Предусилители — Bryston BP-19

The Bryston BP-19 is a fully balanced analogue preamplifier handcrafted in Canada at Bryston's facility in Dwight, Ontario. Bryston describes it as the product of years of research that produced an optimised discrete buffer amplifier, and the path is balanced throughout. It accepts up to six sources and can be ordered with an internal phono stage for turntable owners.

Key specs that matter

Connections start with four RCA input pairs and two balanced female XLR input pairs. Outputs comprise two pairs of balanced male XLR and two pairs of single-ended RCA, with one fixed and one variable pair of each type. Across 20 Hz to 20 kHz the output holds within plus and minus 0.05 dB. THD plus noise is below 0.0006% across that band and IMD is 0.0003% or less. Signal to noise measures minus 110 dBr at either output type. The chassis is 43 or 48.3 cm wide depending on faceplate, 11.6 cm high and 33 cm deep, and weighs 5.5 kg. Power draw is 0.5 W in standby and 12 W at idle or in use.

Engineering and use context

A fully balanced path used to be hard to build because it needed a volume potentiometer with four tapers. Bryston solved this with volume control chips, which let the whole path stay balanced and gave better suppression of common mode noise along with a lower noise floor than the earlier design. Tightly matched components and a compact circuit layout serve the same purpose. The front panel carries a Low Z headphone amplifier with low output impedance for inefficient headphones. Options include a moving magnet RIAA module or a moving coil module with step-up transformers at 20 or 30 dB of gain, offered as the BP-19P and BP-19MC, both using input 1. Faceplates come in silver or black in two widths, a pro rackmount version exists and custom colours are possible. The display and LEDs can be dimmed, and the LEDs switched between green and red. Bryston gives a 10-year warranty.

Pairing

The BR-4 remote selects all six inputs and controls volume, mute and power, and with a Bryston BDP-3 or BDP-31.4 player it also skips tracks. RS232 and Ethernet ports link the BP-19 to home automation, and it can switch connected power amplifiers through its trigger outputs.

Alternatives

The Bryston BP-17 Cubed is another stereo preamplifier from the same maker, part of its Cubed Series, and its preamp circuit was also used in the B135 Cubed integrated amplifier.