Just to throw out a thought -- shouldn't whatever "decay" a musical sound possesses be solely on the recording? And isn't it the job of the equipment in the playback chain to simply reflect, as accurately as possible, what's on the recording?
Decay is the remainder of a note as it fades away. For an amp to mess that up, it means the amp is either non-linear in some fashion, or has distortion that masks lower level sounds, or noise (another form of distortion) that is masking the signal as it decreases in volume.
You'd think those deficiencies would show up in more areas of playback than just decay quality.
I've got a Bel Canto C5i and I find it wonderfully neutral.
Decay is the remainder of a note as it fades away. For an amp to mess that up, it means the amp is either non-linear in some fashion, or has distortion that masks lower level sounds, or noise (another form of distortion) that is masking the signal as it decreases in volume.
You'd think those deficiencies would show up in more areas of playback than just decay quality.
I've got a Bel Canto C5i and I find it wonderfully neutral.