Bryston BP19 Analog Preamp $5195
(4.5h, 17w, 13.5d)
Bryston’s new BP19 is a state of the art, full analog preamp. The $5195 price point is in line stage configuration. It’s $6195 with MM. It’s $6945 with MC. You cannot buy BP19 with a DAC on board.
BP19 is a fabulous preamp by any sonic assessment. But what makes BP19 the best for me, compared to ALMOST the best, is Bryston’s highly resolving vocal prowess.
Take your favorite singers. I’m sure your list is long, as is mine. When you put BP19 into your system it’s like you peeled the grill cloths off the speakers. You gain an intimacy in female seduction that just wasn’t there before BP19 entered the picture.
We all appreciate extended highs without grain. We like deep bass without murky intrusion. Yet what seals the deal with BP19 is presenting Joan Armatrading (Love & Affection, Tall In The Saddle) with no edifice of constriction.
This high resolution experience is so refined that I’m even willing to listen to a few (not many) men sing. 1970’s genre Cat Stevens and Willie Nelson, while in their prime with sparse guitar work, deliver their message with more raw emotion through BP19 than anything less.
BP19 has transparency in spades. As a deep dive piano hound I have multiple versions of the same works. I have multiples due to the unique sound and interpretation on each disc. While I love many recordings for many reasons, some of the finest I’ve heard are quite recent- Benjamin Grosvenor CDs on Decca. His recordings of Bach’s “Chaccone” and Liszt’s “Reminiscences de Norma” leave me paralyzed in my listening chair. They have the same warm and tuneful flavor I hear on a friend’s Steinway B. Never… have I heard them as authentic as through BP19.
I can say the same for the violin. A similarly arresting recording is by Hyeyoon Park, playing RVW’s “The Lark Ascending” on Decca. BTW, Ms Park is married to Ben Grosvenor. I sense a pattern…
If you’re a candidate for a new analog preamp anywhere near $5k, you need a Bryston BP19!
