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I liked the Bryston BP 25 DA preamplifier So Much
I Bought My Own

The Bryston BP 25 DA pre-amplifier is an excellent example of the quality that Bryston Limited Audio is capable of building.

I knew this when I first listened to one in Columbus Ohio. And my impressions of the unit where such that I took one home with me that very day. I've loved fine audio for as long as I can remember and the BP25DA delivered what I was looking for in an audio component.

See some other audio equipment I've owned here.

Bryston Limited stands behind their products

The Canadian company Bryston; provides products to the pro industry as well as the high end home audio industries. Because they can span two different markets they have some obvious advantages that any consumer would want to take advantage of.

Bryston BP 25 preamplifier

Bryston reliability is second to none.

Bryston Limited offers a full 20 year warranty on all of their electronic products. Failures are very uncommon, so despite the extensive warranty, you probably will never get a chance to see if said warranty actually works. Their products just don’t fail very often.

The Bryston BP 25 DA preamp is a full function remote controlled preamplifier that also has a built in DAC

or digital to analog converter. It can take a digital feed directly from your CD player and process the signal converting to analog within the unit.

The Bryston BP 25 DA preamp line was replaced a few years back by the BP 26 preamplifier. So this is notably a review of an older component, but it is a preamp that we feel is worthy of your consideration at the price point. These can be picked up for about half their retail value on the used market.

Sound Quality:

The first thing I noticed with the Bryston BP 25 DA was the high frequency extension of my loudspeakers. I had just replaced the B&K reference 30 processor with the Bryston unit and the upper octave energy of the Bryston was much smoother and transparent over the B&K unit.

It may not be a fair comparison because the B&K is not a dedicated 2 channel preamp. But the B&K can hold its own with many preamps whether two channel or multi-channel. The B&K gets the music right. It has errors of omission rather than unmusical qualities. So the fact that the Bryston had a cleaner treble is no surprise really.

The next area that the Bryston flexed its muscle was in the bass. Bass had nice definition and jumped off the speakers with a believable sound of the real instruments that were being reproduced.

I thought that the level of bass was spot-on as well. It seemed to me the Bryston BP 25 DA was near perfect for neutrality.

In the mid-range, I found it difficult to differentiate between these two preamps. But from my experience the mid-range is the easiest part of the spectrum to get right.

The Bryston did not struggle in the mid-range at all. Voices and instruments such as violin, sound realistic.

Imaging of the BP 25 preamp:

Imaging was portrayed very well with image placement and scale that was believable.

Sound-stage depth is not up to the standard of some of the better Audio Research preamps or the Halcro preamp for example. But again, the Bryston is much less expensive as well.

Fit and finish of the Bryston preamp:

I got the impression that I could have thrown this unit down the stairs, plugged it back in and it would have worked just fine. I also would not have hesitated to use this thing for a blunt instrument if anyone broke into the house.

It is pretty heavy and quite sturdy to say the least. The main housing is made of thick steel, not lightweight aluminum.

Speaking of blunt instruments, the remote for this thing could break the glass on you coffee table if you set it down too hard. Keep it away from children; they may hurt you or themselves.

Our Ratings for the Bryston BP 25 DA review

Sound staging: 7

Imaging: 6.5

Transparency: 7

Dynamics: 8.5

Value: 7 -Is scored as a 1 being poor value and a 10 being great value.

Neutrality: 5 -neutral (A 1 would indicate a cold sound, while 10 being very warm or bass heavy)

Overall Score: 8.5

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I liked the Bryston BP 25 DA preamplifier So Much I Bought My Own