yin and yang

harry pearson (HP), the legendary hifi guru, has created many hifi jargons that have managed to describe abstract phenomenon in hifi and these jargons have widely been used by many reviewers till today. one of my favourites is "yin and yang".

after kc blogged about the mbl sound, i was curious and i went to A&L one day to listen to a full suite of mid-end mbl at play. the mbl house sound is unmistakably a "yin" sound. it is a bit dark, the highs are gentle and it does not sound the least like solid-state. it is also alluring, non-imposing, classy and refined, which reminds me a bit (not a lot) of the modern-day conrad-johnson, which is also a "yin" sound.

in contrast, the ARC and krell today are the epitome of "neutral" sound, neither "yin" nor "yang". very few brands sound "yang" these days, i can only think of many of the solid-state brands in the 80s/90s. a "yang" sound is normally in-your-face, gutsy and a bit over-the-top.

can you name me other brands which fall into either "yin" or "yang" sound?