Sorry for the double post. I should have post i this thread first.
Here is a copy of my post I made on another forum. Just want headfiers know about my experience with the not even in production BHA-1.
I brought my Audeze LCD-2 at the Montreal show in hope to find a suitable amp for these. I currently have a Perreaux SXH-2 and it's sound really good but I have to push the amp at least at 3 o'clock position on the volume knob to feel my music (I listen really loud). As I was on a mission, I intentionnaly skipped all the speakers demos (much more present than headphone as you can imagine).
At the show, I tried Centrance Dac-mini, Yulong D-100, Grace 902 (all dac + amp) and Woo Audio WA6-SE. They all sound good but not better than my Perreaux (the Woo Audio was the best of the group).
Then, just out of curiosity, I have decided to stop by Bryston room. As a Canadian, Bryston have always been a proud and mythic brand for me. I have Considered some of their products when I was younger but never been able to afford any Bryston products.
I didn't expect to find any headphone related products. But at the end of the room, past all the speakers set-ups, there was this table with two headphone amplifiers prototype (one black and one silver) along with Grado headphones. The silver one was set-up for balanced headphones in balanced configuration from the source. Even if my Audeze LCD-2 have a SE plug, I tried the balanced set-up.
Listening to all genre of music but mostly to electronica, trance, psytrance, I am looking for a strong, accurate and fast bass but not at the price of masking low midrange details and with good high frequency extension.
How was the Bryston sound? in one word AMAZING! this is exactly the sound I was searching for. Smooth, detailed, ample and with extraordinary deep, tight and accurate bass. Listening to some of Deadmau5 tracks with the Bryston, was litteraly sublime. I immediatly felt in love with this beast. I never past the 12 o'clock position on the volume knob (with high gain).
But my budget was between $500 to a thousand. I listened to the Bryston before asking the price. I expect it to be around $2000 or something. No, in fact it had a retail of $1295! Wow! There is no way I am turning back to this unit for about $300 over my budget.
I tried my best to convinced James Tanner (a really kind man that seems down to earth) to sell me the prototype at the end of the show. He told me he can't because the prototype have not yet been approved. I told him it was approved by me! But James was really comprehensive about my enthousiasm and he brought me to a Bryston reseller who had a room near Bryston and facilitate the contact with the manager. In a minute, we had an agreement and I will be a futur owner of a Bryston BHA-1. i will link it to my incoming Wyred4sound DAC-2 in balanced configuration. I can't wait
I would like to sincerely thanks James Tanner for his patience (I think I shooked his hand about ten time!) and kindness.
Kudo to Bryston.
Steve Lapierre
