Minimal Art
By: Michael Eichelsdoerter

Bryston is on the right track as shown by the pre-amp and power amp stages of this Canadian product. However the crowning understatement is the new BP-60 Integrated Amplifier. Extremely small, amazingly good...

Language blesses and amuses us with all sorts of fun, one of these is the concept of the "Truth of the Day." It insinuates that beloved truths can sometimes last for an astonishingly short time. It's the same way unfortunately in politics, in love, and also in the High End. The best known High End "Truth of the Day" is the answer to the question of what is the most important link in the reproduction chain. The answer is completely arbitrary; today it's the signal source, tomorrow the loudspeaker, next week the amplifier. And sometime or other someone will assure you that none of this matters if you do not have the correct cable.

In order to try and salvage the honor of all my colleagues and myself; this is not meant to be malicious, but rather the opposite. We are all seriously trying to understand and come to terms with music reproduction. And when we listen with amplifiers through loudspeakers which constantly show up every improvement then we quickly assume the source to be the most important link in the chain. If we are already listening through superb CD players and amplifiers then the improvement of the loudspeaker appears to be the most urgent task at hand. Therefore the most important link in the chain is frequently the one with which we are least satisfied. Or said differently: the capability of a component to grow with improvements of the chain is a good sign for its sound quality and relegates it finally - in a positive way - to the "least important" link of the HiFi chain.

I like such components. I am familiar with unpretentious integrated amplifiers which appear to make investments in CD players and loudspeakers worthwhile and which do not make themselves obvious in a negative sense. One of these is new. It is the integrated amplifier from Bryston, which answers here (in Germany) to the name "60 BRI."
I was quite eager to find out how far the Canadians would be able to go to pack the qualities of their pre-amplifier and their power amplifier into a tiny enclosure. The BP-60 is the flattest integrated amplifier that I have encountered. Why? Bryston also builds studio electronics, and these are only built in standardized sizes. A "height unit" of the "professionals" measures 44 millimeters, and only integral multiplications are allowed. Therefore the next alternative height would be 88 millimeters - too large.

The flat construction technique deserves commendation. A single transformer with sufficient output would not fit into the enclosure. Therefore two transformers (one per channel) are used, which is certainly not detrimental. It was also impossible to install large heat sinks, therefore Bryston connects, by means of screws, the internal heat sinks to the bottom and top (of the enclosure) and thus assures proper heat-sinking through the chassis.

The amplifier circuits of the BP-60 are strictly discrete. The low-signal circuitry was taken from the BP-25 pre-amplifier, and the main amplifier circuits use the same Motorola transistors as the large Bryston power amplifiers. Thanks to the metal chassis two power transistors are used per channel in order to be able to deliver almost 110 watts continuous operation into four ohms. Carefully thought out signal paths, high quality potentiometers and switches, special German made electrolytic capacitors - the handwriting of the Bryston engineers is unmistakable in the BP-60.

Equally so in the front end. Four high level inputs and one tape deck can be switched, and balance and volume can be adjusted, that's it. The headphone jack and the capability to separate the preamplifier and the main amplifier sections by means of a wire jumper in the rear are the only luxury features.

Every Bryston component is made the same way and many people love them for that. Where else does one find a twenty-year warranty? Where else does one find a design that one does not get tired of after a number of years? And not in the least: Where does one find so much good sound for ones money? The Canadians truly succeeded in transferring the "sound picture" of their larger amplifiers to their small integrated one. The BP-60 does not sound "small" at all, it only looks it. For example, let's talk about dynamics. This concept is sometimes ambiguous, therefore I want to go into a bit of detail. Often we mean the coarse dynamic capabilities, which some people claim are only achievable by means of extreme power reserves. Nonsense, the BP-60 is a great example of the opposite.

It plays with appropriate energy and strength, it knows the difference between pauses in the music and fortissimo. At normal volume this is less a question of power output and more a matter of circuit design.

Another topic is dynamic detail. To correctly recreate rise and decay times is a great art, which the Bryston accomplishes very well. For example: listen to large different size cymbals in a group of percussion instruments, do they all sound alike? I really don't enjoy "soft" amplifiers of this type, but fortunately the BP-60 is of a different caliber. Finally: Inner dynamic structure - what is it? Perhaps the most important area altogether! Seemingly simple musical events sound quite blasé with some electronics, with others surprisingly exciting. "What" is played is one thing, "how" it is played is another. The Bryston conveys both, it also convinced me in these areas.

All these are "dynamic" capabilities which the Bryston possesses. I do not want to hide the fact that other, especially more expensive amplifiers, reproduce even deeper sound stages, and that the colorful firm pace of the BP-60 is not for people who are afraid of music and especially not for those who want to clearly hear 'the triangle way back left."
Of course the BP-60 masters every type of program it might encounter. However the reproduction never emphasizes the size of a room nor does it sound especially silky, rather it sounds smooth, energetic, and powerful. The Bryston even reproduces amazingly deep bass - although it seems to me frequently that especially this capability, more so than the coarse dynamic pace, is based on the available electric power as well as the power of the final stage.

In short: This integrated Canadian amplifier is one of the best that can be had for the money today. The ability to transfer the warranty to the second and third owner is truly terrific, however I doubt that a BP-60 will leave its first owner very quickly.

We invite you to experience the Bryston SST² Series amplifiers

20 Year Warranty - A Generation of Music