anyone hear the levinson 436's or 432 yet

I bought a pair of 436's a couple of months ago and they dropped my jaw when I put them in my system. I did an A/B with the 336 and the 436's were clearly more open and organic than the 336 and yet still had better bass authority. I also compared them against the 432 and I would agree with you that the 436's are a clear improvement. The soundstage on the 436s is on the order of a football field and the warm, open midrange is goose bump inducing - very much like some of the high end tube equipment I've heard. On vocals and piano recordings I've played recently, well, let's just say I saw God.

No comparason to the 33h's

I got to try a Bryston 4BSST against one at the store. Same speakers, preamp, source and cable (which may,or may not, be the best way to hear a Bryston). I was amazed that the SST was able to keep up quite handily to the Levinson.

The Levinson (as might be expected) was slightly more refined on top, triangle and bells were more delicate sounding and had better accustic fade. But...the Bryston had more flavor in the midrange and seemed slightly "wetter" in sound. The Bryston, in that system, was, in total more musically interesting to listen to. Voices were more human-like. The salesman was standing there looking shocked...so I did not buy a Levinson amp that day...though I did buy the 390S cd-player as a consolation gift to the salesman...hah! I bought it because it was the best cd-player I ever heard (that included the Wadia in the same room).

For all I know the cabling and speaker was not optimum for the Levinson amps...these things are so hard to know. Synergy trumps price every time.

I have a 432 along with a 32 pre-amp and Wilson Watt/Puppy 6.0's. Although Levinson bashing seems to be gaining in popularity on the net these days, the 432 is one of the finest sounding amps I have ever heard or owned. As an audiophile of over 30 years who has owned everything from McIntosh, to Krell to CJ to Audio Research to Cary, the 432 may be the best sonic bang for the buck ever. I compared with Krell and the usual other high watt solid state suspects and chose the 432. The 436's were recently reviewed in Stereophile and put in Class "A" for whatever thats worth. ML has had some financial problems of late, they have dropped some dealers, let go some employees and generally pissed a few folks off but the gear is as good as ever.