[vegasdave]

I dunno, I've always found Levinson to be dark and lackluster sounding. My opinion.

[PRELUDE]

PS : maybe size matters, after all (left is a 7B SST2 and right is a 436, clic the image to see it)

Size is always matter.

[MOZ]

I dunno, I've always found Levinson to be dark and lackluster sounding. My opinion.

Well that's your experience...
Maybe you didn't heard them the best way you should or could have... ?
I first had a 380S preamplifier and it was indeed a bit dark, but switching to the 320S improved very well and then the 326S was just a beauty, nothing dark here (the REF 32 is amazing too, my next catch)...
Concerning the amp 436, that's a huge and beautifully sounding baby !
You'll be able to find a lot of reviews (Stereophile aso) praising this amp, it's just one of their best (after the 33h and the 33 ref of course).

But i sold my two 7B SST2 to a person who has a beautiful dedicated Home Theatre driven now by three 7B SST2 (front) + 9B ST (rears) +
Triad Platinium 7.2 and a Mark Levinson 502 and i rarely heard something so beautiful 
So well, it depends the way you summ things together.

[PRELUDE]

Well that's your experience...
Maybe you didn't heard them the best way you should or could have... ?
I first had a 380S preamplifier and it was indeed a bit dark, but switching to the 320S improved very well and then the 326S was just a beauty, nothing dark here (the REF 32 is amazing too, my next catch)...
Concerning the amp 436, that's a huge and beautifully sounding baby !
You'll be able to find a lot of reviews (Stereophile aso) praising this amp, it's just one of their best (after the 33h and the 33 ref of course).

But i sold my two 7B SST2 to a person who has a beautiful dedicated Home Theatre driven now by three 7B SST2 (front) + 9B ST (rears) +
Triad Platinium 7.2 and a Mark Levinson 502 and i rarely heard something so beautiful 
So well, it depends the way you summ things together.

After all this years I realized a truth that people buy stuff for different reasons and urge for any of this stuff will absolutely makes no sense.
You just found a amp that you love and there is nothing wrong with that.It could be any color or brand or size.
But when you said,(I really love to hear music and I made my choice)cannot be true.
I grew up in music and my interest in move or surround sound is zero.Your stuff are mid-fi not hi-fi for music.If I would walk in your room,I would never consider you as big in music.

[srb]

Your [MOZ] stuff are mid-fi not hi-fi for music.If I would walk in your room,I would never consider you as big in music.

And here MOZ, all this time you've been very much enjoying the beautiful sound eminating from your Levinson / Lexicon / Bryston / Revel Ultima system, now to find out it's only mid-fi!  Who knew?   

Steve

[MOZ]

Oh god, shame on me !
I must be so silly to consider Mark Levinson and Revel capable on music   

[redbook]

  They are nice products from Harmon-(Karden). Like my JBLs there is a high degree of sound refinement in their top component line. . For my setup the Bryston amp is still a better match.

[rob80b]

What I feel we miss here is getting into the meat and potatoes, the technical differences as to what makes one model or manufacturer different from the next.
Obviously within the Bryston line more reserve power will give the overall sound more fluidity especially with inefficient speakers or at higher or in some cases lower volume levels.
The advent of the better output devices within the SST series made long time users perceptively aware of a smoother top end without loss of detail  and Bryston’s on going refinement of their basic amplification design to lower the noise floor has been appreciated.

But for those that claim obvious differences between manufacturers, “more natural”, “warmer”, “cooler”, “more open”, “tighter”etc, getting into the actual design and the approach given to amplifying the input signal would be IMHO an interesting and on going discussion and possible shed some light on the truths and misconceptions.

The basic premise is amplifying the input signal to drive the voice coils in most speakers (the Achilles heel in the audio chain next to the listening environment) to set the membranes in motion to some how duplicate the original sound waves and send them off to our ears.

And I guess the best place to start would be with Bryston
http://www.bryston.com/PDF/brochures/SST2_875HT_BROCHURE.pdf


Design Philosophy
Ensures Sonic Superiority
"From input to output, all the circuitry in the SST2 C–Series of
amps has been optimized for the most accurate performance
possible. All analog signal circuitry is fully discrete to avoid
the compromises, phase shift, and non-linearities inherent in
IC’s. The Bryston SST2 C–Series2 amplifiers incorporate an
innovative gain stage topology, which yields a substantially
lower noise floor through the use of low-impedance
pathways within the amplifier, and has strong advantages
in reducing overall distortion. Bryston’s computer controlled
distortion analyzers confirm that IM distortion of less than
10 parts per million (below 0.0009%) are typical for this
new circuitry. All SST2 amplifiers use Bryston’s proprietary
output stage, which we call “Quad-Complementary.” The
Quad-Complementary topology improves linearity to a new
standard of accuracy, while virtually eliminating aggressive
higher harmonic distortion products. The overall harmonic
distribution of Bryston’s Quad-Complementary output stage
closely approaches an ideal Class-A output, except that the
overall distortion is actually much lower. (True class-A output
stages suffer from relatively high current-induced distortion
levels, consisting of mostly lower-order harmonics). The
listening characteristics display a high degree of transparency
without harshness or grain. The annoyances previously ascribed
to ‘transistor sound’ are absent, and the amplifier seems to
combine the seductive lushness of tube equipment with the
focus and accuracy of solid-state.

MODULAR DESIGN/Independent
Power Supplies

"No matter how good an amplifier’s signal path may be, it’s
meaningless if it’s starved in the power supply, an all too
common way of cutting costs. One of the things that makes
the Bryston SST2 C-Series unusual is our insistence that
every amplifier in the line have a completely separate and
independent power supply for each channel, including its
own toroidal transformer.

Bryston’s research has shown that separate power supplies
provide the best imaging, clarity, and dynamic range — all
attributes that are especially crucial given the emerging
and demanding high resolution digital sources. The power
supplies employ multiple filter capacitors per channel, rather
than single pairs of larger filter cans, allowing improved high
frequency response, and reducing overall losses in the supply."

[MOZ]

Or maybe i'm just trying to answer the question asked on this thread only because I experienced the same products he's got... and made possible judgment on products associated together (at my mid-fi level, of course  )...

[mkaiser]

I think this should be a new topic.

[spinner]

  Yes, this seems to have gotten far off the subject.