[FormosaWest]

Just bought my bryston headphone amp! Cant wait for it to arrive and sit with my bryston dac. Unfortunately all the online retailers i found who sell the hhpa-1 to canada and had stock, where in the usa and had black only. most didn't ship to canada. I couldn't find local stock and local new prices where more than i could afford on my student budget once taxes and interconnects were factored in. Plus waiting... I was lucky i received a bursary with excess and a tax return.. Finally my old dj headphones (hd25) and my hd650 and music collection will no longer suffer the headphone outputs on my macbook!
 
alas, I couldn't find a silver one anywhere! ... So my decision was to order a black one rather than continue to wait before i could use my phones. 10 years is long enough wait! (Boy do i miss my allen and heath mixing board) .. I suspect this amp will blow that headphone section out of the water.
 
So, my little dilemma..
 
how diffict would it be to swap face plates? Ive emailed a nice guy at bryston service who tells me its not so easy, and it would require $$$ plus shipping both ways.. as much as id like to support bryston directly out of  gratitude to their magnificent products, i cant afford it. I respect the concern of bryston service. I assume publicly encouraging do it yourself service would be detrimental to the masses, but i cant imagine it would take much more than a few hand tools and careful technique.. Or would a straight faceplate swap be truly over my head?
 
Looking at it from the photographs i would assume that the faceplate is bolted to a chassis with machine screws, and the xlr connects bolted to the faceplate on short leads. Im guessing the case-cover is then bolted to the chassis from beneath. Im guessing all the components would be anchored to a chassis and largely not to the faceplate. But.. The toggle switches, are they threaded into the face plate, or are they positioned into the faceplate passively from the inside?  Are the knob attached to the attenuators by a screw, adhesive or friction?
 
i bought mine used and will likely only receive an receipt from the used salesman. Would i have warranty, and provided i could actually aquire a faceplate would swapping it compromise the warranty?
 
I cant really afford to ship it twice and pay all the expense to buy parts and pay labour for what effectively should be an hour or less of careful work..
anyone have a silver faceplate or wish theirs was black? Just thinking aloud. 
any advise would be greatly appreciated

 

[FormosaWest]

Quote:

One of the great results of the 20 year warranty we started back in 1990 is it forces our designers to think long term when designing products.  So part choices and integrity of design is paramount in their minds.
 
james 

Wise and apparent! Though im only just acquiring my first bryston equipment, I've known the bryston reputation and quality for years. Bryston must be proud of their designs. I love the coherent, consistent functional approach to design taken. Thank-you bryston for designing such exceptional equipment for us all the enjoy our music with.

 

[James Tanner]

Quote:

Just bought my bryston headphone amp! Cant wait for it to arrive and sit with my bryston dac. Unfortunately all the online retailers i found who sell the hhpa-1 to canada and had stock, where in the usa and had black only. most didn't ship to canada. I couldn't find local stock and local new prices where more than i could afford on my student budget once taxes and interconnects were factored in. Plus waiting... I was lucky i received a bursary with excess and a tax return.. Finally my old dj headphones (hd25) and my hd650 and music collection will no longer suffer the headphone outputs on my macbook!
 
alas, I couldn't find a silver one anywhere! ... So my decision was to order a black one rather than continue to wait before i could use my phones. 10 years is long enough wait! (Boy do i miss my allen and heath mixing board) .. I suspect this amp will blow that headphone section out of the water.
 
So, my little dilemma..
 
how diffict would it be to swap face plates? Ive emailed a nice guy at bryston service who tells me its not so easy, and it would require $$$ plus shipping both ways.. as much as id like to support bryston directly out of  gratitude to their magnificent products, i cant afford it. I respect the concern of bryston service. I assume publicly encouraging do it yourself service would be detrimental to the masses, but i cant imagine it would take much more than a few hand tools and careful technique.. Or would a straight faceplate swap be truly over my head?
 
Looking at it from the photographs i would assume that the faceplate is bolted to a chassis with machine screws, and the xlr connects bolted to the faceplate on short leads. Im guessing the case-cover is then bolted to the chassis from beneath. Im guessing all the components would be anchored to a chassis and largely not to the faceplate. But.. The toggle switches, are they threaded into the face plate, or are they positioned into the faceplate passively from the inside?  Are the knob attached to the attenuators by a screw, adhesive or friction?
 
i bought mine used and will likely only receive an receipt from the used salesman. Would i have warranty, and provided i could actually aquire a faceplate would swapping it compromise the warranty?
 
