tube pre for bryston

"I have only read positive things hear about combing ss amps with tube pres"

Let me be the first one to tell you it's not all that it's hyped up to be! I have found tube pre's to be very noisey, immense amounts of detail is obscured by both the noise and rolled off topend. The bass is soggier, the presentation is much slower. The midrange does have the magic but it came off to me as synthetic/artificial, but I can see how folks could enjoy the sound, it wasn't unpleasant, just not realistic, but must confess vocals and acoustics are intoxicating. The soundstage was the most impressive I've ever heard and there was a nice warmth and ambiance, the fleshing out of objects with solid body is great, but, overall, the tradeoffs where to severe, I couldn't live with it. Just bought a Musical Fidelity Preamp, it has a touch of the warmth and liquidity of the tubes, with great body, imaging and richness, along with and all the great aspects of a superior ss preamp, such as speed, power, clarity, extension and transparency (but a touch of coloration), and much better fits my tastes. Your tastes may vary, and obviously a few folks do enjoy a tube preamp, but I imagine it to be a very system sensitive matchup to be worth the tradeoffs.

try conrad jonhson,i have a cj pv-11 with nos mullards
with a bryston 4b ,exellent and suprising result

Another Rogue vote. I have a 99 (non magnum) with 7B-ST's. Very very good.

If you would like to go with a balanced system check out the BAT line of pre amps. Great suggestions up to this point but Balanced Audio needs to be included in this mix.

I have had good results driving a Bryston 4BST with a SF Line 3. I am using the combination to drive a pair of Ohm Walsh 300 speakers.

Look at the Audible Illusions L-1 or the M3A. Both are excellent preamps and have been selling fairly cheaply lately.

I have a 4B-ST and have used an Audio Research SP9 MkII happily for a couple of years. Though its not the end all, it was a good place to start and readily available, reliable, and affordable. The ARC offers many of the tube virtues but is still quite neutral, not euphonic. It depends a lot on your room and your speakers. (I am not familiar w/the Legacy)

Though I haven't tried one, many people advised me that the Audible Illusions 3A was a good peice to associate with this amp.

I auditioned a Bryston 4B-ST and used my McIntosh C-22 as the preamp. The Mac is about 30 years old but was recently reconditioned with new tubes and it sounds very nice. My speakers are the Vienna Acoustics Mahlers. The soundstage width was the best I have heard...very wide past the speakers beyond the left and right walls. However the soundstage depth was a flat plane about 3 feet deep with no layering. The sonic signiture of the combinition was very nice. The bass was very deep with lots of control. The Bryston excells at bass control and the Mahler's can be bass heavy and loose with some amps. The midrange was very musical with voices sounding natural, very clear and with lots of air around the vocalist. The highs where very detailed and clear but lacking in warmth. Sometimes sounding a bit harsh. I have been told by others that Bryston is dark sounding but my experience with it is that it sounds on the bright side. This is probably a system matching issue. Bottom line....if you enjoy the sound of Bryston products, putting a tube somewhere in the system in front of it would be a very good decision. You will increase your chances of having a warmer sounding system that is easy to listen to and have great bass control and dynamics as well. Good luck.

I started with a VTL TL 2.5 in front of a Bryston 4b-st. It sounded right fine for about two years. Then I replaced the VTL with a Rogue 99 Magnum -- and now it sounds considerably better. Both fine preamps, at different price points, with a commensurate difference in the sound quality (which, I must admit, isn't always the case). I am a Rogue convert, but I didn't listen around much before I upgraded from the VTL, so I don't have a lot to compare with at its price point. That said, I did A/B the two preamps on the same system and it only took about five minutes to decide to shell out the duckets. To my ears, the improvement is not subtle. Used price-wise, Rogue (like Bryston, with that iron-clad warranty) seems to hold its value better than most -- which can be either a plus or a minus, depending on which end of the transaction you're on....

Rogue 99 Magnum. I have a Magnum 66 mated to my 4B-SST and it provides a great presentation. I can only imagine based on what I have read here that the Magnum 99 is quite a jump up from the 66 and should be considered a potential mate to your Bryston amp. Have seen used units here go for around $1500 which I think could be a steal when looking at the higher priced Sonic Frontiers and AR preamps...