Bryston Turntable

Dear James,

No need to have to burdened you with unorganized inquiries about the new turntable.

I have found everything I need on the Internet, and the outboard power source is really no problem. In fact, it makes beautiful sense, as everything from Bryston does. (And speaking of "beautiful," the 'table is a visual knockout, downright elegant.) Remaining questions:

Would the price you're shooting for--ca. $4,000--include both the 'table and the power source?

Are you aiming for a Bryston-produced cartridge as well?

About when would the 'table become available?

All best,
Richard F.
 
Hi Richard

1. Yes the $4000 includes the table and arm and Bryston power supply. The arm would sell for $2000 on its own and the Bryston power supply about $1000 - so the package deal has excellent value.

2. We are testing a number of cartridges and will have recommendations to make sure they match the arm and our phono stages.

3. I am hoping end of June.

james
 
Some answers from engineering:

What about turbulence fro dust covers while playing an LP?

1. Critical enthusiast often remove the Dust Covers while turntable is playing. The Dust Cover first of all add some good mass to the plinth of the turntable but if it is made like many cheap turntables feature, by extra light plastic, it may actually introduce some resonance. Our Dust Covers are pretty thick and solid do not have that problem.

The plinth has the ridges (rounded cut around the platter bearing/spindle and the motor to reduce vibrations comeing through the plinth. They are always effective independently of the other design because the stop/stem vibrations go around.

Should you use Anti-Skate?

2. Very good point! The anti-skate is a force to apply to limit the centripetal force attracts the tone arms to the centre of the platter while spinning. But such force is dynamic because it is radial, I mean depending of the position of the arm (the tracks a ray) the force varies and the opposite force (anti-skating) should varies accordingly.

That's not possible possible, at least it is not possible to do it precisely. Most of tone arms manufacturers simply apply a weight that being is a "static mass" works virtually fine in a single position but wrong in all others along the disc.

testing a well balances tone arms we prefer without that with but because we do not want to fight against everybody we supply the anti-skate system with the typical string & weight to anyone ask for it.


Kind regards & ciao
Maurizio Aterini
Production engineer
Goldnote
 
Beautiful James. It's a perfect blend of classic with modern. Brilliant. That tone arm must be something else and the phonostage too. Have you had a chance to play with any MM and MC carts to find a few favorites with the new tonearm?

Glad to see Bryston back in the analog space!
 
Hi
This is so good news.... I was looking at the EAT turtables... but now I Just have to wait till it crosses the atlantic...
(We are Still waiting for the cube serie over here. ...!)

Envoyé de mon SM-A500FU en utilisant Tapatalk
 
Mike said:
Beautiful James. It's a perfect blend of classic with modern. Brilliant. That tone arm must be something else and the phonostage too. Have you had a chance to play with any MM and MC carts to find a few favorites with the new tonearm?

Glad to see Bryston back in the analog space!
Click to expand...

Hi Mike

Yes I have gone through about 50 cartridges so far and will recommend a few as we go along. One of the other advantages I see for us is we can offer a complete package -turntable - tonearm - power supply and phono stage all matched perfectly for a plug and play option for those that what a simple predictable performance. I am also thinking if this goes well we would have a Bryston cartridge at some point.

james
 
James - the titanium arm, unless I'm mistaken, should give the table more cartridge options as well (I'm thinking mainly in terms of weight of the cartridge). Again, unless I'm mistaken, some lighter arms (carbon fiber for example) don't work as well with real heavy cartridges like my Benz LP-S, but a titanium arm, with the proper counter-weight has no issues really.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hi Mike

Yes my sense is that most customers will use a quality Moving Coil with our new turntable and the arm is well suited to this combination.

james
 
Hi Folks,

A number of people have asked about how the Bryston Turntable differs from the Goldnote tables:

BRYSTON BLP-1 TURNTABLE
DIFFERENCES FROM STANDARD GOLDNOTE MODELS

• Bryston manufactured BTP-1 Custom Power Supply with Pitch Control.

• Custom turntable bearing for Bryston.

• Custom Hand-selected ultra quiet 12V pulse-width-modulation motor for Bryston

• Custom B7 titanium tonearm with German GRW sealed tungsten bearings and custom rear stub.

• Custom extra-thick vented anti-resonant plinth

• Custom, adjustable brushed aluminum feet.

