Bryston Customer Feedback
Email: SP 1.7

Hi James,

I'm writing to complement you on the fantastic design of the SP 1.7 Surround Processor PreAmp - I really didn't expect to get 3 components in 1.

I have one room for both home theatre and music listening. About a year ago I went back to vinyl and had a real problem - no matter how much I spent on the turntable, cartridge and phono stage, the signal was getting digitized when it hit my surround preamp. The ergonomics of putting an analog pre-amp for vinyl in parallel to the theatre system was impossible since I would be using the same left and right speakers plus power amp for both setups.

I bought the SP 1.7 specifically to solve this problem - there are actually two pre-amps in one - the obvious surround processor and an analog preamplifier that, when activated, shuts down the digital stage. My vinyl sound quality jumped dramatically, so much that I couldn't stop playing vinyl for a week. When I finally put a DVD in the system, my jaw dropped. I went from 6 mono speakers to a real sound stage - the spaces between the speakers came alive. At this point, I'm thinking that the SP 1.7 is a real bargain for somebody with my dilemma - but there was one more component that I hadn't even thought of.

Other than a CD burner that I use to copy vinyl to CD for the car, I don't have a CD player in the system. And while the burner makes respectable copies, I got better CD playback from my DVD player (which was mediocre). So it occurred to me to use the burner as the transport only by taking the digital out to the SP 1.7 DACs. Well, I now have an excellent CD player.

I'm confident that the SP 1.7 holds in own against any similar surround processor - but to get two extra components - that's a bargain.
CS