas of today is a very different Midas from the company that built the XL4. BSS isn't the company they once were. Harman isn't as bad as Music Tribe when it comes to gutting the companies they buy, but they're no angels either.
 

Pjetrof

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Glad to hear it was another small company. I'm sure the Bryston we all know and love won't change too much. My biggest worry with small companies like Bryston or MC2 / XTA is that they're vulnerable to acquisition from giants like Harman or Behringer. When that happens, something always seems to be lost. Little companies are free to do things the way they like. Bryston builds amplifiers the Bryston way. MC2 builds amplifiers the MC2 way. Some of the passion seems to be lost when they get bought and gutted for profit.

Turbosound is merely a shadow of it's former self. Crown hasn't been the same since they were bought by Harman. The Midas of today is a very different Midas from the company that built the XL4. BSS isn't the company they once were. Harman isn't as bad as Music Tribe when it comes to gutting the companies they buy, but they're no angels either.

Question of topic but glad to start to new one.
do you have experience or owned some MC2 amps and Bryston amps? How do they commpare?
not so off topic, axiom make a class d amp and look also very promising. Would like to see Amir to test one of those.
How much technology from Bryston went in the Axiom or vice versa?
 

H-713

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I have not touched any recent Bryston amplifiers, though I have every reason to believe that they're more or less the same design that they've used for 30 years.

I have worked on a good number of MC2 amplifiers (mostly MC series) and presently own an MC650 and an MC450. THD+N at 1 kHz is better than 0.005% when biased properly, and to my ears they are completely transparent and well-behaved. They have proven to be extremely reliable and well-behaved. Both MC2 and Bryston amplifiers fall under the category of "audibly transparent".

What's unique about MC2 amplifiers is that their fidelity is good enough for studio monitoring, but their power and reliability is good enough for the road. Bryston amplifiers are probably some of the most popular monitor amplifiers around, but you won't see them on the road because they don't have the necessary power density.
 

Pjetrof

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I have not touched any recent Bryston amplifiers, though I have every reason to believe that they're more or less the same design that they've used for 30 years.

I have worked on a good number of MC2 amplifiers (mostly MC series) and presently own an MC650 and an MC450. THD+N at 1 kHz is better than 0.005% when biased properly, and to my ears they are completely transparent and well-behaved. They have proven to be extremely reliable and well-behaved. Both MC2 and Bryston amplifiers fall under the category of "audibly transparent".

What's unique about MC2 amplifiers is that their fidelity is good enough for studio monitoring, but their power and reliability is good enough for the road. Bryston amplifiers are probably some of the most popular monitor amplifiers around, but you won't see them on the road because they don't have the necessary power density.

thx for the reply.
I have been looking at Mc2 for use at home.
The S800 or even S1400 for being future proof.
But apparently they have now the HS800 and 1400 exclusive for home.
Does the company use good brand components and are the amplifiers good design?
thx
 

Pjetrof

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I have not touched any recent Bryston amplifiers, though I have every reason to believe that they're more or less the same design that they've used for 30 years.

I have worked on a good number of MC2 amplifiers (mostly MC series) and presently own an MC650 and an MC450. THD+N at 1 kHz is better than 0.005% when biased properly, and to my ears they are completely transparent and well-behaved. They have proven to be extremely reliable and well-behaved. Both MC2 and Bryston amplifiers fall under the category of "audibly transparent".

What's unique about MC2 amplifiers is that their fidelity is good enough for studio monitoring, but their power and reliability is good enough for the road. Bryston amplifiers are probably some of the most popular monitor amplifiers around, but you won't see them on the road because they don't have the necessary power density.

Sorry one more question.
In your opinion compare to bryston, benchmark, accuphase etc where do you rate MC2.
I like the measurements of Benchmark but if you compare the mc2 it has so much more power.
 

H-713

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MC2 has always built extremely high quality amplifiers and they generally use good-quality parts. The fact that I've got MC series amps which are pushing 25 years of age should be telling- and it's not like all that much has changed with that company since then. It's still all the same people. Here's some details on what I've done with these amps at this point:

Most of the MC series amps in "my domain" were installed in the late 1990s and decommissioned sometime around 2014-2018. Most of them had cooling fans replaced between 2008 to 2012. All of these amps have found new homes and are still being used. I've replaced filter caps on a few amplifiers and replaced a couple of relays and power switches. Considering they have well over 100,000 hours (and thousands of very loud rock concerts) on them, I consider that to be pretty good. Most of the Crown amps from that time have been a much bigger headache.

I haven't used or worked on any Benchmark amplifiers, but I rate MC2 up with Bryston in terms of reliability. I generally lean towards MC2 in terms of preference, but that's as much because I prefer the styling of the MC2 amps than anything.
 
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