Bryston Mini T Speakers, $4990 Per Pair (Black, Walnut or Boston Cherry)

{22.5h, 10.5w, 10d, 4 ohms, 87dB SPL, 42 lbs}

Bryston’s Mini T loudspeakers are among the best stand mount speakers in our biz, regardless of price!

What does a great stand mount speaker have to do to be considered in this uber category?

Range

The speaker has to have great bass, power and dynamic capabilities. No matter how sweet and smooth it is, if it can’t bring the lifelike impact and weight of a live performance, it can’t be in the highest echelon of performance.

You could have a jazz trio (piano/bass/drums) play in your living room at your house. It would be lively and powerful. Mini T can purvey this semblance of the real event in your living room.

Mini T will deliver tuneful, non muddy bass, of impressive testosterone. When you hear a pair of Mini Ts you’ll ask where the subwoofer is. No foolin’! There is NO question that Mini T will make bass appear out of your floor that you had no idea was lurking there. Just all of a sudden, it’s on the recording and bowling you over. You didn’t expect it because Mini T is a mid sized stand mount, not a massive tower that contains endemic rumble.

Mini T’s 8” pure Aluminum bass driver is more substantial than what you’ll see in almost any SUBWOOFER. It takes a driver built like a brick outhouse to deliver reference level bass and power. This is the foundation of Mini T. Bryston makes its drivers- in its factory in Canada. It doesn’t BUY them from a vendor like almost everyone else does.

Balance

Mini T is Steinway-Smooth. When you hear Mini T play a grand piano you’ll be struck by how neutral sounding it is. As a pianist who practices a fair amount (but is not good enough to perform) I can attest to the timbre accuracy of Mini T.

I play at home on a Baldwin M grand. My teacher has a Yamaha. They sound very different. The Baldwin is heavier and warmer. The Yamaha is leaner and brighter. Revealing speakers like Mini Ts can let you hear the character of the instrument the musician chose- and how they chose to tune it! You can even infer how the keyboard mechanism is weighted by the character of the sound. Since so much goes into these decisions during the recording process, we want to be able to unpack it all when we listen at home. These details are chosen for recording once. Then you can enjoy it a million times on your own schedule.

Mini T uses a silky sounding Titanium tweeter. It too is made by Bryston in its own factory in Canada. Whether you’re listening for subtle timbre differences in pianos or guitars, Bryston will give you the leading edge transient of a hammer or plucked string- without getting zingy or harsh.

Mini T isn’t the least bit bright or shrill. It allows Steinway to deliver its gorgeous amber tone. The same goes for voices. Mini T is faithful in tonal balance to the recording. It’s like a video monitor tuned accurately- not cranked up to VIVID.

Unboxy Vocals

Bryston makes its own 5.25” pure Aluminum midrange driver in its own factory in Canada. Being a legit 3-way provides some distinct sonic benefits over a 2-way. Mini T portrays a large image with a clean and open vocal (whether human or instrumental voices) presentation. When you have a quality amp driving Mini Ts (Bryston for example) you’ll be impressed by how little cabinet you hear. Bryston goes to extremes in housing the mid driver in its own chamber within the cabinet so you don’t hear a boxy sound.

Details

Bryston’s cabinets are extremely heavy, 42 pounds in Mini T. The cabinet is internally braced. I like them best on 22” tall stands ($200 per pair). The grills magnetically attach. All the colors or nice but the black ash sells the best by far.

I recently checked out Stereophile’s buyer’s guide for stand mount speakers. Guess what the average price is? If you said $22k per pair, you win. But I’ll bet you didn’t. What I’m telling you is, Bryston Mini T will compete head to head to ANY of these crazy expensive speakers. While speakers reflect the most personal of audio decisions, by any objective evaluation, Mini T is right there with the $22k competition.

And while I’m harping… almost ALL of these uber expensive speakers buy drivers from Seas, Scan-Speak or another vendor. All you have to do is look at a photo of the Scans-Speak Revelator drivers and you’ll be able to match them up with a plethora of brands that sell for $illy dollar$.

Warranty

Bryston’s warranty is TWENTY (yes, 20!) years. It’s rare to find a company who will warranty for more than 5. But Bryston goes to 20 because it builds all of its own parts and is confident of the reliability.

If you buy parts from XYZ you wouldn’t dare offer an extended warranty. You could literally be hung out to dry if YOUR VENDOR cut corners. Bryston doesn’t have to worry about such things because they build their own speakers. They don’t rely on vendors!

We sold B&W, Paradigm and Polk for years when they were owner operators. All fell to hedge funds. The longest these companies support their parts is a decade.

Bryston has been in biz since 1963. Its 20 year warranty is meaningful and they’ve supported it for 60 years. If company X opened tomorrow with a 20 year warranty- it wouldn’t mean a thing.

If your space is calling for a mid sized stand mount- whether on stands or a shelf, you can’t do better than the Bryston Mini T!