It's usually neither. It is more like a benchmark as with dead neutral as the center. Krell preamps have had the reputation as being stark, cool, tremendous base slam. Where the top end Classe preamp, has been descriped as warm, rounded,laid back similar to Rowland equipment. None of the aforementioned descriptions are positive or negative, just a positioning on the neutral continum. It does turn into a negative when a Reviewer states that the sound was too cool or too warm. As in most things who is to say what is dead neutral. Everyone has their own perspective of what a system is supposed to sound like. Whether your system is yin or yang, if your tapping your feet to the music, who cares.