• The platter is an extra-thick Delrin 35mm custom platter for Bryston.

• Extra-thick molded dustcover for Bryston with recessed Bryston aluminum logo.


The Tonearm alone sells for $2200 and the Bryston BTP-1 Power Supply for $1000.

The Bryston Turntable package therefore offers exceptional value to our customers.
 
Hi Folks,

With the recent introduction of our new Phono stages and Turntables a number of customers have asked why we recommend Transformer based Step-Up devices for Moving-Coil cartridges over Head-Amps. I have put together some thoughts on it - please see below.

BRYSTON TF-2 MOVING COIL TRANSFORMERS

Moving-Coil Transformers

Step-up transformers for Moving-Coil cartridges are the most esoteric and misunderstood items in the world of hi-fi, and this partly explains why they are so seldom used. This is a great shame because the use of a good MC transformer gives the best possible performance from a moving coil cartridge.
Moving–Coil cartridges have very little voltage output but significant current is available. So the MC transformer ‘transforms’ this small voltage at the output of the MC to the required voltage required by the Phono Stage in the preamplifier. It does this passively so no noise or distortion is added resulting in a much better signal to noise ratio.

Operating principle

Moving magnet cartridges, as their name implies, contain magnets which are moved by the stylus’ cantilever, and the movement induces the signal voltage in fixed coils in close proximity to the magnets. In moving coil cartridges the roles are reversed, so now the magnets are fixed and the coils move. The big advantage of moving coils is that the coils are much lighter (lower mass) than the magnets, so they are much more responsive to the motion of the stylus.
The big disadvantage is that the output voltage of moving coil cartridges is about 20dB lower than that of moving magnets, so an extra 20dB of gain is required. The extra gain can be provided by the phono-stage amplifier, by an external device called a head-amp, or by a transformer. The most commonly found solution is to increase the gain in the phono-stage itself, but in our opinion step-up transformers are still the best solution where ultimate performance is the objective.

Why use a transformer at all?

It used to be the case that a good signal-to-noise ratio was impossible to achieve from a moving coil cartridge without a step-up transformer. An extra 20 or 30 decibels of gain wasn’t a problem, but doing so with low noise using valves, transistors or op-amps was
a problem. Modern transistors and op-amps can now offer much better signal-to-noise ratios but valves still usually need transformers to work successfully with low output moving coil cartridges. An alternative to the step-up transformer is the head-amp (or pre-preamp). This is a transistor or op-amp amplifier which raises the output of moving coil cartridges up to moving magnet level.
Apart from the issue of a lower noise floor, the sound quality of transformers is something their advocates swear by. The distortion produced by audio transformers is of a completely different nature to that produced by a transistor amplifier. The harmonic distortion in transformers is greatest at the lowest frequencies and falls rapidly as the frequency rises, whereas in transistor amplifiers distortion more usually rises as the frequency rises. More importantly, inter-modulation distortion tends to be lower in transformers than it is transistor amplifiers. The outcome is that although transformers aren't absolutely free of distortion (nothing is), the distortion is very benign compared to the distortion produced by many transistor amplifiers. This explains why the sound produced when a moving coil cartridge is used with a good transformer is so sublime and can create an open and spacious soundstage with amazing separation between instruments.

The case against transformers is simply one of cost. Transistors can be as cheap as a few pennies (or less when bought in sufficient quantities) whereas transformers always cost a lot more, by as much as a factor of several thousand, due to the expensive materials used in the core and the cost of the copper windings in terms of both material and labour.

Cartridge loading

Before considering how to match a moving coil cartridge with a transformer, it is worthwhile considering the effects of different loads on moving coil cartridges. When any signal source is connected to any load impedance a potential divider is formed by the source's output impedance and the load impedance.
The usual rule for audio equipment in general is to feed the signal into a load at least ten times greater than the source impedance to avoid any significant signal loss, and this applies to moving coil cartridges as well. If the load impedance is 10 times greater than the source impedance the signal lost by the “pre-set volume control” is less than 1dB, ie nearly all the signal generated by the source is available to the following amplifier. Any loss of signal at the source/load interface is usually considered a bad thing as it compromises the signal-to-noise ratio. More signal is lost, ie the pre-set volume control is turned down more, if the load impedance isn't significantly higher than the source impedance.

