6 Reviews of the Bryston Mini T Bookshelf Speakers

The Mini-Ts are incredibly easy to drive and will provide more than satisfying sound pressure levels in a modest room with 20 watts of tube power. I found the Retro i-50 integrated we reviewed last issue to be more than enough in my 10 x 13 foot room. Of course, more power will provide more dynamics, especially in a larger room and on the opposite end of the spectrum, the Mini-Ts delivered an equally impressive performance in y large room with the Pass Labs Xs 300 monoblocks. These are definitely speakers you can grow with!

As expected given the careful attention paid to off-axis power performance, listening position is not critical, although obviously you want to be centered somewhere in between the Mini Ts for stereo. Indeed, these are one of the few speakers I've experienced which do the trick of realistically putting a singer, guitarist, bassist, what have you, in the next room. Doing my laundry I could swear on a stack of TAS back issues that Ella Fitzgerald was right there next door in the listening room. Well of course "she" was, as that is where my stereo is, but my point is that it sounded as if a real person were singing in the other room. Try this and you'll see what I mean (or not).

Mini by name but not by nature, these speakers are true high-end products when it comes to sound. Easy to place, offering accurate, smooth, highly satisfying sound, there is little to quibble about here. Partner with appropriately powered amps, feed them some music, then just enjoy the results.

... the Mini Ts go impressively low on their own. I've recently gone over to the Dark Side, exploiting some public-domain dubstep tracks for ease in exercising subwoofers and other deep-bass denizens, and the amount of output around 30 hertz (and even a good deal lower) that the "compact" Brystons could hurl into the room was truly astonishing. When they're deployed as a full-range stereo pair, I'd expect the Mini Ts to be up for almost anything, except the kind of music (like dub!) that absolutely insists on full power from the lowest octave. Even in my 2,800-ish-cubic-foot studio, stereo playback of most full-orchestra music at realistic levels was child's play to the Mini Ts, which cheerfully absorbed all of my 150-watt power amp's output with no hint of distress or dynamic compression. Given suitable power—which Bryston can of course supply in spades—they likely could do so even in larger rooms, though any of Bryston's several larger tower models would doubtless do even better.

In creating their very first loudspeakers, Bryston hasn't just cranked out a product that their dealers can throw in to sweeten an amplifier sale. Rather, they've hit a home run that should interest many audiophiles, whether or not they use Bryston electronics. While the Mini T's appearance is so-so, its sound is anything but. The Mini Ts' unerring neutrality, great soundstaging, and ability to play ridiculously loudly without breaking up and distorting will tick all the right boxes for many music lovers, and will likely attract new customers to the brand. Particularly, the Mini T's ability to sound composed and clean at very high volumes will challenge competing speakers costing significantly more to meet those levels of power handling and output. Bryston's first foray into loudspeakers is a great success, and should further enhance the strong reputation the company has enjoyed in high-end audio for over five decades.

Bryston classifies the Mini T as a bookshelf speaker. But you would need to have a pretty substantial bookshelf to hold this titan of a performer. And it will dwarf all but the largest tomes. So it might be better to describe the Mini T as a compact loudspeaker. At nearly two feet tall and weighing in at a substantial 42 pounds, its heft may be out of place beside your collection of classic literature..