Okay, so I have been playing with my new kit for most of today. The first thing I decided to do was to swap out the Bryston mono-block amps (£19,500) for the Behringer Reference A500 (£145), and keep the rest of my system as it is.
In terms of connectivity options the Behringer offers more flexibility than the Bryston, with both sporting balanced XLR as well as Single ended RCA but with the Behringer also offering 1/4" TRS sockets. Two sets of robust multi way binding posts are provided for speaker connection as well as TRS's. Power wise the Behringer is more than capable of driving the BB5SE's as of course are the over spec-ed Brystons, and at no point did the Behringer get anywhere near clipping. The sound quality of the Behringer is quite frankly great! The noise floor is definitely higher than the Brystons (there is a slight hiss) but on the whole it sounds rather good. That high noise floor may be down to it sounding better with its gain level turned right up and the pre-amp turned down to compensate. Thanks DDC for the heads up on that! It does lack some of the dynamic punch that the Brystons have where a note or transient can literally hit you in the chest but it certainly doesn't trail far behind. Not £19,355 behind at any rate! It reminds me very much of the Musical Fidelity sound. Delicate in the low end but really punchy mids and highs. All in all I reckon this is a righteous bargain and if they cleaned up the aesthetics it would sell for many, many times more in to the domestic Hifi market. Just swapping out the Behringer for the Brystons and the Audio Research Ref5SE for the Nakamichi now so watch this space.....
In terms of connectivity options the Behringer offers more flexibility than the Bryston, with both sporting balanced XLR as well as Single ended RCA but with the Behringer also offering 1/4" TRS sockets. Two sets of robust multi way binding posts are provided for speaker connection as well as TRS's. Power wise the Behringer is more than capable of driving the BB5SE's as of course are the over spec-ed Brystons, and at no point did the Behringer get anywhere near clipping. The sound quality of the Behringer is quite frankly great! The noise floor is definitely higher than the Brystons (there is a slight hiss) but on the whole it sounds rather good. That high noise floor may be down to it sounding better with its gain level turned right up and the pre-amp turned down to compensate. Thanks DDC for the heads up on that! It does lack some of the dynamic punch that the Brystons have where a note or transient can literally hit you in the chest but it certainly doesn't trail far behind. Not £19,355 behind at any rate! It reminds me very much of the Musical Fidelity sound. Delicate in the low end but really punchy mids and highs. All in all I reckon this is a righteous bargain and if they cleaned up the aesthetics it would sell for many, many times more in to the domestic Hifi market. Just swapping out the Behringer for the Brystons and the Audio Research Ref5SE for the Nakamichi now so watch this space.....
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