Less fatiquing

Years ago, I went through the smae thing with Krell's amps. If you are not planning to cross the line into the tube camp, Jeff Rowland & H2O are amps that you may wish to consider auditioning, in aadressing your complaint with the Bryston.

Realize though that this is only one link in your chain and system synergy is what is all about. Try to work with a dealer that you are comfortable with and if possible, demo the amps in your room with your other gear.

You may want to sell the Bryston gear and look for a Rowland or Classe integrated amp, or even a tube integrated.

If you want to keep the Bryston, try some Cardas Cross or Golden Cross cabling.

Just last night, my audio buddy and I were comparing a Bryston 4BST and a Classe CA200 in his system which is comprised of Revel F30 speakers and a Wadia 850 in direct drive. After going back and forth, we felt the Classe was more refined, had better macrodynamics, more involving midrange, less bright, and a richer tone that appealed to us both. The Bryston definately had more treble energy and had great definition but ultimately was just too thin and two-dimensional. The Classe are very fine amplifiers and I second that choice. You could also try McIntosh which is my personal favorite. Both brands have many examples that cover all budgets. Good luck! Arthur

Brystons did USED TO BE a little hard, but I would not judge their sound based on a 3B or a .5B. Also, everything else in your system is a little bit on the "edgy" side, so maybe you should start with some lower priced Cardas or even good old MIT 330 cables. Those are the cables those Brystons were voiced with back in the day. The Rotel and denon are not known for their analog-like sound. However they both (I believe) have digital outputs, so if you can't afford expensive digital source equipment, then you might want to consider even a modestly priced but high quality separate stand-alone DAC like a used Wadia for instance wyich you can sometimes pick up for under a grand.

Before you decide Brystons sound shrill, you might want look elsewhere in your system, to make global remedies, because I don't think changing the amps will solve the problem. And just for fun, you might want to go hear some of Brystons current models. They're a lot cheaper than Rowland!