In Roger Kanno’s review of the Bryston 4B³ stereo/mono amplifier, published in June 2017 on SoundStage! Hi-Fi, he described its sound as “virtually faultless,” praised its “ability to drive just about any speaker with ease,” and declared that it “may well be the best value today in a high-end, high-powered, solid-state amplifier. . . . If I were in the market for a new amp, I’d buy the Bryston 4B³ without hesitation.”

The 4B³ is part of Bryston’s new Cubed series of amplifiers. That Bryston has set such a high standard of sound quality and value with the 4B³ has much to do with the company’s long experience in designing and building amplifiers and with the history of this model itself — the first 4B was released in 1976, and Bryston has been improving it ever since. Roger noted the similarities between the 4B³ and previous 4Bs:

Inside, the 4B³ is a neatly laid-out design consisting primarily of circuit boards with little point-to-point wiring. Like the 4Bs before it, the 4B³ is a dual-mono, solid-state amplifier, with two separate power supplies that include two large, stacked toroidal transformers. It uses Bryston’s Quad Complementary output stage, which Bryston claims combines the sonic advantages of a class-A output stage and the efficiency of a class-AB output stage with low distortion and linear operation.

Bryston specifies the 4B³’s stereo output as 300Wpc into 8 ohms or 500Wpc into 4 ohms. As a monoblock, its output into 8 ohms is 900W. These power ratings are the same as for the previous 4B, the 4B SST², which we added to our Recommended Reference Components list in January 2011. But as Roger pointed out, the 4B³ includes some advances over the 4B SST²:

Most notable is the 4B³’s new input stage, which Bryston says is extremely linear, with very high gain and very low distortion. This new, patented amplifier and signal filter circuit were developed in conjunction with the late Dr. Alexandru Salomie; Bryston says they improve the rejection of common-mode, EMI, and RFI noise.

Bryston’s reputation has always been based on their products’ high qualities of build, sound, and reliability, but not so much on their appearance. The 4B³ looks better than past 4Bs:

The 4B³’s build quality is exceptional though not over the top, as with some ultra-expensive high-end gear. The chassis is extremely solid, with heavy-duty heatsinks running the full length of each side panel. . . . The edges of the faceplate and front handles are more rounded than those of previous 4Bs, and the handles are part of the 19”W faceplate. A 17”W faceplate, without handles, is also available. My review sample was outfitted with the 19”W faceplate in silver, which I thought extremely handsome in a stoic, industrial sort of way — this amp is attractive enough, but looks as if it means business.