$3,550 Bryston 4B-SST Power Amplifier

SALE PENDING

$3,550 Bryston 4B SST

Power Amplifier

This Bryston 4BSST was purchased by our customer to drive his B & W 802D's which we are also selling for him. Click "More from this seller" above to see those. This amp was way more power than the 802D's needed but not more power than they could handle enjoyably. But when he bought a sweet pair of Revel Ultima Salon2's from us he decided to up his amplifier game too with a pair of the McIntosh MC601 Mono Block amplifiers sitting on beautiful custom black granite Verastarr amp stands. So that is what makes this amp available. This unit works perfectly, we have tested it extensively ourselves and it sounds great. But it does have scratches and cosmetic flaws. The worst is at the top edge of the faceplate. See pics below. It looks better or worse in some pics. The price is reduced to account for this. Of course many of us keep our gear in cabinets where we don't see the amps anyway and that would be a perfect application for this one or just on a rack shelf. If the scratches bug you we might be able to replace the faceplate for you, not sure what the cost would be on that. I know some people are really bothered by little scratches and may not want to consider this piece so I mention them right up top. But others of us feel that if we can save money by taking something with some minor cosmetic flaws that don't effect the sound then that is a good thing to do. To each his or her own.

I've owned many of the Bryston amps over the years. I especially love how they sound with the B & W and KEF speakers. Listening to rock with those British speakers the Brystons bring out an edge to the music that makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. I find them to sound good with lots of speakers actually but those combinations stand out. And of course they really do have enough power to drive the Revels too unless your room is just really gigantic and dead or you're deaf, etc. Everyone's tastes do vary. But the Mac mono blocks are a match made in heaven for those Revels and our customer is really happy with those. Of course they also cost more than 5 times as much as the asking price for this.

Comes with original box, manual, trigger cable and power cord. We ship worldwide but we do not offer power conversion on this item so you'd be looking at getting your own conversion done or running it through a stepdown transformer if you want to use it in a 230V country.

We hope you'll find this to be an excellent deal from a trusted dealer with 100% perfect feedback since Audiogon began. We also have perfect feedback score on Ebay as well as, over 1,400, from selling this type of gear. You may feel free to make a lower offer and it will be considered but the way we do consignments is that we're not going to sell to lower offers right away, we're going to do our best to get our customer his asking price. If we were selling your gear we'd do the same for you! So if you think you can buy this for less then please by all means make your offer and it will be considered in the order received and maybe you will win. Naturally, if someone offers the asking price then that person will be the lucky one who gets to enjoy this amp in his or her listening room going forward and I really do suspect the seller can get his asking price of $2,100.

Like pretty much all stereo Brystons you can bridge the channels on this to operate it as a single channel mono block amplifier at double the power. Also, it does have balanced inputs to let you get the most out of your balanced preamp and the highest possible signal to noise ratio by using XLR cables. If you need cables to go with let us know and we can make you a package deal. The Bryston terminals are not all super fancy but they are very functional and easy to use. They do accept both spades and bananas as well as bare wires and other types of speaker connections.

"The Bryston 4B is something of a legend. As our most popular model, it has attained international status as an amplifier suitable for the finest and most sophisticated sound systems. In this incarnation, the 4B SST, it is a dual mono design delivering 500 Watts per channel into 4 Ohms. Whatever the venue, be it recording studio, concert stage, broadcast facility, home theater installation, or state-of-the-art stereo system, the 4B SST continues as the number one choice." - Bryston brochure

"The 4B SST is a dual mono design 2 x 300W per channel audio power amplifier. Each channel selects a balanced or single ended input. Each channel selects a gain of 29dB(1v) or 23dB(2v). The 4B SST includes 'soft start' power control circuitry to eliminate high inrush currents when A/C power is applied. The power up or turn-on of the 4B SST may be activated by remote control voltage."

