Bryston Vs Classe

I've heard wonderful things about the 4B-SST, but haven't had a chance to audition them in my own home. Brief listening with Joseph Audio speakers / Audible illusions tube preamp was impressive.

Have listened to the Classe stuff (used to sell it, actually)-- With Martin-Logans, B&W matrix and signature series products, Aerial 10T usually with krell CD and krell, classe or Audio Research preamps, I always thought the Classe CA-300 (which if I'm not mistaken is not much different than the 301) sounded a bit too laid back, and I agree with whomever said they doubted power ratings-- it's not that they lack control, their amps just never grabbed my attention with their dynamics. I'm sure they output rated power, you just wouldn't know it to listen to them.

The reason I don't really care for Classe much is why many like the amps, however. They are smoooooth, and I don't think you'll get a debate on that.

As for durability, in my experience selling Classe, and owning a very well-used and daily-flogged Bryston (college years- brutal on an amp), you can't go too far wrong with either brand.

After auditioning the bryston 4b SST in my system (Adcom "temporary" CD player GCD-700, Rowland Consonance Preamp, Transparent musiclink super ICs (SE) and speaker cables, Signal Audio "new model" balanced ICs, Martin-Logan SL3s, Velodyne ULD-15 series II sub) I found I preferred the Classe CAM-200 monoblocks, much to my surprise. You don't have to scroll up very far to find me saying I don't like Classe. Someone made me a great deal on the monoblocks used, good enough that if I needed to I could re-sell them and roll into a 4b SST or something else-- to shorten the story, the Classe design really excels at letting detail come through, and has plenty of slam. The fully balanced amplifier circuitry was a good match for my preamp, and the noise level just dropped to nothing. The Bryston was good in this regard, but not as good.

The Bryston sounded good, but more "abrupt"- attacks were too "in your face"-- to the point of being unnatural (yes, the amp was broken in well, a floor piece is what I demoed)-- acoustic guitar strings were plucked too hard- like they were miked too close or something. Not sure if this is describing it well- this is why I don't write for a stereo rag.

The Classe's midrange was more natural, and whereas both amps imaged well, the Bryston's presentation was too forward, a bit shallow, and a bit narrow. The Classe seems to allow the soundstage to extend outside the speakers, with excellent depth. With the right other components, the Bryston might be outstanding, but with the rest of my stuff it was just too pushy. Some of this may well be interaction between the Rowland and the Classe vs. the Bryston.

BTW, before any of you ask, yes, the Classe and the Rowland use different pin-outs on the XLR plugs, Rowland adhering to the "commercial" pin out standard (pin 2 inverted, - signal), Classe and Bryston the "consumer" (pin 2 + signal). The preamp has a handy phase invert button on the remote, problem solved.

I also had a nice email chat with an extremely helpful tech advisor at JRDG about this issue. I'll start a thread for that. Beats working.