Classe or Bryston?

The Ariel 8 works great with Classe Omega amp. Not bad with Bryston 4BST either. I got bored with the 8s after a year, however, and sold them.

I would vote for the Classe, but since I own one, I'm biased. Classe isn't very good for preamps, but their amps are a great value.

Audioears - for the record the Classe CA 200 was in the April, 1997 issue under class B and taken out in shortly thereafter because that model was upgraded cosmetically to the 201. Hey, all the advertisers can be found in rec. comp. somewhere - including Bryston! A few years ago John Atkinson ripped the Polk flagship line. Polk was always good for ads every month including the inside cover. They pulled their ads. Then the 'phile did a review on some Polk monitors and you got it, recommended them. Now Polk's back in the ad rotation!

With regards to the 'cosmetic' upgrade on the Classe 200 to the 201, that is half true. They modified the CA-200 at some point in its production life (I think it was in 1998 or 1999) but they did not change the name at the time. You can tell the difference between the two models because the revised CA-200 has the heat sinks on the side instead of the back. They then did do cosmetic changes to make it the CA-201. Thus the model Stereophile reviewed and the model available today are not identical internally.

Nhorton - you sure about that? I've never seen a 200 with heat sinks on the side, I know the 300 and 400 I've seen have always been on the side. Anyway, mine are on the back and IMO it is a great amp, I did alot of comparison shopping/critical listening - I think it has the most natural sounding midrange of any SS amp available.