Bryston Meets Axiom

In 2010 James Tanner (Bryston CEO) designed a loudspeaker for Bryston to use as a tool to evaluate its electronics. James wasn’t happy with commercially available speakers by the big names due to limited bass, dynamic range and sound stage. So he created his own!

Bryston hired a friendly Canadian company down the road a piece, Axiom, to build these Gibraltar-ish prototypes to his specifications. James and the engineers at Bryston were thrilled with the results of The Model T (for Tanner). The Model T was put into duty in house at Bryston.

There was a massive recession in 2009. Perhaps you heard? This recession punched manufacturers square in the wallet. Companies like B&W, Paradigm and KEF, that were making X number of speakers in Canada or Europe, saw their sales crash over night. It wasn’t long before these companies doubled pricing, as economies of scale dried up. Even worse, the vast majority of production was moved to China.

A light bulb went off for James. The Model T, which was intended for internal Bryston use, could now fill a gap in the actual marketplace. With the big advertisers doubling and tripling prices or buying from China, there was a great opportunity to bring Bryston quality speakers to audiophiles at reasonable pricing- made in Canada with 20 year warranty no less.

James created several more models as derivatives of the T, all based around brick outhouse like 8” woofers that blacksmiths would be proud of. James also created a line of speakers he dubbed the A Series, based on 6.5” woofers. Within a couple of years, Bryston speakers of Tanner’s design and Axiom’s facilities and work force, were highly successful and the companies merged.

The resulting company was/is simply called Bryston.

It turns out, there’s even more sunlight to this story.

Engineering talent at Bryston and Axiom merged. Two heads are better than one. With collaboration and mentoring, Bryston decided to expand its foot print.

Bryston speakers and electronics are the company’s bell tower efforts- pushing the state of the art in a number of categories. Of course James realizes not everyone can afford Bryston, so the company has opted to make Axiom its brand name for more price sensitive products. Since all of my customers (and I!) work for a living, Axiom is right up my alley.

What’s exciting to me, a guy who has sold Bryston since the 80s, is that Axiom is also made in Canada and comes with a 5 year warranty. You might call it Bryston Light.

Axiom products incorporate a number of fascinating, innovative ideas, and hit price points not much higher than the world of Chinese imports. Have I mentioned that Axiom is also made with TLC in Canada with a 5 year warranty? Let’s look at these exciting new POWER AMPS from Axiom.

Axiom Power Amplifiers

Axiom amps are beginning to ship now. They offer tremendous power with much superior headroom to the Chinese built names (typically with 2 yr warranty) you’re familiar with.

There’s no substitute for building fanny kicking, fire breathing amplifiers. Axiom accomplishes class leading results by not cutting corners. Axiom builds its amps differently and BETTER than the Chinese imports at similar price points.

It’s all in the details of the nuts and bolts. There’s no smoke and mirrors here.

I’ll outline a few specifics and then let you visit our home page, where down at the bottom we have a yellow tab labeled Axiom. That’s where we’ll do the deep dive for those of you who like to read about the minutia.

Axiom power amps are D designs with their own secret sauce. Axiom doesn’t use any off the shelf modules (from B&O, Hypex, Purify etc). They have their own technology that regulates its MOSFET output transistors to work in the highly efficient D domain.

Some audiophiles are dismissive of D amps. That shouldn’t be the case. Axiom builds its amps with linear (vs SMPS) power supplies and huge banks of storage capacitance- compared to the pebbles of the mass marketers. When you employ a D design with these tools, it’s a whole new ballgame. Not to mention, but I will, again- Axiom amps don’t just use a D module off someone’s shelf.

Axiom uses huge toroidal transformers (wattage is denoted by model number) which are superior to the EI cores you’ll see from big advertisers.

Axiom uses enormous filter capacitance (60,000uF, 108,000uF or 144,000uF depending on the model), compared to the peanuts used by the imports. Axiom amps weigh 45-55 lbs while their Asian competitors are 10-25 lbs.

Axiom has dramatically better headroom as a consequence of its mass and topology- D technology with discrete output transistors- running in a tightly regulated form to ameliorate any miss matching of the transistors themselves.

The result of these choices is that Axiom amps have excellent clarity, bass control and unusually high dynamic headroom- compared to anything similarly priced.

Models:
ADA-1000 $1390 (125×2, 8 ohms, 250×2, 4 ohms) 60,000uF capacitance

ADA-1250 $2390 (225×2, 8 ohms, 450×2, 4 ohms) 108,000uF capacitance

ADA-1500 $2990 (325×2, 8 ohms, 650×2, 4 ohms) 144,000 uF capacitance

Rogue RP-1 Tube Preamp $1800

RP-1 is an affordable, high performing audiophile tube preamp. RP-1 isn’t laden with bells, whistles, hats & horns. RP-1 delivers the best musical performance for the price point.

The Asian imports are stuffed with chips! You have DACs, Bluetooth, streamers, HDMI inputs… some of which are convenient BUT, take money away from where your money SHOULD go- into parts that make your sound BETTER.

