Warm vs. Analytical

All in all, I cant see Musiical Fidelity works as you said. In fact, my opinion is that only Krell can give you more analytical sense while all others you mentioned are warm.

If you want analytical, try German brand, Audionet, UK brand, Advantage, Dutch brand, Sphinx, French, Cairn

Until then you will know what is analytical.

Cheers.

When the system is overly warm you're left with a "it can sound better than this" uneasy feeling. Too analytical and you have lots of "wow, listen to that!" distracting experiences.

Warm is too much forest. Analytical is too many trees.

These are just terms referring to tonal shifting when descibing overall sound.

Analytical, lean, bright, etched etc means increased treble energy from ideal nuetral balance. Can also be acheived by decreasing bass energy from neutral balance

Warm, rich, sweet, lush etc means increased bass energy from ideal neutral balance. Can also be acheived by reducing treble energy from neutral balance.

These terms have nothing really to do with amount of detail resolution, soundstage size etc. Of course everyone's idea of neutral sound is different so this all subjective terminology.

It appears, at least to me, from reading the responses that there is not an overall consensus on the definition of these terms, as well as other audio terms; this really doesn't surprise me. The list of audio terms is outrageously enormous which just adds confusion, IMO.

One says Neutral is ideal another says Neutral is boring; one says warm is good another says warm is not good.

Looking at some of the definitions given at the Stereophile link can further the confusion.

It is no wonder there are many disagreements.

FWIW -
neutral - Free from coloration.

warm - The same as dark, but less tilted. A certain amount of warmth is a normal part of musical sound.

analytical - Very detailed, almost to the point of excess.

dark - A warm, mellow, excessively rich quality in reproduced sound. The audible effect of a frequency response which is clockwise-tilted across the entire range, so that output diminishes with increasing frequency. Compare "light."

light - Lean and tipped-up. The audible effect of a frequency response which is tilted counterclockwise. Compare "dark."

coloration - An audible "signature" with which a reproducing system imbues all signals passing through it.

(As you can see, some definitions need others to define themselves! At least in audio slang.)

It is good to know the meaning of these terms, keep in mind that they are still one man's opinion. Of all the amps named in this post, and many morenot named, you can find an opinion on the sound of that amp. Just know that you can steer the sound of a well made amp in any direction, a cheap, not well made amp will maintain its sound no matter were you want it to go.