Amps that are "forward"

Berning ZH270 is very forward, in my experience.

My new Burson PI-160 does everything right, including detail up the ying yang without stridency or at the expense of mids or bass. Its just one super clean sounding amp that doesn't miss a thing yet retains the naturalness of a recording. Its the closest I've come to detail at the expense of nothing. Its very basic on features and uses no ICs, being all an all discreet and has a stepped attenuator.

If you've been happy with your speakers, and they are efficient, have tried room teatments, and you can do without the bells and whistles (no remote), then it might do for you what it did for me.

Seems to me, (being one of those "older" audiophiles) that all you might need to do is aquire a decent analog frequency equalizer, patch it in somehow and do some careful adjustments. (I actually remember way back when it was OK to use tone controls and not frowned upon).

Or... perhaps adjust the acoustics of you listening space to get a brighter more forward sound.

This certainly would be a lot less expensive than new amps or speakers

The McCormack's and VTL's are excellent amps that IMHO are "forward".

Time to visit an audiologist and have your ears checked out. Most audiophiles, for all their interest in sound, never go to an audiologist to find out exactly what they are hearing. Most who do go to an audiologist don't find one that can test beyond the 8K region, a must to find out what 'broadband' their ears are all about. I would love to have all the 'reviewers' who write about gear publish their hearing curves, that way we would know what the basis of their actual hearing is. You could call this 'full disclosure' and keep all honest.