We have created this photo montage to give you an idea of some of the beautiful and fantastic sounding consignment gear that we have up for sale on Audiogon. Our business mainly consists of helping our clients to make the biggest possible upgrades to their systems given their tastes and budget. Then we order them the gear they want. Usually that leaves them with an old piece of gear they no longer need themselves but which is still a very nice piece of gear for someone. Increasingly, clients are turning to us to sell their old gear. Everything in this montage is for sale now or else it just sold. So please click: "More from this Seller" above to see all our other listings. We have wonderful things from Audio Research, Grant Audio, Bryston, Conrad Johnson, BlackNote and more.

Plus, there's more info below about how to consign with us in case you have high end gear you don't need anymore and you're too busy to sell it, too famous to sell it, or whatever the case may be. We'd be pleased to discuss it with you. While I love talking with all the people from around the world who contact us about our sales a lot of our customers have told me that they either don't feel they have time to do it, they don't feel safe doing it themselves because they are too well known, or they just feel as if they'd rather focus on what they are best at and let us sell their gear for them. obviously if you make hundreds of dollars an hour (or more) at your profession then it makes more economic sense that you focus on that and leave selling your leftover gear to us. We're honored to have all this beautiful gear entrusted to us. We test it all thoroughly so that means we get to listen to it here in our own facilities and that is something we love to do.

And as a Buyer, you really get the best of both worlds when you buy these consignment items. You get the safety of buying from a trusted dealer who will support you with your purchase long after the sale is completed, which you won't get buying from regular Audiogon sellers. But you get the same cheap pricing that you could get buying from a private seller.

High End Zone is a family business. Stef and Heather are the parents, Isaac is our 14 year old son. Heather does the photography, specs, selling policies and reviews with help from Isaac, who is away at Duke University participating in a writing camp but helped on these listings before he left.

I found an enjoyable review of the 4B SST by John Crossett at SoundStage, where the 4B SST received The Reviewers' Choice award in 2004. The quotes that have "JC" (no, not that J.C.) after them are from that review.
"Synergy is a word thrown around a bit too loosely in audiophile circles, and yet synergy is the holy grail for audiophiles. Reproducing an exact replica of the recorded event in our listening rooms is an impossibility, so what we are attempting to accomplish in building our audio systems is to get each disparate piece of equipment to match with its fellows in as flawless a manner as possible, thereby allowing playback of our recordings in as complete and pure a manner as can be produced. It's easy to assume that just because two pieces of equipment play music satisfactorily together they represent a good match. And while it's true that you can gain a fair amount of pleasure from such a pairing, you'll never know the true ecstasy that occurs when two pieces lock, like the final pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and musical enjoyment hits a level rarely experienced by many a wayward audiophile. But when it happens, the audio gods smiling down on your system, your waking hours will be spent thinking only of your next listening session."

"And thus it came to pass upon inserting the $2995 USD Bryston 4B SST amplifier between my Audio Research SP16 preamp and Magnepan 1.6Q/R speakers: serendipity, sonic nirvana, synergy."

"I find the look of the Bryston 4B SST amplifier to be of understated elegance in its silver finish (black is also available), the Bryston logo engraved front and center. I do wish the rack handles weren't quite so squarish, though, as they tend to make the front look a bit clunky. The only other features on the front panel are the power switch, a small square membrane touch panel used to supply power to the soft-start circuitry; and the twin LEDs that glow orange on initial turn on, run green when all is normal, and flash red when the amp reaches clipping. No color means, of course, that the amp is off."JC

JC mentions not appreciating the squarish rack handles and in your case, you will not have to like or not like them because this unit is free of those squarish handles and I like the clean look of it. This unit does have a few blems here and there, the least of which is a tiny squiggle on the faceplate, left of the power button. It is hard to see, so look close. We always do our best to show you any imperfections that we are aware of so that when you unwrap your new equipment there will be no surprises. The only surprise we want you to experience is how much of an upgrade your system receives from your investment in a "new" piece of gear.

While we are on the topic of blems, here are a couple of places on the rounded cooling fins that have a smidgen of paint missing. One on the left side,

and one on the right.

Overall though, the sides look great.

