again, nobody addressed my point:
are there any specs that can be used to screen components
are there any parameters which could be used to discriminate between components that one might want to audition from those to avoid ?
for example, there are many preamps out there. it is impossible to listen to all of them. it may be possible to establish a probability that, given criteria, one could feel confident that it is worth listening to some, or , perhaps, it's hopeless.