Good preamp match for Bryston 4B ST


In process of upgrading. Currently have Bryston 4B ST, Dali Halicon 400 MkI speakers, and Rotel 1072 CD player. Listen to mainly acoustic music of all styles and prefer uncolored, if somewhat warm, musical sound with good imaging and soundstage. Already over budget a bit; would appreciate suggestions for a compatible preamp under $1K used.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
ricko

Showing 2 responses by stevecham

I had one of these and I had it paired with a Bryston BP25 with moving coil phono preamp. This was a solid pairing and formed a synergy. I see there is a bp5 with MC section for sale on the 'gon. This would be a good value.
I connected the pre and power amp with balanced Synergistic cables and the 4BST powered Thiel 7s at the time I had this system. Wish I'd kept the 7s but that's another story.

My thoughts around synergy are not so much sonic as they are from a design standpoint, where the manufacturer optimized the output of the BP25MC specifically for their ST series of amps. I had no experience with other preamps, except for a brief audition with a CJ 17 preamp in that system; the results were very "sweet" sounding but I lost the dynamic punch that the BP25 had. Certinly this is one of the quietest combinations I've ever had. Quality cables were a must, and I also tried Tara Labs, I liked the Synergistic more. Another contender for a quality solid state preamp at a bargain price, unless you're sold on tubes, is Parasound's JC2.