Bryston 28 sst's vs Spectron Musician 3 SE ?

FWIW I had the 7BSST's in my system for a few years and recently heard the 28's and just thought they were more "balls to the walls" but very similar sonic signature. Now I have the Spectron monoblocks with Bybee and oil cap upgrades and would never even consider changing them for anything else (and I have had big tube monoblocks as well). Once you have the Spectrons, you only look to improve your system in other parts of the signal chain.

I did find however, that the Spectrons need a balanced power mains supply to be at their best and they will let you hear the difference between different power cords.

Dev,

god point about my experience with the Ref3 - which I loved with my SF Power 3's, but I guess there must have been an impedance miss match with the Spectrons. Just to be clear, I would have no problem with the 28's as my permanent solution either - although I never had them in my system, my experience with the 7BSST's was great and interestingly, with my current set up, they might have made the cut as the power amps. Problem is, it is all about system synergy, and that is why buying used gear on the web is probably not the final solution versus demoing a complete system in your room with the back up your local dealer.

I know I have to use the web to buy gear because I don't have a local dealer in the city (Ottawa) who is capable of working with me to get the right system in place. When I lived in Toronto, I bought my gear from a retail dealer who knew more than I did!!

Steve