Well guys, disappointment, because the I-7 was a no-show. More precisely, the SimAudio rep showed up with a non-working prototype of the 1-7; the chassis and terminals anyhow. Said they'd decided at the last minute it wasn't quite ready; e.t.a. now October. The rep says it will fulfil the promise of more power than the 1-3, more refinement than the I-5, a better pre than the P-3 separate. I'm salivating...
He did demo the new CDP from the same Evolution series, and it sounded fine indeed, driven by Moon W5 separates through some big Maggies.
Meanwhile, I finally got a listen to the new Bryston B100 SST integrated. I should issue a disclaimer; not being personally familiar with the Bryston sound, I'm not the best guy to say how generous a scoop of Bryston you are getting. Secondly, I was listening to it in the store with other components I haven't spent a lot of time with; the MF A5 CDP, and JMLab Profile 918 speakers. I've had a fair amount of time with other members of the MF and JMLab families though.
That out of the way, it sounded very good, very competent, lots of detail, generally sweet highs, rich mids, bass to spare, etc. I didn't get a first impression that I was listening to a break-out product-at-the-price, such as my Nait 5i, but the Bryston is no slouch. At one point a vocal crescendo got a little screechy and started to break up; but I cannot say without more time whether that was one component or another, or the recording. Definitely worth a listen in its niche...around $3K Canadian, prob'ly about $2400 USd, give or take.
