what is your take on Bryston's clipping issue?

Tvad, I used to run the SL3 and the Aerius I with the HCA- 1500A a while back and even at high volume, that baby Parasound never clipped. Also that KAV 250 ( 250/500 @ 8/4 ohm) really made the Mylar pannel moving back and forth but never clipping. I hope these dual mono design from Bryston stuff can do better than that but you are the man who knows more about Bryston...You think the 4 B SST can handle down to 2 ohm load since ML can really go down to 2 ohm ?

Maggies aren't a reactive load, they're almost purely resistive and a flat 4 ohms across the band, and in that sense shouldn't cause any amp to be unstable (as in oscillation). But if you mean will the amp clip at too low a volume, Maggies are low sensitivity and can require a beefy amp to play loudly without clipping, especially in a large room. So it depends on the particular combo of Maggie model, amp, room size, and what you as the listener consider to be adequate volume with your program material. But the speakers are fairly indestructable, so if you begin to hear distortion/compresssion as you turn it up, just back off a bit and that's your speed limit. If it's not high enough for you, you probably need a more powerful amp, but I doubt you'll harm anything in the process of finding out.

"If you own Magnepan speakers, then you really owe it to yourself to audition them with a Bryston amp. It’s not for nothing that Magnepan has used Bryston amplification for show demos."

That's a quote from John Crossett in his review of the 4B-SST in SoundStage. He used them with Maggie 1.6's.

Regarding Tvad's comment above: I own a 4B-SST that I used with Aerial 10T's. The 4B-SST could play all day at 95dB without clipping and I know I listened with peaks in excess of 100dB with no problem. The only time I was able to get the amp to clip, and that was only for a second or two, was on a direct-to-disc Sheffield Labs recording of Dave Grusin, and I was pushing it pretty hard. With that LP I've had the same problem with other amps and speakers. Michael Kelly at Aerial recommended the 4B-ST to me at one time as a good match for his speakers. I was very impressed with how well the 4B-SST drove the 10T's. I wonder if Tvad contacted Bryston about this? Perhaps his amp's bias needed adjustment?

Since you already bought the amp you'll know soon enough if it meets your needs or not. You can always try a 14B-SST or a pair of 7B-SST monos if you've got a large room and like to listen loud. My guess is you're going to love the 4B-SST.

I used a Bryston 4B with my Magnaplanars (back in the 70s) You talk about a great speaker that needs oodles of watts. I had no problem, but I never had enough power to get some of the SPLs I needed. A pair of Bryston 4Bs running mono would have done better. That would have given me the juice I needed. Didn't have the $$ back then, but would do it in a flash with the Maggies of today.

Received my 17" Black 4 BSST today. Out of the box it is a gorgeous new faceplate and sound darn good with the Arc sp16L. Thank you guys for the support. Warrenh, It would be cool to get two of the 4 bsst in bridge mode for 900watt per channels into 8 ohms.

Tvad, I will keep your advise in mind when searching for new speakers. I am incling to Vandy 2ce signature. At 7ohm nomimal /4 ohm minimum at my moderate listenning 60/70 db, the 4 BSST should do ok.