I have a .8 series Pass amp (X250.8), and I used to own an earlier version of the 4B. Thus while this is not apples to apples, my preference is Pass, but I do have 2 thoughts. First, context is everything, so what's the rest of the system? Second, have you auditioned both?
Young dsd DAC Audio quest and MIT interconnects Zip cord speaker cable Sopra 3 focal speakers CJ GAT PREAMP ANDROS 1.2 Phonostage Vpi prime signature turntable
I had a chance to perform a direct comparison between the Bryston 2.5B3 and a Pass Labs amp (I forget the model) in the same setup. They simply sound different so I believe it will really come down to which you prefer. I prefer the Bryston, but the other person who was with me prefers the Pass.
I have also compared the newer Bryston cubed amps to their previous generations and there is also a very noticeable difference in sound character. So I wouldn't necessarily take the 135SST as a good reference point if you are considering the 4B3. I prefer the newer cubed series, but I have met people who prefer the older models after performing direct comparisons.
The 350.8 us the very latest and gas several upgrades .it us a Fantastic amp. Several things to note Nelson Pass doesnot like using fuses for a good reason,because fuses suck and are bottlenecks. He uses a breaker that is not a negative in the circuit He uses more mosfets on the outputs ,and several other improvements. One thing higher biasing into pure class-A Almost 20wpc before it croses over into class AB. Meaning more then half of your music on normal listening Will sound even better being in pure class- A ,also depending how inneficient your Loudspeakers are and doubles power into 4 ohms,and 2 . The only amplifiers close to this price class that may be a little more refined is the Vitus Amplifiers ,or Gryphon both from Denmark.
The Pass amp is more than twice the cost of the Bryston. The Bryston is an 4B3 is an excellent amp. I use the 6Bsst2 and it sounds outstanding with my Maggies. I haven't listened to the Pass amp so I wouldn't pass judgement. But , I believe you can reach a point of diminishing returns.
You have a great set of speakers which certainly do not match your current Adcom amp. The new cube series Bryston is very good. Owned a 14sst myself at one time but I don't know if it is at the level of the Pass gear. If you have a chance to listen with your speakers that would be best. Also strongly agree with previous comments on upgrade to better speaker and power cords. Best wishes.
givin2u- you own very nice gear, especially, the CJ GAT. There are many audiophiles who pair a Pass Labs amp w/ the GAT as they are sonic matches. The Bryston could possibly mate well w/ the GAT? At this level of price and performance it is best to audition both products. Keep me posted, I am a big CJ fan. Happy Listening!
I’ve owned both a Bryston amp and a Pass Labs amp and prefer Pass Labs, I visited the Bryston room at RMAF 2017 and it confirmed my change to Pass Labs XA 30.8.
Although there is a house sound, in the pass world there's a substantial difference between the x.5, xa.5, x.8, and xa.5 lines. I've only compared the first two, but preferred the xa.5 by a substantial margin. As others have started, the same is true of the different bryston generations. I think you'll simply have to audition. As everyone always states, renohifi makes that easy for the pass products...
It all depends on your preferences. Try to listen to both, ideally in your own system and see what YOU like better. All the advice is worthless. One may like Bryston , the other Pass and nobody will be right or wrong. Just different tastes , different preferences. Important is what you like.
I went 4b3 but did consider Pass X250.8 and X350.8, one main reason did not go Pass is the class A heat. As for the sound of the 4b3 its very, very good match with my 20.7s
I am not familiar with most of the gear that you have, but I have had several Nelson Pass products, including the Pass XA100.5, XA60.8, the First Watt M2 and J2. I also own a pair of Lamm tube amps. They each have their own character, but I have to say that all have these things in common: accuracy, good dynamics, and most important, they are musically superior to everything else I have listened to over the 15 years I have been an audiophile I had a Bryson amp, 4bt I believe, several years ago and I found it to be very analytic. It was accurate and it had good dynamic presentation but it was not very musical. Just my “2 cents” worth.
These new cubed series are very nice. The Bryston could be more analytical, transparent, and neutral than the Pass, and personnally I would not want that with the Focal. I would go straight Pass !!
