Bryston SP3 Preamp-Processor

[gbaby]

Originally Posted by nicoff

You are correct. It is someone else’s technology. Bryston is putting all kinds of money and research in new products (speakers, turntables, etc.) I think that this is the reason why they went elsewhere (Storm Audio) to get a digital preamp that is up to date.

Bryston had been working on that SP3 board upgrade for a very long time. It is likely to be two years or more since I have been hearing about it. But digital technology moves too fast. By the time Bryston was ready to release the board upgrade, technology had moved past that.

I still own the SP3, but have no plans to put money into (what I believe is) a dead end road.

I think Bryston has a genuine dislike of Room EQ, a philosophy I happen to agree with. As far as object based technology, its SP3 was built around being the ultimate surround processor for sound with the best 2 channel sound in a processor. A person wanting the SP3 will probably not care for object based sound. Thats me too in that I ain't ever putting speakers in my ceiling.

[nicoff]

Originally Posted by gbaby

I think Bryston has a genuine dislike of Room EQ, a philosophy I happen to agree with. As far as object based technology, its SP3 was built around being the ultimate surround processor for sound with the best 2 channel sound in a processor. A person wanting the SP3 will probably not care for object based sound. Thats me too in that I ain't ever putting speakers in my ceiling.

Just to clarify: Bryston is coming out with a processor with Room EQ. So obviously some folks at Bryston DO care about Room correction.

[gbaby]

Originally Posted by nicoff

Just to clarify: Bryston is coming out with a processor with Room EQ. So obviously some folks at Bryston DO care about Room correction.

No, its Storm Audio, but will have a Bryston label.

[James Tanner - Bryston]

HI

Room EQ totally screws up the 'Sound Power' of the speaker that we work so hard at developing with our loudspeakers.

But StormAudio offers it as part of their software so I am staying out of the way.

james

[nicoff]

Originally Posted by gbaby

No, its Storm Audio, but will have a Bryston label.

Paraphrasing the Remington commercial:
"I liked it so much that I put my name on it."

[gbaby]

Originally Posted by nicoff

Paraphrasing the Remington commercial:
"I liked it so much that I put my name on it."

Actually, Bryston partnered with Storm Audio to offer features for folks like you.

[nicoff]

Originally Posted by James Tanner - Bryston

HI



Room EQ totally screws up the 'Sound Power' of the speaker that we work so hard at developing with our loudspeakers.



But StormAudio offers it as part of their software so I am staying out of the way.



james

Totally understand your point. But since most folks do not own Bryston speakers they could potentially benefit from room correction technology.

Having room correction capability is good for the consumer. That's because a user has the ability to enable or disable room correction as he sees fit.

[nicoff]

Originally Posted by gbaby

Actually, Bryston partnered with Storm Audio to offer features for folks like you.

Exactly. Folks like me and professional installers all over that have shunned the SP3 because it does not offer those capabilities. (At least that's what I understood from previous post by James at Bryston).
You seemed content with your SP3 and don't need anything else and that is fine. But Bryston needs new buyers for their products and new buyers want more.

[James Tanner - Bryston]

HI Folks,

One area of speaker design that is recognized by most speaker designers (not just Bryston Speaker designs) is the flat ‘’on and off axis’ frequency response (Sound Power) is a critical component of a successful speaker design. There has been a lot of research over the last 20 years that supports this edict.

The problem I see with Digital room correction through ‘EQ’ is that it totally screws up the direct sound vs. the reflected sound coming from the speaker.

When you listen to a speaker in a room you are listening to what we call the ‘power response or sound power’ and you hear all the direct sound as well as the reflected sound mixed together. So the listening experience is a combination of all the direct and reflected sound waves in a given room with a given speaker. When you alter the ‘direct sound’ at the speaker using ‘EQ’ it totally changes the relationship between the direct and reflected sound and is a disaster when it comes to ‘time smear’. So the speaker designer has spent years attempting to get flat frequency and phase response from his speaker and we come along and force the speaker to do anything but accurate signal transfer. Also if you are going to use ‘EQ’ try and only ‘reduce’ the ‘peaks’ in the room and not ‘amplify’ the troughs. Amplifying the troughs can play havoc with your speaker drivers power handling.

A lot of these newer types of ‘EQ’ products try and average a group of curves taken from many different locations in the room as they are attempting to reduce the negative effects of the single listening chair dilemma. Having a single spot in the room which measures flat but everywhere else in the room measures like crap is not a good result in my opinion. I think you are much better off adjusting the speaker location and using proper room treatments. If all else fails maybe some ‘EQ’ can be used but I would recommend keeping the correction only for the very low bass frequencies and stay away from upper bass, mids and higher frequency ‘EQ’ where room affects are not an issue due to the shorter wavelengths involved. I am hopeful that we will see many more Subwoofers with built in room ‘EQ’ which would be the better solution in my opinion if you are forced to use room correction.

Also ‘Room Correction’ much like ‘Video’ is changing quickly and I wanted the SP-3 to be a long-term purchase for our customers so adding specific dedicated boxes as the current technologies develop to the SP-3 made more sense to me going forward rather than obsoleting some questionable feature (room EQ) in the SP-3.

I realize that some people will totally disagree with my assessment of the downside of EQ. That’s OK as you are free to use whatever feature you deem necessary for your particular system (that’s why I am not objecting to EQ in the Bryston SP4 but rather cautioning our customers on its judicious implimentation). My position is based on the science of what happens when you listen to a real speaker in a real room and I feel I am justified in pointing these issues out for our customers.

Hope this helps.

James Tanner
Bryston

[moonhawk]

Thanks, James.