When the source and load impedances are equal the signal loss is 6dB. When the source impedance is 9 times greater than the load impedance the signal loss is 20dB. Most modern moving coil cartridges have a source impedance of about 10 ohms and the “load impedance ten times the source impedance” rule suggests 100 ohms is a good choice for load impedance and causes less than 1dB of signal loss. This is well in line with the recommendations from many cartridge manufacturers (see the table of data below). Anything above 100 ohms should be equally suitable.

Does the cartridge's tonal balance change with load impedance? It certainly does if the cartridge is a moving magnet type, but low output moving coil cartridges are much less sensitive to changes in the load impedance. Users sometimes claim that higher load impedances produce a brighter sound than lower ones, but cartridge manufacturers tend be non-specific about recommended load impedances, often recommending a wide range or simply anything above a minimum impedance. The recommendation of Bryston is in line with most other cartridge manufacturers - that 100 ohms is a good value for most cartridges, and that the exact value is not critical as long as it is well above the cartridge's source impedance. One thing is certain, and that is that the load impedance should not be equal to the cartridge's source impedance.

A step-up Moving-Coil transformer is designed to accept the lower voltage output from the MC cartridge and increase the voltage to a point which is acceptable to the input stage of the standard MM phono section. The Bryston Moving-Coil step-up transformer is available in two versions...with a 20dB or a 30dB gain option. Your choice on which unit is most appropriate will be determined by the voltage output of your chosen cartridge.

• From .1 to .2 mV we would recommend the 30dB version
• At .3 mV we would say either version would work fine
• From .4 to .5 mV or more we would recommend the 20dB version

An important point to consider when choosing which Step-up to use is you do not want to over-power or under-power the MM phono stage. Under-powering results in not having enough GAIN in the system and over-powering can result in voltage overload and the resultant distortion.

The big mistake most often made when selecting a transformer for a moving coil cartridge is to overlook the voltage required at the phonostage's input and instead try to make the impedances match so that, for example, a cartridge with a 5 ohm source impedance sees a 5 ohm load at the transformer's input. This approach takes the cartridge's impedance as the most important factor when in reality it should be the cartridge's output voltage.
 
DEALER FEEDBACK

Hi James

When do you expect the turntables to ship? I received the new Bryston 1/3rd size phono products this week and already have them out in a functional display

So far the BP-2 MM/MC phono stage sounds awesome! Very alive with good frequency depth and weight. I think I'll take it home this weekend and try them out with my London Gold and Hana SL.

I have to tell you, I still have this dream of owning a BP26 with MPS2 and now both BP-MC and BP-MM.

James Davies
 
Hi Folks,

Now that the Bryston turntable is getting released I have had a number of questions on the best way to figure out the Resonant Frequency of a particular cartridge on the Bryston Tonearm. Don't let this scare you but the math looks like this:


FORMULA FOR COMPLIANCE OF CARTRIDGE AND MASS OF TONEARM FOR BEST RESONANCE MATCHING

September 2016

Hi Folks

With any tonearm/cartridge combination you are attempting to place frequency resonance ideally between 8-12Hz to attain the best performance.

The formula for calculating the tonearm/cartridge frequency resonance is:

FR = A ÷ √ M × C

Where:

A = 1.000 ÷ 2 π = 159, 23 (you can also use the fixed value of 159)
M = sum of all masses (tonearm, screws and cartridge)
C = compliance (at 10 Hz)

The Titanium arm supplied with the Bryston BLP1 Turntable is 10g mass.

For example:
Lets say your cartridge weighs 7.5g and has a compliance of 12cu/dyne/10 Hz (Please remember that often the Japanese cartridges indicates the compliance at 100Hz (not 1,000) which means you must double it in that case for the correct calculation).

IF you want to figure out the FR of your tonearm/cartridge you have to add the different masses:

7.5g (cartridge)
+ 10g (arm)
+1g (screws) = total 18.5g.

Then you multiply 12 x 18.5 = 222
The square root is around 14.9

So with the Tonearm on our Bryston BLP-1 Turntable the frequency resonance would be: … 159 ÷ 14.9 = 10.67 Hz; a value that places exactly in the desired interval of 8 -12 Hz considered the best range for frequency resonance of the tonearm/cartridge combination.


James Tanner
Bryston
 
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