"The amp sits back and smiles at the music, knowing it has ample reserves of power to ensure that it never sounds congested, and rarely if ever clips: 300Wpc into 8 ohms, and 500Wpc into 4. Even somewhat insensitive speakers, such as my Maggies, never push this thoroughbred into anything more than a trot. The 4B SST uses NPN (for the upper half of each stage) and PNP (for the lower half) bipolar transistors. Gain is selectable between 29dB for the balanced inputs and 23dB for the single-ended, which can be set via a switch in the rear. Nice, solid, everything-you-need/nothing-you-don't specs and features."

"The rear panel of the 4B SST is far more cluttered than the front. But, when you're offering the flexibility that Bryston builds into this amp, it has to be. As noted above, you can choose either gold-plated single-ended or gold-pinned balanced inputs, as well as the gain of your choice, and either stereo or bridged monoblock configuration -- the latter, if you really need power, provides 900 watts at 8 ohms. The binding posts might initially look a bit flimsy, at least until you use them. Then you'll find that they are some of the best gold-plated five-way binding posts around. They accept banana plugs (yeah!), spades (5/16" diameter), or bare wire, and they tighten with fingers, a screwdriver, or a dime. You'll also find the main power switch on the rear. Turning it on allows the 4B SST to be left in standby mode, ready to use with a press of the front-mounted on/off switch. From the wall, power comes via a supplied, removable power cord and IEC socket, so you can experiment with power cords to your heart's content. You also have the option of local or outboard power-up switching." JC

"Right from the start, I was impressed with the way the 4B SST fused sonically with the balance of my system. But there were no "sonic epiphanies," no "rediscovering my music collection" listening sessions, and no "finding new details I'd never heard before" upon inserting the Bryston amp into my system. What I heard instead was a closer connection to my favorite tunes -- I'd just get further lost in the music. And when I'd finally find myself able to rear my consciousness from that of satisfied music lover to rational audio journalist, I discovered that the 4B SST was adding nothing noticeable to what I was hearing. As a matter of fact, it was what the Bryston amp wasn't doing that really caught my attention. Gone was any sonic quality even remotely mechanical. Also MIA was any form of compression, the type that signals your brain that you're listening to reproduced music. Nor could I hear any smearing; the music just seemed to flow freely through my system. Each instrument and/or musician was presented as tonally and spatially correct, and that goes a fair distance toward deeper musical enjoyment."

"I was also impressed by the way the Bryston 4B SST didn't highlight one part of the sonic spectrum at the expense of the others."

"Another strong point of the Bryston 4B SST is its low noise floor. This trait has the double-positive of allowing you to hear further into the music, as well as letting you pick out low-level detail that can be masked by other, more noisy amplifiers. It also lets the soundstage flourish, both in width (which via the 4B SST is exceptional) and depth (which is far better than average)."

... "But one of the side benefits to the 4B SST's slight leanness is that it gives the amp an amazing ability to sort out musical lines. This is what I referred to above as the amp's lack of smearing. Sometimes too much richness can get in the way of separating instrumental lines that play close together in frequency. For an example of what I'm talking about, listen to the Dorian CD of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons [Dorian DOR-90317], as played by the group Red Priest. Red Priest is a quartet of flute, violin, cello and harpsichord. The wrong amp will be unable to separate the initial notes and overtones of the flute, violin and harpsichord. Their tones are of similar frequency, and this smears their lines into one large musical lump, not letting you follow them individually. The Bryston amp easily kept them all distinct from their fellows, allowing me to hear the breath being blown through the flute, the bows being raked over the strings of the violin and cello, right straight through to the plucking of the strings of the harpsichord. All were distinct."

