Bryston 4B Cubed Stereo Amplifier Reviewed

Bryston Ltd. is a well-known and very well-respected Canadian audiophile electronics company based in Dwight, Ontario, a region of Canada far more famous for a relaxing summer life and great ice cream than a place that you might expect to find world-class electronics. Bryston has been designing and manufacturing consumer and professional audio equipment for 50 years. Renowned for its reliability, Bryston has built a strong reputation in the audiophile community for offering an exceptional 20-year warranty on its analog products. Dwight is also known as a summer retreat for many wealthy and famous individuals. The Bryston 4B Cubed amplifier is a classic Class A/B amplifier. This amp, in some version or another, has been in production continuously since 1978. The version I reviewed is the sixth generation. It’s pretty incredible that this amplifier has only needed to be updated six times in 46 years. The Bryston 4B3 amplifier produces a reported 300 watts at eight ohms and 500 watts into four ohms, and features both balanced and unbalanced inputs. It weighs 42 pounds, and it comes in either 17 or 19 inches wide (depending on the front plate you choose), is 6.3 inches high and 15.5 or 17.75 inches deep, depending on whether you get it with the front handles or not.

What Makes the Bryston 4B Cubed Stereo Amplifier So Special? 

• It is hard to talk about Bryston without talking about the warranty. As many audiophiles know, part of what you are buying with a Bryston analog product is the warranty, and 20 years is pretty hard to beat.
• This amplifier was built for use in a rack. If you’re someone who keeps their audiophile gear in a more formal or “professional” rack (like our publisher, Jerry), Bryston designed this amplifier not only for safe installation in such a rack with the faceplate, but with optional handles on the front to make it easier for you to move it around.
• The Bryston 4B Cubed provides a noticeably tight, detailed and accurate sound. One of the first things I heard when I installed the Bryston 4B3 amplifier into my reference system was just how tight and controlled the sound was. That is very welcome at this price point. 
• The Bryston 4B Cubed amplifier is physically smaller (shallower) than I expected. For an amplifier that can create up to 500 watts into four ohms, it really isn’t all that physically large. Compared to my reference Anthem MCA 225 Gen 2 Class-A/B amplifier (read the review), the Bryston 4B Cubed was similar in height and width, but three inches smaller in depth. That doesn’t seem like much, but when you factor in that the Bryston is also putting out more power at both eight and four ohms, its small size is a nice perk. 
• The Bryston 4B3 amplifier can be bridged for future audiophile upgrades. If you should decide that this amplifier isn’t providing you with enough power or headroom, there is a toggle switch on the back that will allow you to bridge it with another matching power amp, and you are off to the races. I will say that the need for that much power is unlikely with most of today’s modern speakers, but then again, when was the last time somebody complained about too much horsepower in their new car? That’s never really happened, I am guessing. 
• The Bryston 4B Cubed produced no noticeable heat or any audible operational noise.Depending on design, many Class-A/B amps can get hot, and I’m sure if pushed hard enough, this one would too, but in my listening and regular use, I didn’t notice any heat coming off the amplifier, and I wasn’t able to notice any hum or added noise.

Why Should You Care About the Bryston 4B Cubed Stereo Amplifier?

The audiophile who is most likely to be looking at a Bryston 4B Cubed amplifier is a person who really appreciates built quality, a neutral “house sound” (aka: lack of a house sound), and pretty much knows what they are looking for in a power amp to drive their floorstanding loudspeakers. The thing about Bryston’s warranty is that it means that you don’t need to make changes, and with that comes some other considerations as well, as you know you could own this for the next 20 years. It is hard for me to see someone a few years in with this amplifier feeling like they don’t have headroom, as I expect most Bryston owners have sought out this product more than they had someone sell it to them. 

Some Things You Might Not Like About the Bryston 4B Cubed Stereo Amplifier

• The somewhat industrial look of Bryston equipment isn’t going to be for everyone. The industrial design of the Bryston 4B Cubed amplifier has a somewhat retro design to it, with the Bryston logo across the front and green lights that show when the power is on. That isn’t to say that the design is ugly, it just feels like the Bryston designers are aiming more for timeless than they are for modern. The Bryston 4B3 also looks like it belongs in a recording studio more than under soft lighting at Tiffany’s like much of today’s big-dollar audiophile jewelry. This ID is absolutely on purpose and commendable, it just isn’t going to appeal to everybody. 
• The Bryston 4B3 power amp lacks traditional 3.5-mm trigger jacks. This seems like a small detail, but it is amazing how easy it is to forget to get up to turn the amplifier off when you turn your preamp off. It does, however, allow you to use a five- or 12-volt external control to power on the amplifier.

Listening to the Bryston 4B Cubed Amplifier … 

My listening tests with the Bryston 4B Cubed included components, such as the Music Hall cd25.3 CD player, the Anthem STR preamplifier, a HiFi Zen One Signature DAC, and Paradigm Premier 700F floorstanding speakers. I also did AB testing with my Anthem MCA 225 Gen 2 amplifier. This isn’t an ideal apples-to-apples test, given that the Anthem produces 75 less watts into eight ohms and 100 less at four ohms. The Anthem also costs about 40 percent of what the Bryston does. With that said, in all of my testing, the Bryston provided more control to the music than the Anthem did, and the Bryston had a bit of a softer sound than the Anthem did as well. 

