I just saw on Facebook where Ray Kimber announced that Bret had passed away. We shared several conversations over the years, and I'm stunned to hear this news.
I’ve been using the S5 in the Jaguar Reference System and had just got off the phone with Bret before Christmas about doing a Bully Sound video for Jaguar. Unfortunately, we’ll never get to it. Bret had tremendous talent, but getting an audio company off the ground, later in life, while paying the bills, is a bear of an undertaking. Bret had been doing some contract design work, in an effort to build working capital for his own products and mentioned he was trying to put together a DAC with Andreas Koch.
The BSC pieces floating around will inspire us for some time to come. If you weren’t taken by Bret’s Bully Sound S5 amplifier (and M5 monoblocks), you either needed to take a closer look (and listen) or you don’t know a good thing when you see it. The S5 design was inspired by the curves from the muscle car era. It produces 75 watts of Class A power, in the same size and weight as the 30-watt Pass Labs 30.8 and it performs like an Indy car on everything from Maria Callas to Black Sabbath.
Bret is survived by his son Brandon, who worked closely with him on his Bully Sound Company amplifiers and preamplifiers. Maybe he will take on the family business someday?