RP-1 has an excellent MM/MC phono section. It uses a toroidal transformer to harness the magnetic field. It has two 12AU7 tubes on board. It has four high level inputs and 3 outputs. THREE! One set can drive an amp, the other can drive a powered sub. The third output is FIXED.

Why not consider a great N American package? How about Rogue’s RP-1 with Axiom ADA-1000 above. You have a full N American musically faithful electronic combo for only $3190.

Denon DCD-1700 CD/SACD Player, $1500

Please consider this Japanese built disc player in lieu of anything less. While Marantz SACD30n is still the heavyweight champ at $3k, DCD-1700 offers far superior build and more rich, solid sound than lesser players made in China or Malaysia.

Parts Is Parts

How many parts does a Steinway piano consist of? That’s right, over 12,000! Great music from the grandest instrument of them all, is a labor of love as much as a manufacturing project.

McIntosh MA8950 Integrated Amp: 200×2

McIntosh won’t let dealers post pricing on their higher end gear. That’s their rule and we have to comply. How many players are in the field on a baseball team?

Mac is still made in Binghamton, NY, with luscious blue meters. It’s the coolest looking and most reliable gear in our business.

Have you heard… we don’t last forever. Let’s have some FUN while we’re on the planet!

Of course you could be prudent and boring. You could just buy a Yamaguchi integrated for $500 that will sound as dry as white toast. Hey, if that’s you, no reason to read on. Head straight to Amazon.

If you love music and want to hear the heart and soul of it, you won’t get it with Chinese mass marketed boxes. Now, I’m not saying you need to buy Mac. You can buy Rogue for much less, also made in the US. But for this entry, let’s consider something AWESOME.

MA8950 is a full beefcake, back busting Mac integrated. It is the full enchilada with tons of power and heavy, rich sound. MA8950 is the first integrated in the family to employ its massive power supply and enormous autoformers. The autoformers provide a constant impedance interface between the amp and speakers. You derive a warmer sound than you’ll get without them.

MA8950 will take speakers that have a little too much ZING in their sound and make them palatable. Mass made electronics with piles of chips simply exacerbate the grainy character of speakers.

MA352 is a terrific integrated and a strong Mac value for a couple K less. We luv it. But it doesn’t offer the full she-bang of the bigger supply and autoformers. Nor does it have an onboard DAC, MC or the wide assortment of ins/outs.

MA8950 has an on board DAC, as well as MM/MC phono. It has a 5 band EQ which IS useful

because it is Mac quiet. It has a generous palate of RCA and XLR ins/outs.

If you’re like many audiophiles you’ve probably spent some real time and money chasing your tail, acquiring this and that over the years. You probably started with a Chinese built amp and when its luster wore off, tried something north of that. Well… please consider just biting the bullet and saying goodbye to the equipment rat race. Once you experience full bore Mac in your system, you’re DONE.

Rogue Cronus Dark $4500 (100×2)

Rogue’s Cronus Magnum 3 integrated amp ($3500, 100×2) has been the standard bearer at its price class for years. CM3 is a full tube integrated amp. The preamp section uses 5 tubes and the power amp section uses 4 KT88s. It has the mellow luster of expensive separates, for only $3500.

Owner Mark O’Brien has often offered TWEAKED versions of his various designs. He called them Magnum versions. There have been Magnum versions of many Rogue units over the years. Mark has decided to create an improved CM3. While CM3 is still being offered due to its remarkable performance for the dollar, Mark has created the Rogue Cronus Dark- a much souped up CM3.

With Cronos Dark, Mark has upped the ante on CM3. While the power is the same, component parts have been upgraded which belie sonic benefits if you have great speakers like Brystons or Magnepans. If you’re willing to go north of CM3 but not all the way to Mac’s MA8950,

Cronus Dark may be just the ticket.

Grado RS 1x Headphones $750

Made in Brooklyn, NY, Grado’s RS 1x headphones offer a great bang for your buck in high end phones that aren’t crazy in price.

1X starts with Grado’s 50mm, X series diaphragm. It is ensconced in an ear cup comprised of three kinds of wood. They use a maple sleeve, hemp core and cocobolo for the outer ring. These wooden materials lend a more musical, less strident sound to your music. Just as cabinet speakers benefit from great attention to detail in their construction, RS 1x benefits from assiduous TLC.

SPL runs a very high 99.8 dB. Impedance is 38 ohms. Driver matching is within .05dB. Most headphones are mass produced on the other side of the world and diaphragms are just plugged in. Variation L-R can be off significantly.

At $400 I like the Final Audio Sonorous 3. It offers a strong value. Yet RS 1x has distinctly superior transients and delicacy. You can hear precision guitar and piano work for clearly with the Grado. Yep, it runs $750 vs $400. But it’s worth it.

Did I mention Grado is made with great attention to detail in the USA?

Janis, Jim, Bob & Elvis

In their 70s…