Comparison

"When pitted against the Audio Research 150.2 digital amp, the 4B SST ran into a much more serious competitor. Both station themselves to the slightly lean side of the presentation curve -- a legacy, no doubt, of their non-tube origins. And both add little coloration of their own to the music. The 150.2 seemed to flesh out instruments and voices a bit better than the 4B SST, but it wasn't by a great margin. Lower-impedance loads -- such as those of my Magnepan speakers -- were handled better by the Bryston amp, but that could be chalked up to the 4B SST simply having twice the power of the 150Wpc 150.2. Control of the frequency extremes, however, was a different matter. Here the Bryston amp emerged as the victor by a fair margin. The Audio Research amp just didn't allow the bass and treble to bloom fully. With speakers as coherent as the Magnepan MG1.6/QRs, this aspect was important to my musical enjoyment. Via the 4B SST, the music flowed as it does in the concert hall: with an effortlessness that held my attention."

"The Bryston 4B SST amplifier has given me a whole new lease on my musical life. It presented any music I ran through it with a greater sense of detail, making for a clearer picture of how each instrument sounded, how it was played, and how it interacted with other instruments to form a complete musical whole. There was nothing about the amp that stood up and screamed "Hey, look at me!" Instead, it was the 4B SST's overall balance that, in the end, won the day".

"If you own Magnepan speakers, then you really owe it to yourself to audition them with a Bryston amp. It's not for nothing that Magnepan has used Bryston amplification for show demos. If you own another brand of speaker, you should still give the 4B SST a listen. I'm willing to bet that, at the very least, you'll come away impressed, if not a proud new owner."

"Bryston says the 4B SST is its best-selling amp. I know why -- synergy. That's what it's all about." John Crossett

The overall view of the top of this 4B SST looks really good, however the last of the blems are on the top edge of the faceplate. The next two pictures are of the left side and the first picture here is angled because that is how the scratches photograph the best. The second photo shows that from a different angle, they are not as noticeable.

The same is true for the top right edge of the faceplate.

Larry Greenhill of Stereophile also did a review of the 4B SST while he was testing the B100-DA as well and had the following to share:

"Weighing 44 lbs, the 4B-SST is more massive than the B100-DA SST. It has a 17"-wide silver faceplate, more prominent, rounded heatsink fins, a remote 12V trigger input with delayed output, and selectable inputs for balanced or single-ended input connectors.

"Like the B100-DA, the 4B-SST has a separate power supply for each channel, both in a single chassis. Its two separate amplifiers are arranged symmetrically, with every part duplicated, with the exceptions of the single power cord and the bridging-circuit board. Two large toroidal transformers fill the front of the chassis, near the front panel, where they are optimally supported when the amp is mounted in a rack. Output transistors and drivers are mounted in vertical groups of three to the sides and back of the chassis. One PC board in each channel spans two vertical groups and contains the amplifier drive circuitry. Two other boards are hardwired to this drive board. The 4B-SST's construction allows for the entire board assembly to be removed for replacement. Eight 4,700µF filter capacitors per channel are connected directly to the channel-frame PCBs.

"The 4B-SST uses a double-complementary differential input circuit. The 4B-SST's output stage has been improved over the years, partially through hand-selecting the bipolar devices, which produces an output stage quite tolerant of loading. It also is said to eliminate all zero-crossing anomalies, including notch distortion.

"Listening to the earlier version of this amplifier 14 years ago, I praised its "solid, deep, fast, powerful, and well-defined" bass response, along with its excellent width of soundstage, depth of image, and separation between instruments.

"I recommend both amplifiers for use in a high-end system, but the 4B-SST has the advantage when higher sound levels are desired from dynamic speakers."

Power Output

300 watts per channel into 8 ohms

500 watts per channel into 4 ohms
Gain Select and Sensitivity

29dB - 1.8Vin = 300W @ 8 Ohms - (1V Position)

23dB - 3.6Vin = 300W @ 8 Ohms - (2V Position)
Input Impedance

50 Kohms single ended

20 Kohms balanced
Distortion IM or THD+noise

< 0.005% 20Hz to 20kHz at 300 watts into 8 W

< 0.007% 20Hz to 20kHz at 500 watts into 4 W
Noise Measured with input shorted - 20Hz to 20kHz.