I know this is a old thread but I'm finding myself with a loaner 4b3 which I like very much but I also like what I read about Pass and am contemplating buying on approval from Reno or finding a used unit. I'll note here that if you can go to the X150.8 that amp actually competes price wise with the 4b3. The Pass products are generally grossly underrated power wise and perform 25-35% higher than their stated output. So while the x150.8 is not as underpowered as you think it might be in comparison to the 4b3. The 4b3 is FAR FAR more musical to me than the "squared" series, much more delicate upper midrange and highs, beautifully detailed but not etched. It still is a little lacking in the presence department but only slightly and my suspicion is that's where the Pass will exceed the Bryston. The Bryston is however an exceedingly "fast" amp without being etched and is also totally dual mono with two stacked transformers (one for each channel). The build quality is astonishing and the thing can just put out a huge amount of power with no compression. I can easily listen to 110 db peaks on large orchestra recordings on the Bryston with no compression or odd things going on at all so I am impressed. Any further thoughts from anyone are welcome. My front end is largely digital (Bryston BDP-1) using Audirvana and a tubed Aesthetix Janus preamp with Thiel 2.4s.
I guess I'm the only one who would select based on which amp I had a hope of moving it upstairs on my own. Actually, I'd probably go with a 3B3 on that basis, as long as we are sticking with class A/B.
I like a tubed pre-amp w/ a Bryston power amp. Very nice synergy going on within this combo. My demo was an ARC Ref5SE and Bryston 4B-SST2. I am in the process of setting up an audition w/ the 4B3 very soon.
In the past I have heard a 3B-ST, 4B-SST and 4B-SST2.
I received a Pass x150.8 yesterday and I have to say these two amplifiers are entirely different. The Pass is very liquid, three dimensional and palpable whereas the Bryston is very analytical and revealing. While the Pass also retrieves a HUGE amount of detail from recordings there are some that will find the Bryston preferable. Since I'm only one day into the audition of the Pass I haven't quite decided yet but for people who believe all SS amps sound the same as long as they are high current and have plenty of power reserves compare these two because there's a huge difference. I would say initially that I favor the Pass but the problem I'm having with the Pass is that on orchestral music and particularly loud orchestral swells the Bryston is simply more accurate and conveys more information...i.e. its more analytical whereas on the Pass I get a bit of a homogenized sounds on orchestral peaks. I DO find the Pass amp far less fatiguing when listening to loud orchestral music. One interesting tidbit of my experience is that the Pass idles at a far higher electrical draw than the Bryston even though they're both Class A up to 10 watts for the Bryston and 15 watts for the Pass. The Bryston hardly ever got really warm even when it was driven hard while the Pass does produce about the same amount of heat as four KT88 tubes I would say. The heat from the Pass is not bad but just be prepared to use your air conditioning more.
Hi, I signed up on Audiogon specifically to respond to this post because I have both these amps and have been comparing them all last evening on different material.
Setup: mac air with a jitterbug and audioquest forest usb cable Macintosh mc52 pre and dac black cat 3020 xlr interconnects and speaker cables Dynaudio Contour 5.4 speakers Oem power conditioner and Gotham power cables.
I had bought a Bryston for a second system and the pass 350.8 has been my amp up till now while I have been upgrading other components in my system.
The more I learn about setting up your system I realise how much it’s personal preferences and not whether one is better than the rest.
On paper the 350.8 is a preferred amplifier and also on reviews. When I switched to the Bryston I realised I liked how it sounded and I got a bit confused so tried with different music and material all night
I found a free track on the DCS’s website the spirit of turtle records which was some classical material with huge dynamic range and depth in the soundstage which validated my preference clearly to the Bryston.
The 350.8 has been great with amazing detail and presence but somehow maybe my positioning and room has to be setup better because I was finding a lack in a soundstage depth and separation.
Overall the brystom felt more black and quieter with a deep soundstage, the dynamic range was amazing and the highs and mids also smoother but not muddled.
On specific instruments and voices when I compare the pass there is immense detail in each individual instrument and depth in its own sound but somehow I felt that I was enjoying listening to the Bryston more as it felt like one integrated and deep and high soundstage. My head was saying Pass better as it felt more live each instrument but I was enjoying the dynamic range and soundstage of the Bryston more.
