I agree about 'slam' but seriously, 'dynamics' usually means distortion. This is because the ear uses the higher ordered harmonics in order to sense how loud a sound is. When the electronics is adding higher ordered harmonics even in very small amounts, the ear interprets this as both brightness and 'dynamics'.
Real musical contrasts (dynamic contrast) can only come from the recording. It really isn't a property of electronics unless those electronics have problems with higher ordered harmonic distortion. This has fueled the tubes/transistors debate for 60 years. Its why tubes are still around decades after they should have been obsolete.
If you want a solid state preamp that isn't bright, you'll want one that is op-amp based and probably doesn't has less than 20dB of gain for any opamp in the circuit. To do this requires quite a lot of feedback (over 40dB) and this allows the opamp to not generate the higher ordered harmonics. But it won't sound 'dynamic' either because its not making distortion- it will simply sound like the music its reproducing.
Real musical contrasts (dynamic contrast) can only come from the recording. It really isn't a property of electronics unless those electronics have problems with higher ordered harmonic distortion. This has fueled the tubes/transistors debate for 60 years. Its why tubes are still around decades after they should have been obsolete.
If you want a solid state preamp that isn't bright, you'll want one that is op-amp based and probably doesn't has less than 20dB of gain for any opamp in the circuit. To do this requires quite a lot of feedback (over 40dB) and this allows the opamp to not generate the higher ordered harmonics. But it won't sound 'dynamic' either because its not making distortion- it will simply sound like the music its reproducing.