One of the first tracks I listened to was “Respect Commander” (Compact Disc) from Jack White’s 2018 album Boarding House Reach. This is White’s third and most experimental work to date, and a go-to demo material for me. This track opens with a two-and-a-half-minute jam, chocked full of dynamics, before it morphs into more a of blues track. The distortion of White’s guitars sounded very realistic, and the Bryston 4B Cubed throughout the whole track kept all of the sounds tight. In that opening jam, it provided each instrument room to breathe as well. You got that in-the-studio or closer-to-the-master vibe that many of us are striving for. 

Another solid demo track that I used in testing the Bryston 4B3 power amp was “National Anthem” (Compact Disc) from Radiohead’s 2000 album Kid A. One of the most interesting things about this work from Radiohead is that, if you didn’t know who Radiohead was before the year 2000, you wouldn’t find this work all that surprising, but as a person who did, I can still remember the confusion amongst my teenage friends who wondered, what happened to Radiohead? With this track being as dense as it is, it really tests the amplifier’s ability to balance the sound and provide a soundstage for the speakers. In my listening, the Bryston 4B Cubed didn’t flinch, even at high volumes. The Bryston 4B3 was able to handle the bass, the horns, and the theremin, along with Thom Yorke’s vocals with an impressive ease. That ease resulted in pure listening joy and that “next level” of sonic performance that all audiophiles chase as part of their journey in the hobby of high-performance music playback. 

The last really notable demo track that I used to test the Bryston 4B Cubed amplifier was“Every Step That I Take” (Compact Disc) from Tom Morello’s 2018 album The Atlas Underground. This album represents Morello, the former Rage Against the Machine guitarist, throwing his hat into the electronic world and exploring music he in his own words has “avoided” in the past. This makes a great test track, as you are presented with really powerful dynamics with the digital sounds and around the 2:30 mark of the track, you get Morello’s signature guitar-playing style and sound. The Bryston 4B Cubed reproduced all of the sounds with a lot of control, keeping the track very in its lane, organized and seemingly true to the master recording, meaning nothing was added sonically. 

Will the Bryston 4B Cubed Stereo Amplifier Hold Its Value?

You can bet on it! One of the biggest things that the 20-year warranty does for Bryston equipment is ensure that the resale value will be there for a long, long time. I would be surprised if you were not still able to get a significant return on your investment, even 10 years after purchase, as the buyer will still be getting 10 years of warranty, which would still far exceed most audiophile gear on the market. Gear like this has aged well in the past, and I would expect it to age well into the future, as there isn’t any part of it that will become dated over time.

What is the Competition for the Bryston BP-19 Preamplifier?

The Pass Labs X250.8 ($10,500 – read the review) is about 30 percent more expensive, but it is a very well-respected Nelson Pass-designed Class-A/B amplifier, which produces a similar 250 watts into eight ohms and 500 watts into four ohms. This world-class amplifier is also a bit bigger than the Bryston 4B Cubed amplifier, and nearly twice as heavy as well. Paul Wilson recently reviewed this amplifier, and had nothing but wonderful things to say about it. If you have the extra budget, it might be worth the comparison. Note: all Pass Labs amps tend to run hot – especially their Class-A designs, but even this Class-A/B design runs hot compared to the Bryston. 

The Anthem STR Amplifier ($6,500 – buy at Crutchfield) produces a bit more power, 400 watts into eight ohms and 600 watts into four ohms. If you’re into Canadian-built amplifiers, and you don’t have quite the budget for the Bryston, you could certainly look into the Anthem STR as a very viable audiophile-grade option. I have reviewed the Anthem STR Integrated Amplifier (buy at Crutchfield). The amplification used in that product was solid, and I would expect the same from this standalone audiophile amp and then some.

The McIntosh MC312 ($7,500) is a very comparable option and almost the same price as the Bryston. There are certainly many people who love McIntosh for their history and the distinctive look of their products, and this amplifier has both of these items. The McIntosh MC312 produces 300 watts into both four and eight ohms. It may not have the warranty that Bryston has, but McIntosh products often resell just as well. The house sound of McIntosh isn’t as accurate, but its softer house sound is appealing to many listeners. The argument from the photographic world here is that everybody looks better with a little makeup. and that is fair, but when it comes to an audiophile power amp, I tend to like that truer to the recording vibe that the Bryston delivers in spades. 

Final Thoughts on the Bryston 4B Cubed Stereo Power Amplifier …

It didn’t take me long in my listening to understand why the Bryston 4B Cubed has been in production and the object of desire to so many audiophiles for decades upon decades. With plenty power to spare, an accurate/controlled sound and an unmatched warranty in the audiophile world, I would think that most people who could justify an audiophile amplifier in this price range owe it to themselves to at least do an audition, if they can make that work. It is rare that you can swap out an audiophile component and hear such an immediate difference, but that was my experience with the Bryston 4B Cubed. 

The other thing that simply cannot be lost when thinking about this amplifier is the value. It was hard to miss when studying the audiophile comparables. You can find other amps in the Bryston 4B Cubed’s price range, that is easy enough, you can find some perhaps with similar (or more) power, but what you cannot find is another company that will give you the long-term support, value and that studio (lack of) sound. Sonically, expect to get massive reserves of power, tons of headroom and, most importantly, no color or flavor added to your recordings. That is hard to achieve in the under-$10,000 audiophile amplifier category, but Bryston has had this nailed for nearly as long as I have been alive. The Bryston 4B Cubed is a modern-day audiophile classic that is as relevant today as at any point in its evolution over what is going on 50 years.