I cant really afford to ship it twice and pay all the expense to buy parts and pay labour for what effectively should be an hour or less of careful work..
anyone have a silver faceplate or wish theirs was black? Just thinking aloud. 
any advise would be greatly appreciated

 
Hi
 
I would not attempt to change the faceplate without speaking with Mike Pickett at Bryston about the difficulties of doing so.
 
james

 

[FormosaWest]

Thank you for the advise. I appreciate it.

 

[[H]ardwareNick]

Hi all Bryston BHA-1 owners, just thought I'd share an experience and a question with you all.
 
Taken from my post in another audio forum on the internet,
 
 
"Further to my previous post regarding my issue surrounding uneven gain in the volume knob, does anyone else have the same issue or has anyone else even tried to test the scaling of their volume?

Quite simply, if we express two factors, one being total volume output (V) and the other being total physical rotation of volume knob (P), normalised from 1 to 10 with 10 representing the maximum, what has been observed is that:
 

1. Where P is between 1 to 4, V scales from 1 to 6
2. Where P is between 5 to 7, V scales from 6 to 7 (if at all it changes...)
3. Where P is between 7 to 10, V scales from 7 to 10 (audible but not as strong as the first scenario)

It has taken 11 days and myself following up twice, as opposed to their usual 1-2 day response time(to his absolute credit, James used to respond extremely quickly - within hours, even during non-business hours), for them (James was unresponsive before I copied the same email to Brian Russell who eventually chased this up with his engineers and responded to me) to tell me in literally one sentence that uneven gain across the volume knob is normal.

I'm not entirely sure why this design is as such and would love to see if anybody else with a BHA-1 has the same experience as it just sounds rather peculiar to me."

 

[Maxvla]

I don't have any issues with volume on mine, but it is different in other ways from the production units so perhaps my attenuator is different as well. Mine was an early sample unit, serial #2.

 

[[H]ardwareNick]

Thanks Max.
 
Just to confirm - did you actually try turning your volume knob past 10 o'clock?
 
If so, then it means that our volume knobs aren't functioning in a uniform manner and that somebody's isn't working to design and hence, faulty. Suffice to say, I've never heard of an intended design where the volume knob is designed for uneven gain in the manner that mine is...

 

[Maxvla]

Yes, it keeps getting louder at about the same rate up to about 4 o'clock. Didn't want to risk damage beyond that. I don't have any measurement tools so I can't really confirm, but it definitely doesn't have a plateau like you are talking about.

 

[jtinto]

Mine has a tapered non-linear attenuator

 

[[H]ardwareNick]

Thanks Max.
 
Jtinto, forgive the unsophisticated noobie in me but do you mean to say that you have "a limited volume, uneven in gain, volume knob" and that you have Bryston BHA-1 and have the same uneven volume gain that I experience?
 
Btw, there are a few others on another audio forum out there but am not sure if I'm permitted to post the link here - anyone know if I can?

 

[Maxvla]

Sure you can link.

Perhaps to clear up a little confusion:

Linear pots are not ideal for volume as you have very little adjustment range. Logarithmic (non-linear) pots are most common. Almost nobody would put a linear pot on a consumer volume control.

 

[jtinto]

That's right, my BHA-1's volume pot is not linear
It has more effect as it approaches either extreme

 

[Solude]

Bryston's ad press about the BHA-1 is pretty straight forward about the pot.  It is trimmed differently than 'normal'  Instead of a fast rise that slows down, it's a slow rise that speed up towards the end.  It's a good thing

 

[[H]ardwareNick]

Wow. I have certainly been showed up for being a nubcake at this hobby, new things learnt for sure.
 
Will do more reading about this as I'd love to understand more about "Linear pots are not ideal for volume as you have very little adjustment range. Logarithmic (non-linear) pots are most common. Almost nobody would put a linear pot on a consumer volume control."
 
Thank you very much for clearing this up everybody. It was really beginning to mess with my mind that I could have a defective unit.
 
Edit - why does it seem that most if not all of the other amps I've tried don't seem to demonstrate the same sort of logarithmic behaviour that the Bryston does? (Violectric, Sugden, Schiit, Woo Audio to name a few other manufacturers who's amps I've tried). Is it that it's a far less dramatic and almost inaudible logarithmic behaviour or something?
 
Solude - just went for a quick Google to look for this ad press you're referring to but can't seem to quickly find it. any chance of a link?

 

[Maxvla]

Even if you did have a defective unit, you still have 19+ years left on your warranty.