Rsuminsby, I owned the 3B-ST and then moved to the 4B-ST with the Thiel 2.3. Then I moved to the 7B-ST with the Thiel CS-6. The Bryston/Thiel combination is a bit bright and can lead to some upper mid congestion, depending on room acoustics -- but it can also sound so live, it can be fun. The right speaker cable (e.g., MIT) can go a long way to smooth things out as reporting in numerous prior posts (I took that advice and, holy cow, there's a huge difference). I've worked with a couple of different digital front ends, the latest being the Perpetual Technologies, and haven't noticed a lot of difference in the brightness but did notice a big difference in the detail, smoothness, soundstage and musicality. I'm sorry I have no experience with the 39 but would suggest that the "laid back" vs. "brightness" issue is less affected by the front end then it is with the total system. And again, the MIT goes a long way to help that out. IMHO. Hope that helps. Cheers!
ML 39 w/Bryston amp and Thiel 2.3?
Looking for comments from anyone who has owned/experimented with the combo above...current setup is a Sony DVD-P7000 run through an Acurus ACT-3 to Bryston 9B amp and Thiel 1.5s. (System used for audio and Home Theater). Planning to ugrade soon to Thiel 2.3s, and am considering a Mark Levinson 39 as a high end digital front end to run balanced into two channels of the Bryston. Would be curious as to experiences with the 39 and any Bryston amp and Thiel speaker...how laid back, etc?