Bryston Model T Speakers, $11,990pr.

(51.4h, 10.5w, 18.4d, 108 lbs, 89dB SPL, 4 ohms), Walnut, Black Ash or Boston Cherry

Optional Outriggers $300 per pair

Bryston’s Model T is on my short list of truly lifelike sounding speakers. To qualify for that description a speaker does have to have within its arsenal, the ability to play with big enough impact to make you think the event in front of you could be the real deal. While many speakers play loudly, not many have authentic bass response.

Model T gives you the kind of bass I heard at the MSO over the weekend. Messiaen’s L’ascension was percolating and all of a sudden the kettle drums took over the hall. You could FEEL them in your intestines. This, is what Model T is capable of. It doesn’t have so much bass that you hear it chugging away all the time. But when the kettle rolls start up, the majesty of the experience is visceral. You feel your pant legs vibrate!

Model T purveys an image the size of your wall. It has the weight and dynamics to win your soul as well as your brain. Model T’s dispersion pattern is broad so you don’t have to sit at X marks the spot to enjoy it. Model T’s timbre is warm and genuine to my friend Greg’s Steinway B. THAT, after all, is the goal of what we’re after!

Genesis Of Bryston Speakers

Up until 2009 there were a handful of muscular speakers made in N. America and Europe that sold for about $8-12K per pair. Brands like B&W, Paradigm and KEF were dominating the market. They built nice speakers and were aggressive marketers.

James Tanner, Bryston’s CEO, had created a REFERENCE MONITOR tower speaker for his own use at Bryston. It was internally dubbed the Model T, for Tanner. James created the Model T to have more bass, dynamic range and tonal bass accuracy than the commercially available offerings of this time. Initially James had no intention to market this speaker. It was a REF Monitor FOR BRYSTON.

FF to 2009. There was a scary recession in 2009. Perhaps you heard?

The recession killed sales volume for the big boys. They were no longer able to make high testosterone speakers in N. America or Europe and sell them for anywhere near their pre 2009 pricing.

We carried B&W at the time so I’ll use them as an example of what was going on in our biz, though it wasn’t unique to them. They had a choice. Either take production to China to keep the price points similar, or continue to make them in England and CRANK UP THE PRICES. They actually did both. The 800s stayed in the UK and pricing hit the stratosphere! Everything else got vendored out to China.

The higher portion of the family, the 800 Series, continued to be made in the UK. Prices exploded. The 802 went from $8k per pair, to $15k, to $24K, albeit with changes to “justify” what had become ARTISAN PRICING. Yet even at $28k, 802 is only a pair of 8s (Styrofoam core by the way), a mid (woven material) and tweet in an artsy cabinet. It continues to be a good speaker- but $28k?! The 805 went up to $9k, for a 6” 2-way!

And by the way the company has changed hands 3 times in the interim.

Opportunity Knocks

As the market was changing, James and Bryston saw the opportunity to actually come to market with the Model T. Bryston contracted Axiom, a friendly Canadian company down the road an hour, to build the speakers James had created. Immediately our competitors started saying Bryston speakers were Axioms with a different label. Nope! The Model T was very much its own entity. Axiom didn’t make anything remotely equivalent.

The relationship between Bryston and Axiom was an immediate home run. Within a few years the companies merged to become ONE. Bryston expanded its speaker offerings with the same design brief. They make a family of speakers with MASSIVE muscle and a Steinway Smooth top end that we piano lovers absolutely love. Bryston puts its money into making its speakers perform like battleships, instead of artsy fartsy parlor pieces.

20 Year Warranty!

Bryston puts its money where its mouth is by backing its entire line of speakers with a 20 year warranty on new purchases from an authorized dealer like Audio Emporium. We sold B&W and Paradigm forever. They offer a 5 year warranty and support their models for about a dozen years. When you run out of warranty, the speakers are a profit center and there’s no promise the parts will even be available.

We sold Paradigm Studio 100s back in the day. The speaker uses a 7” metal midrange driver that tends to fail some years out. When you’re out of warranty this driver runs $450 plus per unit, and they’re on back order more than they’re in stock. I’ve called! What sense does it make, by the way, to spend $500- $1k to fix speakers that are a dozen years old and then sit with a 90 day warranty?! If you had bought Brystons at the same time instead, you would be just over half way through your warranty! At long last this brings us to…

Bryston Model T

Model T (again the T is for James Tanner, Bryston’s CEO who designed them) is a big time tower that is able to rock your world with musical aplomb.

