Upgrade question for my fellow Bryston amp owners ….. Are you planning on upgrading to the new cubed technology?

joeinid

joeinid

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Are you planning on upgrading to the new Cubed amp technology once announced for our amps?

How about you 28BSST2 owners? Thoughts?
 
Possibly, but I think my initial test of the waters would be on a 7B cubed for my center speaker. Since the 28 upgrade isn't warranty work I have to cover shipping both ways so that's going to be a factor as well plus we don't yet know the upgrade cost. Hopefully one of the magazines that previously reviewed the 28's and has the benchmark tests will also review the 28 cubed so a more true comparison can be done.

Seeing as this is Bryson I don't suspect it'll "sound" all that different if any as they don't voice their amps like other manufactuers who shall go nameless :) I think it's just that the real world benefit is going to be as James mentioned lower noise floor etc. I was hoping that they would run a bit cooler but that doesn't sound like the case.
 
"Dramatically lower distortion, improved linearity, and increased clarity are hallmarks of Bryston’s new Cubed Series amplifiers. At 600Wpc into 8 ohms, the 7B3 (approximately $5.5k each) employs Bryston’s patented input stage with an array of twelve active devices and produces astonishingly low distortion measured at just 1/1000th of 1 percent. It also offers major reductions in noise (EMI, RFI, and common mode), and employs the company’s Quad-Complementary topology that mimics the characteristics of a Class A design, but with far lower distortion. As part of an impressive all-Bryston system, the 7B3 produced an expansive soundstage with great dynamics, as well as welcomed harmonic richness in the upper bass and lower midrange."


That last line kind of intrigues me. I agree about shipping, etc.

My amps have been wonderful.
 
I just came across a very good price on a dealer pair of 7B-SST2's that I didn't want to pass up so for the time being it looks like I'll be staying with the SST2's. I suppose an actual 7B3 might still happen because I suspect finding a single 7B-SST2 on the used market will be hard to find. I'm going to use my 4B-SST C Series that has been boxed up for the past number of years for my center rather than keep the big 6 in the rack with only a single channel being used. Even if I were to passively bi-amp my center using the 6 I would still have an unused channel so it make more sense to swap in the 4.

Also looks like a change to my Siltech plans are in order as I'll have to get that really long run of 330i's now rather than later as I can find no way of getting the two 7's and 4 in my rack so the 7's will have to go out by my 802's where I wanted them anyways. I was hoping I could at least find a home for everything in the rack for the short term so I could continue with my Royal Signature purchases.

Has anyone found out the prices to upgrade each of the SST2 models to the Cubed series yet? I haven't seen it discussed. Last I seen from James they were still working out a few logistical things by the sounds of it but I have seen a post on another forum that would at least suggest the prices are known although none were posted.
 
I think the retail pricing is about 10-12% higher for the Cubed amps. I've asked my dealer, who mentioned he had the new price list, for the new pricing but I've heard no response.

The upgrade prices are still being worked out, as far as I know.
 
The only actual cubed price I have seen is for the 4B3 and that was $5,695, up from $4,995. That was a US price and also, temporarily I believe the Canada price as well. Canada will be seeing another price increase though.
 
Hi Folks,

Yes we are still looking at the upgrade path and what we can do. At this point it looks like we can replace the complete back board, input circuits, soft start circuit board and a few extra parts. We can not change the front panel cosmetics or the power supply transformers. Not sure on pricing yet.

james
 
Thanks James

So what would have been the benefit of being able to change the power supply transformers?
 
In order to get the new back plate on, does it have to undergo any alteration in order to make it fit? The reason I ask is I was thinking since the power transformer wont fit because the chassis size doesn't appear to be large enough to me that suggests the outer dimension are different between the 2 series, if so wouldn't the make the cubed back plate too large for a SST2 thus the need to alter it's dimensions in order to make it fit a SST2? Or is it that the chaise is only different in say the length, the height remains the same and I'm assuming the width remains fixed in order to maintain the standard 17". Just curious.
 
Correct the width stays the same - it is the mounting holes and assembly brackets that change which would necessitate a whole new chassis for the power supply upgrade. At that expense you would be better off selling your SST and buying a Cubed.

james
 
Do you have any comparison pics of the SST2 vs Cubed power supplies so we can see how much larger the new ones are?
 
Aside from any visual element of the new power supply, did the microfad capacity increase for each unit, if so by how much? I'm curious about the 7's and 28's in particular. Since the transformer itself hasn't been mentioned are they the same Torus units with same specs as in the SST2's, again interested in the 7's and 28's?
 
Hi Rod

No the capacitance did not change but all the transformers did - and they are all the new custom storage type transformers in the 7B, 14B and 28B's.

james
 
Thanks. This conversation is proving to be quite informative in identifying differences between the series. Am I correct in assuming that like the power supplies, the toroidal transformers won't be replaced during the upgrade? Would you mind giving some insight into this new custom storage type of transformer and how it differs from what was previously being used?
 
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