McIntosh and Brystons: Fair comparison ?

I think Mac's are more refined as I've owned both. Bryston's are great no question, but even with Bryston's great amp warrantee I still feel the Mac's are more reliable internally and smoother sounding...like the softness of edges in sound and texture you'd hear in a live venue. I think both companies are horrifically expensive, and others are catching up in lower priced bang for the buck solutions, and aren't far off sonically. Yes there's a difference, but not as big as 10 years ago between mid and higher priced product. What's unfortunate is that I think if both brands were 1 K to 2K less on their models the volume of sales would be in the reach of more music lovers and they'd bite. I hate the thought of music lovers having to stretch so hard and uncomfortably in this economy to get "the best". There is a higher priced level, but I think it's rediculously so. Just my two cents.

Forget about same league. They're not even the same design-wise. The Brystons are 'pure' solid-state and excellent sound for the money. McIntosh has stupidly IMO tacked autoformers on after the output stage to very dubious "user-friendly" benefit, and to their sonic detrement as far as I'm concerned. If you want "softer edges", just go for a great tube amp. At least the "soft" in tube amps comes from the nature of the vacuum tube and not from electronic affectation ;--) If you want solid state, get a great SS amp like Bryston, Sanders, Levinson, Pass, Rowland. They all represent better price/performance value and have not been compromised with silly "features" that do nothing but muddy the sound.

If you want the best of both worlds, you should be thinking about one of the following recent (and raved about) hybrids that have tube input stages and ss output stages:
Moscode
Aesthetix Atlas
Thorens 3200

Of course unless it is an OTL design tube amps have autoformers too.