I have to say there is some gear out there that gets too carried away with 'hifi' attributes and somehow doesn't convey a musical message. I can't explain it well, but I'll try - it sounds like it's trying to reproduce a bunch of sounds rather than music. Sounds stupid and makes no sense from a scientific point of view.
There are several brands I feel this way about. Musical Fatality (err Fidelity) and Krell come to mind. I can't put my finger on it, but they just put me to sleep.
Then there's gear that's overly smoothed over, lush, warm, and laid back. I don't like my music distorted to make it sound better. Sounds good enough already. Marantz immediately comes to mind here.
Bryston pulls off the trick of being insightful, detailed, and yet lets the music flow the way it's supposed to. Can't define "lets the music flow," it's just something I hear. Call it PRaT, call it whatever.
I bought Bryston for several reasons. A major reason was that it gets out of the way better than anything else I've heard. It's got the least sonic signature or "house sound" of anything I know of.
I've heard Bryston called just about everything - bright, warm, forward, laid back, grainy, liquid, and on and on. The final result can be any or none of that. What's truly going on is that it's getting out of the way and letting what's upstream and downstream sink or swim. It exposes your source and speakers for what they are. Nothing more, nothing less.
I've found that most people who criticize Bryston gear are actually describing what I've heard in the rest of their gear.
None of this is blind defense for a brand I own. Everything has it's flaws, including Bryston. And there's a ton of great gear out there that I'd love to play around with. But when I hear it, I know I'd come back to Bryston's honesty. I was contemplating selling off my c