Sound Focus

Greg Fleming can't get enough of a system sourced from both sides of the Atlantic

Sometimes I can’t believe I get paid to do this lob. At the end of the day it’s about music, and the ability of a hunk of wires and transistors to portray the emotion and feel of the recorded performance. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Well I can tell you, after a couple of years listening to and reviewing audio gear, I can count the number of systems that accomplish this at real world prices on the fingers of one hand. That’s why it is so refreshing to review a system like this all Commonwealth-sourced Rega/Bryston/PMC. I kept wanting to play more and more music, and even returned the following day for another listen.

English company Rega will be familiar to many as fine purveyors of low cost/high quality turntables. Indeed, it was one of the last manufacturers to bring Out a 5 CD player — only going ahead when it was sure the technology had matured and could match analogue as a source. In keeping with its philosophy, the sleek if basic design of the top-loading Planet might not look a million dollars, but it sure sounds it. Remember we’re talking about a CD player that retails here for just $1500.

The top-loading mechanism has been refined since this model was first released (Rega says, it uses the same circuit topology as the original Planet, but with improvements in the Digital to Analogue Converter (DAC), power supply and coupling capacitors,") but I liked the way you still had to lift the tray with your finger to load it — not unlike a turntable. Rage contends that the top-loading mechanism, when viewed against having a complex motorised tray mechanism, cuts out unnecessary electronics and keeps the price down. It also allows easy service access to the laser diode assembly.

Basic functions are on the front, while round the back there’s a bare minimum of optical/digital Out, and left/right out.

Canadian company Bryston, and its range of amplifiers, enjoys a large following in audio circles. Like Rage it spends the time and money in development of the basic stuff — getting music to sound good. So the no-frills design of the Planet is mirrored in the Bryston — a thin, simple casing with nice, large black knobs for volume/function, and a power switch is about all you get. There’s a separate pre-out and power in so you can separate the preamplifier and power amp, allowing integration of a surround processor into the system while still maintaining the control functions available on the front panel of the amp. Of course this allows for independant use of the stereo amplifier section within a multi-channel audio or video system. Additionally, the headphone out is driven directiy from the preamplifier, and the hefty oblong remote is in keeping with the no-frills design aesthetic — with only volume up/down and mute available.

Bringin' in the crop

However, you won’t be complaining about lack of anything once you give this modestly priced system a listen. Using a pair of small PMC TB2 speakers I put one high end demo disc put together by recent visitor Paul Barton, of PSB speakers. This is a superb test of a system, with music ranging from acoustic blues to classical organ to solo drum tracks, and it only took a few seconds of listening to Bob Dylan’s Man In The Long Black Coat to realise this modestly priced system was something out of the ordinary, The loping bass line so crucial to the song was captured wonderfully — deep, flat and real-sounding. The high-pitched cricket sample was separate and distinct, and when Dylan’s aged, cigarette-smoky voice enters, the deal was clinched. The sense of southern-tinged menace and late-night foreboding was almost tangible. I’d heard the track on a number of systems, and this one was up there with the best.

PMC has long supplied some of the top studios with monitor speakers. Robbie Williams’ break-out album was mixed end recordad using PMC monitors, and the small TB2s possessed a monitor-like gift for detail and non-congested playback. Despite their size they pumped out realsounding bottom end no trouble, and at just under $3000 must be considered one of the real bargains to be had for listeners who prefer or need smaller/ nonfloorstanding speakers. The stands used for the demo are not included in the price, so add on another 5/600 bucks to that price tag if you want to get the best out of them.

Using Black Rhodium Rhythm analogue interconnects (the Bryston has no digital in) and Nordost Flat-line cables, music of every genre sounded magnificent on the system. Gnomus, a Mussorgsky organ piece, proved the PMCs punched way above their weight, handling the deep, floorshaking lower octaves with ease, and on the always tricky upper register piano of some modern jazz (by Japanese artist Tiger Okoshi) the PMCa got the balance just right The demo disc had a couple of selections from acoustic blues artist Eric Bibb - audiophile recordings that were done totally live in the old school purist manner — and the feeling the artist was sitting right there before you was palpable. You could almost smell the whiskey on his breath. One song particularly, a gospel-sounding number called Shingle to Shingle had me hitting the repeat button in astonishment- "Shingle by shingle/ I'm patchin’ up the roof/row by row I’m bringing in the crop/new water’s in the well and I'm grateful for every drop."

Bibb’s emotive vocals and the simple blues turnaround had a presence that sent shivers up your spine, the system portraying a nice sense of "there in the room" immediacy, Neither the Bryston nor the PMCs had any problem with volume head-room either.

Perfect kit

Another selection on the demo disc consisted of legendary rock drummer Jim Keltner (he has worked with Dylan, John Hiatt and Bonnie Rait amongst thousands of others) solo, just going through his kit, with only drums and nothing else. His kit had obviously been miked up with care and toms, cymbals, snare and kicker sat perfectly in place. You got the sense of the different tonalities of each drum, and the crisp ringing of the cymbals and the toms was there in all its subtlety.

I’m trying to think of system weaknesses, but can only come up with fiddly things like the fact that the Bryston’s power switch is anti-intuitive — down equalling off, and up equalling down. At first I thought it handled acoustic/jazz/classical better than full-on rock, but then I put on Nirvana’s Come As You Are and even that reservation went down the drain.

This all-Commonwealth system demonstrates how quality two-channel audio can be had for not a lot of cash.

Now excuse me, I’ve got more music to play.

IN SHORT:

A system that eschews fancy gimmicks and focuses on simply playing the music

We invite you to experience the Bryston SST² Series amplifiers

20 Year Warranty - A Generation of Music