Viber6,
Neutral, cool, warm, grey, etc. mean different things to different people and so I don't always know what people mean when they use these terms. Right or wrong, I define neutrality as a flat frequency response where no part of the frequency response is exaggerated in any way and so this is more of an ideal rather than something that can be realistically achieved. I define warmth as a sound that is tilted more toward the bass frequencies where the treble, while present is quieter and more subdued. The opposite of warm is bright. Forced to choose, I would pick warmth over brightness. I'm not exactly sure what "cool" or "grey" means when people use these terms. Perhaps a U-shaped curve where both the bass and treble are rolled off? Regardless, I find these terms useful only when compared against some known reference.
In my case, my reference is the piano in my listening room and so this is "neutral." Since I have never heard an electronic audio system sound exactly like my piano, I have never heard anything sound completely neutral. When I listen to a piece of audio gear, I will play a piano track and compare it against my own piano and establish tonal temperature from there. The problem with this is that some piano tracks that I have were recorded in warm environments (i.e. Carnegie Hall) and can come across as warm while other performances can sound relatively brighter and so what I have done is I have recordings of my own piano playing in my room and so I compare these recordings to the real thing.
Using this technique, I found each of these amplifiers to sound warm relative to my piano with the Soulution sounding warmest of all followed by the D'Agostino. The CH Precision and Element 118 sounded the closest to neutral. As none of these combinations sounded "bright," I found none of them to be objectionable.
Regarding this "soft landing," while the Christine preamp sounds rounded, the Element 118s do not. Using my DAVE DAC to directly drive the Element 118s, these amps will express sharp transients as sharp transients to the point of fatigue. These are truly transparent amps.
As for live classical music, I agree that a full orchestra has the potential to sound too loud and fatiguing if you are seated right next to the horn section. As a frequent patron of the Davies Hall in San Francisco, the most expensive and most desired seats do not include the front row and so the front row is often available and so my wife and I deliberately choose these seats. The beauty of this position is that with violin concertos, for example, the full emotion of the violinist comes through from these seats in a way that cannot be gleaned from further back. I can even hear the performers breath. Moreover, the depth perception between the 1st and 2nd violinist is easily discernible from this position but not from further back and so I find the complexity of the sounds that I hear to be better layered and more easily discerned and it is this detail delineation and depth of field that separates the best audio systems from more mediocre ones for me. Fortunately, the stage has enough depth where the horns aren't blaring in my ears from this position. Even after a 2.5 hour performance, I have never experienced fatigue from these seats. The exception to the rule might be a spectacle like Mahler's 8th where the perspective from further back might be better than the front row but given the choice, almost always I prefer the front row. The same thing applies to my home audio system but obviously, at home, you can control the volume.