>110dB below rated output 29dB gain (- 75dBu)

>113dB below rated output 23dB gain (- 78dBu)
Slew Rate > 60 volts per microsecond
Power Bandwidth < 1 Hz to over 100 kHz
Damping Factor Over 500 at 20 Hz, ref. 8 ohms
Dimensions L x H x D

17" version

43.2 x 13.3 x 40.1cm - 17" x 5.25" x 15.75"
Weight: approx. 22kg - 50 lbs

The following link will take you to the Byston 4B SST measurements as performed by BHK Labs.

Bryston has been known not only for it's legendary amplifiers, but also for one of the best warranty policies:

"Bryston analog audio and speaker products are warranted to be free from manufacturing defects for twenty (20) years from the original date of manufacture. The warranty includes parts and labour."

While we were preparing this listing, we discovered that Bryston changed their warranty policy a little bit in 2006. This particular 4 BSST includes a "Power Amplifier Final Checkout" form that dates the Amp to July 10, 2002. Because this is several years before the 2006 change in warranty policies, we are unsure as to whether the next part applies to this unit or not.

"As of 2006-02-22 Bryston will only warranty Bryston products purchased through authorized Bryston dealers. Bryston products with a date code of 0608 or higher (date code format is “yyww”, where “yy” is the two least significant digits of the year and “ww” is the week of the year) must be accompanied by a copy of the bill-of-sale from a Bryston authorized dealer to qualify for warranty service. The warranty is transferable from the original owner to a subsequent owner as long as a copy of the bill-of-sale from the original authorized Bryston dealer accompanies the re-sale. The copy of the bill of sale to any subsequent owner need ONLY include the Name of the Bryston Authorized Dealer and the Model and Serial number of the Bryston product. The warranty will only be honoured in the country of the original purchase unless otherwise pre-authorized by Bryston." - Bryston website

Feel free to contact us if you need to upgrade any of your cables, Tranquility Bases or other items in your system to the current spec at the same time through email at [email protected] or by phone at 575.535.2280 and we'll be happy to assist you with a package deal for everything that you need. Thank you.

We have disabled the "Buy it Now" button on Audiogon because we had a whole run of people 2 years ago who agreed to buy then didn't pay. We prefer to do business the old fashioned way where we exchange emails like gentlemen and conduct a smooth and safe transaction for all parties. Because we don't own this we cannot take much less than the asking price for it. If you make us a low offer there is no way I am going to go to this gentleman and tell him that I have a low offer, that so and so really wants it but his wife won't let him spend more than X amount for it. I'll just ignore the lowball offer and wait til a better one comes in. However, if you want to buy this together with some other items, as part of a package deal, then that would be something we can discuss. Just let me know what items you want.

If you are the one who decides to purchase this item, thank you and enjoy! Our full store policies are included below the pictures, but for now I would like to let you know about a few of them. For payment, we are happy to accept a cashier's check, a bank wire or PayPal. If PayPal is your preferred payment method then please add the following percentage of your purchase and shipping price to your total to cover the PayPal fees: 3% for domestic buyers or 4% for international buyers. Also, since this is a consignment sale where the equipment does not belong to us but to our customer, we need to ask that the buyer promptly inspect and test the item upon receipt and report any problems found so that if there is a problem found we could withhold funds from paying our customer to deal with the problem. We don't think there will be any problem, but once we have paid him we won't have any recourse if any problem is found. So, please take the time to unpack and test as soon after the equipment arrives as possible. Our policy states that we will hear from you within 10 days of receipt if any discrepancy is found. However, what we really want is to receive your email saying how much this enhances your listening experience right away, just as soon as possible so that we know you are satisfied. But if there is any problem at all then we want to hear about that right away as well, so that we can make it right for you and make this a successful transaction for all concerned!

Also, because we're selling this for a client and have to give him the cash for it, we're not going to take trades unless you make us some trade offer that we consider to be so far in our favor that we can't resist putting in our own money to buy your gear. An exception to this that we would be willing to consider would be that if you want to buy this AND some other items that we sell then we'll try and make you a package deal for all of it. Since this is not ours we cannot discount it much, but we can give you an extra discount on other items we sell to make you a package deal. So if you want some Lansche speakers or Ypsilon amps or any of the many other things we sell, which are listed below, then please email us.

