Bryston's products are legendary not only for their sound quality but also for their reliability and longevity -- plus, Bryston backs their amplifiers and preamplifiers with an astonishing 20-year warranty, while their digital products are backed by a five-year warranty. One of the reasons Bryston can put such long warranties on their products has to do with the quality of the components used. Another reason is the testing they do at the completion of assembly to ensure the products don't fail in the field.
Every assembled product is put on the "burn-in bench" and subjected to a stress test in order to weed out early component failure. Every amplifier . . .
. . . has capacitors attached to its output terminals and is burned in with a 3kHz square wave at just under full power for one hour on and then one hour off for a period of four days. According to Bryston's James Tanner, early component failure usually happens within the first 100 hours of use.
Following the burn-in process, every component is taken to a test bench where it's thoroughly inspected and measured to ensure it meets its specifications. If the component doesn't meet all specifications, it's sent back into the assembly process for repair.
Following successful testing, a card with the results is filled out and attached to the component. This card is kept at Bryston for future reference in case a product ever requires service. The product . . .
. . . is packed with a sheet containing the identical test information so that the customer has a record of the results.
After testing, components are boxed up and placed in the shipping area. Bryston sells its products worldwide.