It also feel a bit more like the Bryston is reflecting the sound of the Mcintosh C52 preamp more without interfering too much. This is my impression only. If there was a small negative on some songs maybe with my Dynaudios and the Bryston / Mac maybe sometimes the bass / mid ass is a bit heavier and not as tight as I would like but still not a major concern.
This is my impression after one night of listening so if I change my opinion will update you guys.
This is is all from listening last night and also for clarity I would like to state that I do like a mellower warmer sound similar to that of tube amps and less in ur face. Quietness from which the music emerges as opposed to it being in ur face.
Udit very valid observations. In today's market there are many stellar powe amplifiers.
Pass Labs builds a very respected product so does Bryston, so does Krell, Ayre, Sim, Coda.
It will all come down to system integration and personal taste the concept that all amplifiers sound the same is complete hogwash, allthough with careful system matching you can keep many of the traits you like and amelerorate the ones you don't.
We were a Bryston dealer for a few years and found their preamps to be okay and we were also matching tube preamps to add a bit more of a glow to the ultra clean sound of the Bryston and found the combination to be superb.
The unfortunate trend we keep seeing on these posts is the glorfication of a brand and not seeing that the industry is always changing and new models and companies pop up to establish what may be a better product than some of the products being discussed.
Take the thread on the Coda Point 8 TJ compared this $6,200.00 amplifier to a $14k set of Pass Labs amplifiers and we do believe he prefered the Coda so why aren't people asking if anyone has had the same experience?
Personally Gavin we would recommend that you upgrade your digital the Young DSD is a good dac but can be bettered we have the same dac.
Ok so I have been listening to the 4bsst3 for the past month or so and just for fun I switched back to the pass 350.8..
i felt like a veil has been removed and there is a lot more presence and detail compared to the bryston. The pass is much faster than the Bryston and has a more lively sound.. well it’s funny that this time I was listening to more indie/ rock music and also some dsd recording of Natalie merchant and smashing pumpkins..
Heard the pass for a bit and went back to the bryston to compare and I find that the highs are smoother and mellower and the soundstage shifts back a bit and is more integrated. For some reason I have now grown to like the pass sound better now but it’s funny it’s so subjective depending to what music ur listening to. For analytical soundstage and orchestral music maybe I like the bryston but otherwise I’m currently using the 350.8.
Can’t eat just one flavour of ice cream 😄 I guess I had to give the pass justice post my recent review.
So this is a very interesting discussion for me. I am considering a couple of used units: A Pass 250.5 and a pair of Bryston 7b ST’s Both for the same price ($2,200) As these are used units from private sellers, sending them back because they don’t meet your expectations is not an option. That makes finding people who have tried both very valuable. I have read reviews of both. (And some other units) I could not find anyone who really had anything bad to say about either. My set up is digital source (Cambridge NSX) a tubed pre-amp (Aric Audio Transcend 6SN7) and Magnepan 1.7i loudspeakers. My current amp is a Parasound HCA2200 (Stacked Monaural amps like the 4B).
I have upgraded the power cords though I did not go crazy ($50 each) and my speaker cable is 12g oxygen free copper with banana terminations (because I move the Maggies around depending whether I am at my desk or sitting in my recliner).
What I do take away from the discussion is that moving up in technology (newer units) might be just as or more important than WPCs -- even with my power hungry Maggies.
I am going to do a reset. Even though it means the Pass will probably disappear. $2,200 for a 250.5 is a very good price. One thing about the Pass amp that nobody mentioned: It’s gorgeous. And heavy enough to provide macho bona fides if you carry it around unaided.
I currently have the Bryston 4B3, had the 4Bsst2; I think it’s important to understand that there is quite a difference between the two versions. The new Bryston cubed (3) series is far more musical than all previous models, enough of a difference that comparing any cubed (3) series to any previous series is Not an Apples to Apples comparison!
I have dual 4bsst and do enjoy the sound but curious about pass. A x250.8 just came up for sale locally so I am thinking of getting it. I am surprised though at how many ppl on here actually prefer bryston. I previously thought pass was basically always better.
Update so I lost out on the sale of the 250.8, sucks. Debating on coda vs pass right now. I am curious about the 4b3 though and how good it is and also the 14b3 which looks like a power house!
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