In a world where most things seem to need frequent upgrading, repair, or replacement, how can Bryston offer a comprehensive, unconditional, and fully transferable warranty on every audio product we make?
The answer would quickly become apparent if you were to tour Bryston’s plant in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. State-of-the-art design facilities, with the latest CAD and circuit simulation software, and an inventory of some of the best and most reliable parts on the planet, combine with a manufacturing philosophy that eschews the artifacts of mass production — robots, moving assembly lines, and, frankly, shortcuts. Every Bryston audio component is handcrafted by people who take great pride in building the very best. Starting with a bare circuit board, for example, each component is hand selected and installed, every wire is cut and bent by hand, every connection is hand soldered. On average, it takes thirty to thirty-five person-hours to assemble a single Bryston product.Is this just some romantic 19th-century notion of the artisan-craftsman, or is there a real benefit to you, the consumer? There is. Take the hand soldering, for example. We could do the job much faster by employing wave-soldering machines as many companies do. But that would mean exposing the entire circuit board to a molten-metal bath, a source of extreme heat shock that could result in long-term reliability problems.
We don’t skimp on testing or rush our products through
some last-minute go/no-go check; at every stage individual parts, completed circuit-boards, sub-assemblies, and final assemblies are all put through rigorous inspection and testing procedures. When completed, every Bryston amplifier receives a comprehensive and carefully documented test of all its functions, and the printed results of this computer-aided analysis are actually packed and shipped with each unit. During this intensive procedure, we not only reject any product that falls outside of our advertised specifications, but also any not meeting an even narrower band of specifications that we use for internal testing. As a result, you can expect each Bryston product to perform as least twice as well as the advertised specifications.
Our 20-year amplifier warranty drives us in a different direction from the typical manufacturer. We consider a Bryston product to be a mutual investment: by you, in an amplifier of lasting quality, and by us, in that we invest in the quality of the product in order to be secure in offering our warranty. It simply makes good economic sense to produce the very best products we can.
As a result, it can be said that we don’t just make amplifiers — we also make friends — extremely satisfied customers who become life-long evangelists for Bryston’s philosophy and tell their friends about our products. And, after all, who wouldn’t want to give such nice friends a 20-year warranty?