Excellent post and thread, Laundrew. I always appreciate your command over the English language.
I've owned my B60 for about 4 years now. I can honestly say my system gets better with every upgrade I've made. Due to the B60 being the only constant, it tells me the B60 is the true star if the show. It's become quite obvious that the B60 isn't holding anything else back by being the bottleneck.
I've been to a few shops lately because I need some somewhat temporary on-wall speakers that my now crawling daughter can't hurt herself with. One asked me why I like my B60 so much (he was being good about it, not a jackass like so many others). It really made me think, and here's what I realized...
It gets out of the way better than anything I've heard.
The warranty, James, build quality, aesthetics, etc. are great, but what's ultimately kept it here and will continue to keep it here is that it gets out of the way and simply passes along the signal. It doesn't add or subtract anything IMO. There's so much gear out there that tries, but Bryston does that better than anything I've heard - from the 'lowest model' (my B60) to their flagship model.
The way I look at it - it's neither forward nor laid back, bright nor warm, colored nor bleached, lush nor lean, etc., etc. I could keep going, but I think you all get where I'm coming from. It's got the least sonic signature I've heard. Isn't that what all gear is supposed to do?