We would be happy to sell your gear on consignment if that would help you to purchase this or other items from the High End Zone. In some cases we might sell your gear on consignment even if you don't want to buy more gear from us, if the gear is very nice. Our most successful customers are very busy folks and we understand that if they spend hours answering questions from Audiogoners, that is thousands of dollars that they lost in terms of what they could have earned with that time. We do have some restrictions as to what we can sell because of the manufacturer rules about online sales and so on, but we do our best to help. We can arrange to have the gear picked up from your home or office, or in some cases we can even have someone come in and pack it for you. Then we will handle all the testing, photography, sales of the item and follow up after the sale. Since many people prefer to buy from a dealer and because we have 12 years of perfect feedback on Audiogon and Ebay with no neutrals or negatives ever we can usually get more for your items than you could get yourself. Depending on the exact item, you may net as much or even slightly more having us sell it. And once you factor in the value of your time, it's a clear savings to let us sell the gear for you. So let us know if we can be of service to you in that area.

We are truly appreciative of responsible Audiogon members, please make sure you are one of them before you make us an offer. If you have questions concerning the gear, the terms of sale, or if you need to upgrade any of your cables, Tranquility Bases or other items in your system to the current spec, please contact us through email or by phone at 575.535.2280. We will be happy to get back with you as quickly as possible. Thank you for your interest and may our gear help facilitate your ears meeting high quality sound with ease.

Here is the shipping info for the
$3,550 Bryston 4B SST Amplifier


13 inches tall X 22 inches wide X 26 inches deep

Weight of 60 lbs.

The Bryston has it's original box with form fitting foam and will be shipped double boxed.

Origin: We ship from Gila, NM 88038 / USA

Please email us at [email protected] if you are sincerely interested in purchasing this and have any questions. We may also be contacted by phone at 575.535.2280.

Welcome to the home of High End Zone!

Thanks for looking at our listing.

Please check our perfect feedback from years of trading on Audiogon and buy with confidence. We have sold gear all over the world, to every continent except Antarctica and hopefully one of those scientists there will order from us soon!

We offer professional packing, prompt shipping with tracking info sent to you and a high level of customer service and support. We provide guaranteed quality and service. We think we are the perfect service for the customer who wants great savings but does not have time for all the hassle of putting together a system with pieces obtained from many different sellers. We offer one stop shopping for all your high-end needs.

The High End Zone, is a full service audio and home theater dealer offering superb gear at substantial discounts. That's our demo theater above, loaded with the gear that I love and the same gear that we love to sell, Runco, Revel, JL Audio, McIntosh, Anthem, Lexicon and more.

The High End Zone is all about listening to good music, talking to clients around the world by email, and helping people get the most joy out of the time and money they invest in their high-end audio and theater hobbies. If you're a successful individual, you and your family should be able to enjoy beautiful music and video in your home affordably, and the buying process should be fun, not a chore. We're dedicated to that and I hope we get the chance to sell you something that you and your family can enjoy together for a long time in good health, just as my family and I enjoy our several high-end audio and video systems!

Thank you for your interest, please do not hesitate to email us with your questions at [email protected] or give us a call at 575.535.2280.

The Fine Print:

We accept payment by PayPal and wire transfers from anywhere in the world and cashier's checks drawn on US banks. We will also accept escrow if the buyer pays the fee.

If PayPal is your preferred payment method, then please add the following percentage of your purchase and shipping price to your total to cover the PayPal fees: 3% for domestic buyers and 4% for International buyers. If you pay by PayPal then your purchase must be shipped to the PayPal shipping address only, per PayPal's rules.

We may accept a personal check from long-standing Audiogon members, but it does delay shipping for clearance. Please ask before paying that way. If you desire to pay by some other means you do not see here then please email us, we will try to accommodate you if we can.

