No amplifier is perfect or has reached perfection.
The moment you think your amp is perfect, try it with a different set of speakers or different preamp. It will not work with everything equally well. That would be perfection if it did.
I have heard a lot of amps in the past 16 years, and I would not call any of them perfect or having reached perfection.
The inherent problem with amps is that as an amp's power is increased, some low level detail/musical transparency is almost always given up. One may not realize this if they have been brought up on huge 100wpc+ solid state amps. Try listening to a nice 1 wpc SET tube amp connected to some 100db+ sensitive speakers. You might be very amazed at the sound you get from a rig like this. I have friends that have been into audio since before I was born that swear by this setup.
The inherent problem with lower powered amps is just that. They do not have the power to drive many speakers out there. There just are not too many speakers made today that are 100db+ sensitive.
Anyway, before I go, I will give you a specific example... the Pass X-1000 amps or probably even the Pass X-600 amps will make the Magnapan 3.6's sing better than any McCormick amp made EVER (Rev A or LAE or otherwise). No ifs ands or buts. How do I know this? Well I have heard the Maggies driven with many many different amps. The best I have ever heard them is with Pass X-1000 amps. No 500 or 600 wpc amp can compare to the 2000wpc that the PASS monsters put out into the 3.6's. It just does not compare. Maggies love power and amps, and the more you feed them the better they sound. I use the Maggie 3.6's because Eagles has them, and I lived with a pair for 3 years (and I have many fond memories of them). McCormick amps are good at driving Maggies (and some versions are better than others), but there are deffinitly better amps out there for this application (certainly there are A LOT worse amps one could use than the McCormick). I am not gonna knock McCormick too much because those Pass X-1000 amps are insanely expensive when compared to any McCormick amp made. On the flip side, I would not be driving 100db+ sensitive speakers with a PASS X-1000 amps. So not even the X-1000 amps are 'perfect'.
Anytime, I hear anyone (especially quoted in a publication or proclaiming in a publication) say something is perfect or has reched perfection, a very big red flag goes up in my head, and I get really skeptical of what is being told to me.
KF
