To Doug Schneider,
I had a question regarding the Bryston 4B SST2 amp. This is my second Bryston amplifier, and before owning the SST2 version I had the ST version. My question is: I'm currently driving a pair of B&W 803D speakers and possibly may upgrade in the near future to the 802 Diamond. Is this amp sufficiently powerful enough and what do you yourself drive with it? I also see that you use it as your reference!
Any advice and your opinion would be greatly appreciated! I do love the amp but wanted a bit of direction. Also love your reviews and website!
Best regards,
David Plon
Bryston’s 4B SST2 is one of the very best amplifier values out there -- it’s extremely powerful (it’s rated to deliver 300Wpc into 8 ohms, which I don’t doubt) and sounds fantastic. For $5000, it’s a steal. I use every speaker I bring in for review with it.
We’ve never measured B&W’s 802 Diamond loudspeaker, but I looked at B&W’s specs for it (which I trust) and don’t see anything there that would indicate that there would be any problem partnering a pair with the 4B SST2. B&W rates the 802 Diamond’s sensitivity at 90dB (2.83V/1m), which might be a touch optimistic, but is not necessarily out of line. What’s more important is the impedance -- they say the 802 Diamond is an 8-ohm load (nominal) that dips to 3.5 ohms, presumably in the bass. All of this indicates that the 802 Diamond is a fairly easy speaker to drive, so the 4B SST2 should have no trouble with it. . . . Doug Schneider