Our items are guaranteed to work properly and be in the condition we describe. If we make a mistake, if an item does not work properly, or if the item description is inaccurate, we'll offer you a full and prompt refund or exchange at our option and issue return shipping labels at our expense.

Please check your purchases promptly upon arrival. In general, our policy is that any flaw, damage, missing item, incorrect item, etc. must be reported to High End Zone by email no later than 3 days (72 hours) after that item is delivered. If you are not able to check the item yourself in that time frame, please make the necessary arrangements to have someone else make such a check for you in your absence.

All sales are final with no returns or exchanges allowed unless the buyer finds a defect and reports it to High End Zone within 72 hours after delivery. See below for special note on delays due to customs on international shipments. If the buyer finds a defect and reports it to High End Zone by email within 72 hours after the item is delivered then High End Zone will repair, replace, or refund at our option.

In rare cases we have allowed a return to happen for a 20% restocking fee. Any item that is returned to us due to any reason other than the item not working properly or not in the condition we describe, the buyer will be charged a 20% restocking fee. This includes sales where the buyer "changes his mind", where his wife beats him over the head for spending too much money, where some unforeseen crisis, financial or otherwise, strikes the buyer, his family, his friends/ business/ job/ pets/ favorite sports team/ etc. or any other reason that the buyer may seek to cancel the sale or return the item for some reason other than a mistake or discrepancy on the High End Zone's part. And this includes cases where the buyer changes his mind and wants to cancel the sale before he even receives the item, possibly before we even ship it. We are a small company and the moment a buyer commits to purchase one of our items we are redeploying our capital to get other items for our customers to buy. If you decide 2 hours or 2 minutes after you buy something that you don't want it anymore, chances are we've already spent the money to restock. So the restocking fee absolutely applies in all cases of buyers changing their minds, wanting to cancel a sale after it is agreed or returning an item for any reason other than High End Zone providing a flawed or incorrect item. This does not mean that we will agree to accept a return or to allow for the cancelation of an order where a buyer changes his mind. An order is a contract to purchase and we are setting aside the goods for you the moment you order them. You would never want us to accept a higher offer after we accepted yours and sell the goods to someone else, and we would never do that. By the same token, we expect you to follow through on what you have contractually promised to do and to pay for your item as agreed.

So for example, if a buyer who used PayPal were to apply to PayPal for a refund because he changed his mind about purchasing an item, then IF we did give that refund it would be less the 20% restock fee. So the moral of the story is, if you're not sure you want it, just don't buy, wait until you actually are sure, and then buy. It's the same as if you're going to buy a house, you don't sign the contract til you and your wife are sure you want the house and can afford it. I feel like an idiot for having to say this but we have had a number of people who think "I changed my mind." or "My wife says I can't buy the amp." just magically gets them out of a contract they agreed to with us. With no consideration that we have incurred costs above and beyond the listing fees. By taking it off the market we may have lost potentially perfect buyers and we will have to spend more on listings fees and so on. So, we have to be strict about this and ask that buyers please be conscientious here. We charge low margins, that's only possible if people follow through and pay for items as agreed. So while all sales are final and there are no refunds or exchanges unless you receive a defective item and report that within 3 days as specified above, IF for some reason we do agree to accept your return or cancel your order when there is no mistake or defect on High End Zone's part, then you agree to pay us the 20% restocking fee on your order.

In the case of items that are shipped internationally the buyer is responsible to make sure the item clears customs in a timely manner. We've had cases where buyers waited a long time to pay their customs bill, delaying the release of the item. The trouble with that is we need to know promptly if there is any problem with your item so that we can file a shipping claim if needed or withhold payment from a consignor or a supplier on a defective item, etc. So we now require that any item be picked up from Customs within 5 business days or less in order to preserve the buyer's protections for shipping damage and defective merchandise under our selling policies. We discourage the use of Postal Mail as it may be harder to meet this deadline using that shipping method. Generally FedEx will clear items within one business day.

