Bryston 7B ST - Sounds anaemic. Any help?

Sean, don't take my comments too personally. I think that there might be some merit in the fact that if someone is not used to tight bass, of the type to be heard with a 7B ST, but is rather used to a fat, floppy sort of bass, the conclusion could be that (assuming the only change in the system was the power amp) the power amp is not hefty enough. Unless a Bryston is not working properly or is being asked the impossible in source material being reproduced, SPL and load, it, like any other amp, will clip. The point at which it does is, for all practical purposes short of torture testing, so high as to be irrelevant. I stick to my point that manufacturers are at the whim of people who invent problems where they don't exist and would rather believe gibberish than rational explanation. No, it's not good enough in my opinion to say, nay to insist adamantly, that one's ears are the only and final arbiter and that anything goes in high-end audio. Like I said before, some people out there are laughing as I write this thinking how gullible their customers are. On the other hand, some honest, hard-working, intelligent people are not so prone to hilarity when nonsense about their wares has put them, if not in bankruptcy, on the edge of it. On the topic of measurements: what is being measured and how is very important, the correlation between the numbers generated and the sound is another kettle of fish. A sane and rational approach to evaluating components individually and systems as a whole in the one and final important criteria, that is listening to music in a real world situation, is sorely lacking. The placebo effect is all to real. So many audiophiles cannot tell the difference between a malfunction and some artefact in the reproduced sound, that another problem has crept up: audio-psychosomatic disorders. As a technician you surely must have come across such instances. One and all, stop fretting and listen to music is my advice. You will still enjoy the "hobby", not to worry.

1) I have worked on enough gear to know that sometimes what measures fine is still not operating "correctly". As such, i do not doubt that a component is acting "squirrely" for a customer even though i may not be able to duplicate the problem on my bench.

2) I have run into TONS of situations where a component was "screwed up" or "not running right" simply because it was responding to a problem elsewhere in the system. In many of these cases, the customer blamed what they thought was convenient rather than doing any of the simple yet effective steps to troubleshoot the problem themselves. If i was an unscrupulous person, i could charge them for repairs that were never done or sell them something else that would do nothing for them while nodding and smiling while i say "this will fix your problem".

3) Our testing methods are very lacking. There are things that we just can't explain even if we have all of the data directly in front of us. I could go into details but it would be a moot point. Once one realizes that, "crazy explanations" sometimes seem to make more sense than "what should work but doesn't" or vice-versa.

As to your comments about listening to music, i am lucky in the fact that i get to listen to music at least 6 to 8 hours every day. I typically listen to my HT system via the mains ( large 4 ways with 5 drivers per cabinet with very high powered digital amps ) for appr 2 to 2 1/2 hours before leaving for work in the morning. When i get home from work, i listen to my computer room / home office system ( omnidirectional full-ranges with monoblocks ) for what usually turns out to be about 4-6 hours a night. On occassion, i will fire up my basement system ( tubes with horns ) for a couple of hours before heading into the computer room. On weekends, i make use of my main system ( tri-amped with mono-blocks and a line array of e-stat tweeters, double stacked e-stat panels for mids and multiple dynamic woofers ) for several hours on end. When it's time to "keel over", i can doze off in the bedroom with a bi-amped pair of monitors on stands and two downloaded subs. If i'm not listening to music, it is because we are watching a movie, etc... When all is said and done, i probably need a little more "peace and quiet" : ) Sean
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Since there are quite some 7B users on this topic, I have a question about these amps that I'd like other 7B users to answer. When I turn off the amps (7B ST) I hear terrible squeeky sounds through the loudspeaker which then slowly fade away... First I was afraid that my speakers where being slaughtered but now I know that they don't and keep working normally. Do all Bryston amps have this strange behaviour or could there be something wrong with my Brystons?

I'd really appreciate 7B owners experience with there amps in this regard.

Thanks you!

All power amps that I have owned did something similar. Ask Sean, but I believe it's the storage caps that are discharging.

Dear Nanning,
I have observed the same noises with my 7Bs. I agree with PBB that it is probably from capacitors discharging. It is disturbing but not damaging. There are ways to prevent these sounds, but obviously this was not done for our 7Bs. I am happy not to pay for extra circuitry. I left my 7Bs on virtually all the time anyhow.