Hey panerai557
Admittedly, it's been a while since I've heard my friends Bryston amps. He has the 600 wpc mono blocks (I don't know exactly which models he has) they were the model 3b's (I think), I know they were not the 4B's which I remember as sounding very good with his PMC large stand mount speakers. To my ears they were a little bright and slightly on the analytical side (for my taste) but had tremendous bottom end drive. All in all they did sound pretty good.
I have owned the Pass Labs XA30.8 for over 5 years. This is one piece of equipment in my system that I just can't get rid of. No matter which speakers it's connected to or what preamp is in front of it, it always sounds fantastic. I'm very picky and if a piece of equipment isn't what I consider to be great and turns out to be just good, chances are I will sell it after 1 - 2 years. This is an amp I couldn't part with because it has a very special musicality.
Do not be fooled by the 30 watts per channel rating. I had that amp connected to a pair of Magnepan 3.7i's with a pair of their DWM woofers wired in parrallel which drops the load down to a constant 2 ohms and it sounded unbelievable. I had that system for 3 years and really enjoyed it. It not only drove that load effortlessly, but it always remained musical! That load would have killed most amps out there but it just laughed at that load. For the money, and considering the reliability, and how musical it is, I think it would be tough to beat. All I can say is two words, Nelson Pass!
Scot