We can sometimes make an exception to some of the above policies if you change your mind in order to buy something else that we can sell you that costs more. For example, if you make a deal to buy a JL f113 from us and then you decide that what you REALLY want is a Gotham g213, then we can probably work it out to make that switch for you without a restocking fee. That said, please don't buy if you're not sure that you want the item you are buying. If you need to check with your wife, your broker, your business partner, your kids, or the Supreme Court before you buy, please do that. The High End Zone cannot be held responsible for any case of wives beating their husbands for spending too much money on good gear!

The High End Zone is a full service home theater dealer located in Southwest New Mexico. While we are well established as the premier dealer in our small town market, we also serve many clients who have multiple homes or live in far-flung places. The world is increasingly a small place and I delight in talking with and serving clients from all continents and many countries of the world. Depending on your needs we are happy to just sell you gear (note some manufacturers may prohibit us from sending gear to certain places) or we can provide a full service experience including system design, acoustic design and construction, installation, programming, and more. We've done work for very high profile clients with multiple homes and we are also proud to serve many hobbyists who enjoy this hobby on a modest budget. No matter your budget, we'll strive to provide the products you want at a price that is fair with top shelf service.

Some of the many lines we sell include, but are not limited to:

AB Amps

Acoustic Sciences Corporation ASC Tube Traps

AMX

Audio Desk

Axonix

B.M.C.

Capriccio Continuo (ATD)

Cineak

Crestron

Da-Lite screens

Daniel Hertz (ultimate audio creations of Mr. Mark Levinson)

Denon

Dragonfly screens

Einstein

Escient

Extreme Media Servers

Finite Elemente

Furman

Golden Acoustics

Hartvig

HB Cable Design

Ikeda

Isoclean

JBL

JBL Synthesis

Kaleidescape

Key Digital

Lansche

Lexicon

Lutron

Mark Levinson

Marantz

McIntosh

Middle Atlantic

Millenium

Mozaex

Paradigm

Parasound

PHC (Professional Home Cinema)

Polk Audio

Revel

Runco

Salamander

Scaena

Screen Excellence

Screen Innovations

SE2 Labs

Silverline Audio

Stage III

Stewart Film Screens

Tandem

Thales

Transparent Cables

Tru-Audio

Velodyne

Verastarr

Vidikron

Wireworld

Ypsilon

*List includes lines we are factory direct with as well as lines we get through distribution or through our extensive dealer network. Most customers don't care whether we are factory direct if we provide authentic product and great service at a fair price, but if you care about this or any other issue, please ask us.

Unlike most shops that sell a very small number of lines that they are authorized for and will always try and talk customers in to buying just those few lines, we are willing to sell you virtually any line that you want. Obviously we make a lower profit if we have to get it from another dealer, but our goal is to provide you, the customer, with one stop shopping and top notch service. It's more like the business model of Amazon than the old school brick and mortar stores. We want the customer's business and we will try and earn it by providing competitive pricing and top notch service for you on whatever brands you want. Of course if you are not sure what brands are best for your needs and want us to provide expert analysis of what gear represents the best value for your dollar, we are more than happy to provide that too. We spend a great deal of time and money listening to and viewing a wide range of audio and video systems, as well as bringing in gear for long-term testing in our facilities. Most of the salesmen you might deal with in a home theater store do NOT have a high-end audio video system in their homes. I have 4 such systems, including Runcos in every nook and cranny, and I live with this stuff daily. So I truly know what works well and what is worth spending money on and what is not. And even if I used something for years and loved it, when I hear something better, that is a better value, I switch immediately. My main loyalty is to the customer and your satisfaction--I want you to buy not just one thing from us, but all your gear, for life, and to recommend us to your friends and family. To that end, I will strive to give you the best and most honest advice, fair prices and great service. And I'll try to get you any brand you want, ultimately your system needs to satisfy you, not me.

Our clients certainly enjoy their home audio and video rooms. We do as well and hope you'll also take pleasure and be inspired by the variety of these beautiful installations.

Some aspects of making an informed choice in an audiophile grade listening room or a home theater system are worth a little extra effort. We invite you to contact the High End Zone for help in making your choices, we will make the extra effort worthwhile.