Any Bryston B100 owners? Help please


Hi.
Today I auditioned a Bryston B100 with the built-in DAC (privately, not at a dealer).

The sound was clean; no questions there.

However, the output level seemed strangely low, for an amplifier that is 100 watts/ channel.
To get a moderately-loud volume level, I had to have the volume knob at the 12-oclock position or higher.

Something just didn't seem right about this to me.
The Bryston dealer I spoke to said that 12 o'clock should be essentially full gain.

The speakers were not exotic nor inefficient -Paradigm mini monitors. I also tried another pair of speakers with the same results.

I compared the Bryston to an Arcam Alpha 9 (75 WPC), and the Arcam seemed to have a higher output level.

Does anyone have any experience with this amp?

Also, can anyone confirm whether the amplifier section of this unit still has the 20-year warranty, depute there also being a DAC inside?
The local dealer stated that because of the DAC, the warranty on the whole unit is limited to 5 years.
This seemed to contradict the warranty card in the box, and doesn't seem sensible to me.

Thanks!
128x128trentcanuck

Showing 1 response by mechans

An amps gain is not the same as wattage. The number of watts needed to play loud has more to do with it's tendancy to clip/distort at loud volumes.
I did note that this piece does have some kind of software controlled volume so there may be an issue with that.