Bryston BP-17 cubed or Benchmrk LA4 Preamp
My old Levinson No. 38s preamp is getting a bit long in the tooth. Oh, it is working fine; I've got the itch.
I have recently used a Cary CAD-120s in my system and found it less musical than my Bryston 2.5b cubed power amp, so tube preamps are out. Seems I just can't "appreciate" the tube sound.
I've been researching preamps. The Benchmark and the Bryston BP-17cubed (or other Bryston preamps) are the two that seem to meet my price and feature desires. But sound....don't know how these units differ. How different is the sound compared to my old Levinson? Which one(s) would you recommend?
My speakers are Usher V-604, a 2-way MTM floorstander, and a HSU sub.
Thanks for your help.
@soix Well, I'd like the preamp to be neutral. Not sterile or shrill, but no tubbiness either. I need all the inputs and outputs the BP-17 has although I have a workaround for the LA4's inputs. Don't need a DAC or streaming. I have a Bryston BDA-3. I don't stream. Not looking for improvements, just replacement for an aging ML No38s. If colored at all, I prefer a slightly warm preamp. |
Given what you’re looking for sonically you’ve identified two excellent candidates IMHO. I can’t speak to the Benchmark, but I owned a Bryston BP6 (very similar to the BP26 minus the balanced connections and separate power supply) for years and it is the quintessential “straight wire with gain” type component. It simply passes on what it’s fed without editorializing, and it’s very quiet that leads to a large 3D soundstage due to what I perceived was a complete lack of background noise so individual images just pop to life. I’d guess the BP17 sounds more alike than different from the BP6, but that’s just an uninformed guess that it maintains much of the Bryston house sound. Just my experience FWIW, and best of luck. |
I've bought preamps twice. Both times I did a bunch of research, obsessed over it for a while, and then decided I didn't believe 98% of what I read and just bought Brystons because I believed they were close to as good as you can get and last forever. I bought a BP25 for $1000 in about 2008 and a BP26 about 5 years ago for about $2100. Both work perfectly. No noise in the knobs, connections all work perfectly. When I replaced the BP25 with the BP26 I thought it eliminated a very slight honkiness but it was so subtle that I only noticed it that one time. |
I’ve owned both as well as the 2.5B, and while I often extol the virtues of the Benchmark, I would recommend the Bryston in this case. The Benchmark is quieter and very transparent, but the Bryston is more musical especially with the 2.5B amplifier. The amp has a bottom up voicing and the preamp a top down voicing IME, and therefore they are very synergistic. The preamp is very fast also, very immediate. But ultimately you probably couldn’t go wrong with either. The Benchmark holds their value well. The BP17 can be had used for just over $2k. My only problem with the Bryston was it was slightly noisy in my system (I.e., a hiss coming from the speakers, whereas the Benchmark is dead quiet). |