T can move the tectonic plates of your house’s foundation with a Gibraltar-ish cabinet and three 8” Anodized Aluminum drivers you won’t believe until you see and hear them. Bryston makes no apologies for making Model T large and in charge. It is just under 52” tall to provide a life size image. It weighs 108 lbs because that is simply WHAT IT TAKES to provide a convincing musical force, to make you feel that the musical event is actually occurring in your living room, live. The tonal balance of all Bryston speakers is Steinway Smooth. The top end is extended but not bright or biting. They’re not trying to grab your attention- like a TV that’s torqued up on the vivid control.

Cabinet

Bryston’s 108 pound cabinet uses a 1.5” face baffle of Canadian Rangerwood (CRW). It is a third more dense material than the MDF that virtually everyone else uses. The side and back walls are 3/4” CRW. There are numerous internal bracing struts and walls, east/west and north/south, to make the matrixed cabinet even more rigid. The Anodized Aluminum midrange drivers are housed within their own enclosures and are unaffected by the heavy force of the three woofer drivers. The binding posts are gold plated and accommodate bi-amping, bi-wiring, or running with a single amplifier.

Driver Elements

Model T is a tour de force of driver elements! The large array of drive units provides the immense image size and power capabilities of Model T. Bryston makes its own drivers in its own factory in Canada. They are not sourced from a vendor.

Tweeters

T uses two 1” Titanium tweeters. The pair of tweeters handles much more power than one. Further, at any given volume you’re only asking for half the excursion throw from each, yielding quicker response and superior resolution, especially as you turn up the volume.

Bryston’s tweeters are made of a die cast aluminum face plate, for both better rigidity and cooling. The aluminum face is a heat sink. The shape of the face plate presents a wave guide or mini horn shape. This insures smoother off axis response- which is quite unusual above 12kHz. It has a significantly larger rear chamber than what is typical, to lower its resonant frequency to provide smoother sound. Bryston’s tweeter handles tremendous amounts of power at very low distortion.

Midranges

T uses two 4” Anodized Aluminum, Cast Frame midrange drivers. As with the tweeters, running a pair creates more muscle and better definition than running a single midrange driver. These mids are housed within their own enclosures and are not bothered if you care to ask your woofers to work hard.

Woofers

T is a true warrior running three 8”, Anodized Aluminum, Cast Frame woofers. The amount of HEAVY IRON used in these 15 pound 8s puts most subwoofer drive elements to shame! The Bryston 8 is a most formidable woofer. By running three, you have prodigious bass and dynamic output. Further, you ask for less excursion sharing the workload among three, vs a single woofer driver. The result is that your bass is well defined instead of delivering “one note” booming bass.

Even if you don’t need a speaker with imposing bass output, you’ll love Model T for the character of its bass response. It isn’t a “mudder.”

Build To Rigid Standards

Bryston speakers are built to a precise STANDARD. All production speakers have to perform within a gnat’s hair of that standard. Whether your Bryston is serial number 1 or 10,000, you can be confident your speakers will be up to par and perform as designed.

Many competitors brag about “tweeter matching.” What that means is, there is such a variation in the performance of drivers in mass production that the speaker company has to graph and match tweeters (and other drivers) to be sure the pair you get – sounds reasonably cohesive. The folks at Bryston would call this- getting two bad drivers, instead of adhering to a prescribed standard.

Bryston also runs its speakers through a torture test for 100 hours before they certify them as good to sell. Processes like these take time and TLC. This is why Bryston performs so well and gives you a 20 year warranty.

Overview

Model T is a special animal. It has the ability to give you intense range and dynamics, without a nasty, harsh edge. I’m a piano and vocal fan first and foremost. Model T is ideal for letting you hear the lower register of the piano in LVB’s sonata #8, opening movement, unlike anything else for the money. It’s deep and powerful, yet the musical message isn’t obfuscated by a droning cabinet.

Most good speakers give you a HINT of what’s going on down there. The Model T lets you hear precisely what IS on the recording, ALL the way down. Model T has no sizzle on top. It lets you hear the sanguine character of a Steinway, the way it actually sounds. Many speakers give the piano a glassy sound because of runaway resonance and poor voicing. These same characteristics that depict a marvelous piano, also do so with the human voice. Model T is scintillating in reproducing vocal character with a life sized, breathy presentation.

Model T rewards you for having a great amplifier. Any of the Bryston power amps will do a magnificent job. Yet we’ve sold many a Model T to customers who can’t spend Bryston amplifier money.

NAD’s C298 is a MAGNIFICENT affordable alternative. NAD also makes the remarkable C399 or M33 integrated amps that will do the job very well at a modest price. The new Rogue Pharaoh 2 has become an instant classic for tube lovers at reasonable pricing with high power.

The Model T is certainly revealing enough to let you hear the improvement you get by using a state of the art amp. But we have such great amp values like the ones listed above that I’d want to spend my money on the speakers first, even if I have to save a few bucks on the electronics.

If you like your music is large doses, you’re going to love Model T. And you’re going to sleep well for 20 years.