Honestly, I am not surprised that 1oldguy does not like this system. That is not to say it is a bad system -- on the contrary. It is a very nice system indeed. But to my comments earlier -- and I realize this is a broad overgeneralization -- there are two main types of listeners. Those that like a transparent sound, much like what studio engineers want for mixing (i.e. revealing and brutally honest), and those that want to enjoy their music, including the average quality recordings. By way of example, Krell along with Aerial Acoustics may be at one end of the spectrum. Tannoy along with McIntosh may be at the other. I'm not saying I like or dislike either of these, just trying to make a point.
Overall, if you want to have a fun system that makes average recordings sound good, we have found that you need to go with amplification that is voiced to be musical. That means an amplifier that is voiced to generate harmonics that "fatten" the sound a little, speakers that are dynamic and fast, but with drivers with soft compliance (i.e. forgiving). When we put systems together for people, we generally use powerful solid state class A or class A/B amplifiers with high current reserves. We will add tube processing or pre-amplification. And we use very good quality DACs if digital is required. Since this is a Bryston thread, I will point out that I liked the Bryston 14BSST on a pair of PMC IB2s. For me personally, I found the warmth comes out of Bryston when you use their biggest amps and "overpower" speakers like these.
All this to say, synergy is important. And so is proper planning. Building a sound system is like designing a car. You have to know what you want out of it and build it that way -- ideally in one go if you have the budget, or stepwise if you don't, like most of the world.
And last, I think your musical selections can all sound good, if not great on the right system. One more step you may want to take is to hunt down better versions of your recordings ... Maybe you are aware of this, or maybe you are not .... But we have found that an album produced in Japan can sound much much better than the exact same album mastered in the U.S. by engineers targeting radio and iPods.
Good luck, and let us know what you end up doing.
