Please tell me.

If you go to live concerts...jazz club, symphony hall, theater stage, yada yada; the concert venue itself has a sound. The more famous venues tend to sound great.

A neutral amp is fine if that is what you want; to me it is like being in a neutral concert venue. Might as well wear headphones. My system give me the "coloration" that creates that live concert feeling.

To each his own. Many audiophiles do want to listen to perfect sound. I am not an audiophile in that sense. I am a music lover with a nice system.

I definately appreciate all your feedback. I was introduced to high end by people who preached accuracy only. They kind of brainwashed me to think that was what defined "high end". I have accepted that I don't necassarily prefer a "neutral" or "accurate" system. It's boring to me. I too like warmth and coloration. This Bryston definately doesn't have that. It's obviously a wonderful amp but not for me. I'm really curious to try out a tube or hybrid integrated amp. Something in the $2000 range. It has to have plenty of slam and warm bass W/control. I LOVE the Krell KSA 150 (limitless power and bass) on my Dyn's if that gives you an idea. Any suggestions?

You really summed it up nice Sugarbrie. I am a lifelong drummer and a touring roadie so I live with live music. Little bookshelf speakers on stands in a "neutral" system don't do it for me. To me that does not come close to reproducing live instruments. No system does for that matter. When a cymbal is struck the sound reflects in all directions using the room as a speaker. It not just L/R directional information for your ears. This applies to almost all instruments. What is accuracy???? It seems to me the only REAL accuracy is standing in the room when the instrument is played. Other than that, why try to "accurately" reproduce it? I don't consider instruments coming out of ANY stereo accurate. I just try to get as close as I can and having a "neutral" system doesn't achieve this for me. Just my opinion.

I am with you Drum75...

I don't have a "reference system" to compare components with.
I compare against live music, which I am exposed at least weekly, sometimes daily. It is amazing sometimes how my conclusions differ from the audiophile crowd in general.

When they make audiophile recordings, a lot of time they put a microphone on every instrument. Conversely, when "music" is recorded, there are just a few strategically placed microphones in the hall/venue in front of the performers. Same is true in the studio.

Drum

...why try to "accurately" reproduce it? I don't consider instruments coming out of ANY stereo accurate

Yes, well... you are referring to two distinct audiophile approaches:
1) "accurately" reproduce what's on the medium /the recording; this means the result may be good or consistently horrible depending upon the information the medium contains.

2) reproduce a musical result (tonality, balance, musical coherency) that is satisfactory. This means that we depart from totally accurate reproduction of what is on the medium in favour of our own "sonic taste".

I think "audiophile-ism" starts with the second, progresses to the first, and ultimately attempts to incorporate the second.
Seriously "good sound" is an extremely complicated matter and, at the end of the day, you may be reproducing many individual instruments reasonably well -- but not when playing together...