To bridge or not to bridge....

If you are happy with the 4B-ST, I too would suggest a pair of used 7B-ST's (what the heck, a 20 yr warranty). The 4B-ST will not give the same performance level on a bridged basis. If you like to listen loud, you will be hard pressed to find more performance for the dollar (i.e., quality reproduction, not just volume). I am also not affiliated with Bryston but sure do enjoy their stuff. Happy listening! P.S. I didn't know about their SST series so can't comment on that (thanks for the heads up Pbb). I guess their next upgrade will be SSST ;-)

I've owned the 4bst and 7bst and found that the former could play very loud without red lighting. I liked the sound and punch better with the 7bst regardless of usual listening volumes. I can't recall turning my preamp up more than the 1 o'clock position since it got really loud much before that.

It didn't occur to me before, but you said that the problem is only recent. Two questions: 1) Does your orange (or is it yellow?) light come on before the red does? 2) Does everything sound the same before as it does now? Maybe your warning light system is bad. If you are listening at the same volumes (both position on the dial and perceived db level) as before and the only difference is that the red light comes on now, maybe it's the light. You might want to ask Bryston about that. Also, you might want to carry the 4bst to a friend's place or your dealer and plug it into his/her system. See if and when the light comes on there? If the amp's OK somewhere else, maybe the speakers have a problem and the impedence has dropped. Just a few thoughts.