This is off the topic but...
Last week I had a chance to listen to the B&W CDM NT 6.1 system at Floyd Pierce’s house (he is a moderator at the HomeTheaterSpot forum). Boy, the sound was significantly “brighter” than what my ears are used to at my home -- i.e., the Hales/Axiom system. His room didn’t seem to have any highly reflective surfaces that could make the speakers sound bright, nor did he use any EQ’s. I don’t want to sound like I am saying that his B&W sounded bad; in fact, they were impressive speakers. But my observation remains that they were clearly brighter (which I didn’t necessarily dislike) than my own system. Some people assert that the Axioms are one of the brightest speakers they’ve ever listened to. But now I certainly object these opinions after listening to these B&Ws in a non-dealer setting.
Incidentally, in my definition, a “brightness” of sound usually means a hump in the mid-high regions of 2-8 kHz (especially 3-5 kHz), and often comes hand-in-hand with "forwardedness."
