A lot of people talk about B&W being bright. It is possible, however, that what you are hearing is the brightness = higher order harmonic distortion from your amplifier. I've heard them sound glorious with a very good tube pre-amp and power amp rigs. That being said, the pre-amp section of that Yamaha AVR is probably not the strong point of your system. I'd also have to disagree with mgreen27; a passive is more likely to be transparent, so if the speakers are a problem (which I don't necessarily believe) that would not help. I suppose if the Yammie is adding additional brightness it might help.
Warm Sounding Preamp Suggestions
I'm looking to dial down some mid/high glare from my newly acquired B&W 801 S2. I'm getting a little fatigued and want to see if I can warm it up a bit with a preamp. Right now I'm using a Yamaha Aventage Receiver and a Threshold S500/II.
Any suggestions? Tube preamps?
Any suggestions? Tube preamps?