I am still choosing the righ amps, help... (1 Viewer)

[George Kouzev]

I have a pair of Mirage M5 which are not on the efficient side for sure, ~83dB in a chamber and about 87dB in room sensitivity, 6 ohms nominal load. When paired with a Bryston 4BSST and they sounded great, but this is also a great 300w/ch stereo amp with plenty of current. I may upgrade the speakers at some point but future sensitivity is unknown...

I will need amplification for more channels though. My eyes were set on Bryston 9BSST but I could not try it to see if:

- it will be enough to drive the speakers to moderately loud level (I value my ears) with perfect clarity.

- the 4BSST is a superior sounding amp in general.

So based on the above, I could decide if I would go with:

- 4BSST for the fronts (or even 6BSST to cover the center as well) and 9BST (used, not an SST version) for the rest, or

- 9BSST for all channels except the rears which will be driven by an old 2 channel Rotel (not a concern for me)

Opinions are appreciated,

GK

 

[Yogi]

I would suggest a 4BSST for the fronts and maybe a 3BSST bi-amping the center as the center carries most of the load in movie soundtracks so, IMHO its amplification should be at par with the front L/R if not better. The rest of the channels can be driven by any competent amp that can drive em to reference levels and a 9BSST would be perfectly fine in your case. I dont know if my suggestion makes financial sense but IMHO would be the best way to realise the full potential of your front three channels.

P.S. Sorry I wasnt familiar with the 6BSST (when I posted my response) but in your case it would make the most sense to have the front three driven by it. So you can disregard my last suggestion.

 

[George Kouzev]

Thanks Yogi,

Did you mean bridging the 3BSST? To follow you suggestion, I might go straight to the 3 channel Bryston 6BSST which should be the same as 4BSST quality and power wise but with one more channel. The extra channel in the 6BSST would be cheaper compared to a bridged 3BSST. Then the rest, rear and side surround, can be driven by:

- existing Rotel for the surrounds and a cheap and small amp for the rears, if I have a third amp box it should be tiny

- Anthem PVA7, an economic alternative with three extra channels to spare, potentially for a second zone (not a near term plan)

- using a Bryston 9BST for the rear and surrounds only seems overkill to me.

I could try to stretch to get a 4BSST (L and R) and 9BSST (center and the rest), the most expensive option, which will probably give the parity across the fronts (???), and across the rear, as a side effect.

 

[Yogi]

Sorry, I did mean bridged. Thanks for correcting me. Also I agree the 6BSST would be cheaper than the bridged 3BSST. The options for the surround channels are in the same priority you put them in. The cheapest being the Rotel + a third small amp and then PVA7 and the last option being the 9BSST which would infact be an overkill for the surrounds.

 

[George Kouzev]

Fresh from the news... just got it from Bryston's rep while asking a few questions (to which I got virtually instantaneous response BTW).

9B SST just got a Class A rating in the April Issue of Stereophile. Cannot wait to read this. Any idea when this comes out?

 

[PhillipC]

You could also try a Bryston powerpac 250 for your center channel as well

 

[George Kouzev]

Here is the link to the news on the class A rating for not one but two Brystons: 7BSST and 9BSST

http://d2696859.u39.globoweb.us/news.html

GK