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Totem Mani 2 Signature: Bryston 14b ST good match?

Hi Guys,

just acquired a totem mani 2 signature. I find that they are a bit underpowered by my existing Mccormack dna 1 deluxe.

I was considering up grading to a 200-300w channel power amp, but now have a chance to acquire a 7 year old Bryston 14st (500WPC). My budget is quite tight after having used a lot of it on the mani2s.

Does anyone have any experience with this amp? I've seen lots of recommendations for the Mani2s (belcanto ref1000s, classe, levinson, mccormack, pass labs etc), but what abt these brystons?

500WPC in theory should be enough, but any idea whether I should try it out?

I will not get a chance to audition them WITH my speakers in my room.... but i'm thinking of taking the chance with them....

THanks a lot :)
powster
zenblaster
504 posts
 
I think you will be very happy with Bryston powering your Mani 2's. I have been using a 250w 4B for the past 9 months and am very satisfied. Plenty of low end authority and power to make the Totems sing beyond their size. A magical combo if ever there was one. I have been very happy with the music they make and they can play big without breaking a sweat, incredible speaker. Totems best in my mind.
ghunter's avatar
ghunter
164 posts
 
I was running a pair of Hawks with an Audio Research VS110. Life was good, but I was still craving something more. Enter the Bel Canto ref1000, and the Hawks jumped to life.

After discussing my situation with Vince from Totem, I upgraded the speakers to Mani-2 Signatures. Wow, another massive jump. I tried the VS110 with them for a few minutes before realizing that it was not a good match at all.

After a year with the Bel Cantos I had an opportunity to buy a pair of barely used Nagra PMA monoblocks and I jumped on it. They were better in nearly every way than the ref1000, but it was only a matter of degree and not the huge overall shift that I had from the tube VS110 to the ref1000.

Funnily enough, the person I bought the ref1000 from was also using Mani-2 Signatures and he upgraded to the top-end Pass monoblocks.

The Mani-2's can take a lot of amplifier and still keep giving back. From my experience, I think the 14b SST would make you very very happy. If you want to save money, the 4b SST also looks like it would work well.
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