How close to the real thing?

Well, the whole negative feedback issue has been beaten to death pretty thoroughly already in other threads.

My conclusion is that it is just one of many design and execution factors that affect results depending on how well it is executed.

Having heard a lot of gear over the years, my ears tell me that good engineers working for companies making good products have a much better handle on all such things that matter these days than they did 30 years ago.

Hi Mapman,
I was speaking to an old friend of mine who built equipment 35 years to 25 years ago and hasn't built since. He was just telling me that he just might start building again considering the improvements in parts ie, speed, linearity, etc. I'm sure that you have heard some terrific old amps. After talking with him, I believe that even the old engineers could come up with some terrific products today. I believe a good engineer is a good engineer, we just must wade through so much mediocrity to find them. Good Listening, Tim

"My conclusion is that it is just one of many design and execution factors that affect results depending on how well it is executed."

That seems sensible to me. It's hard to believe that anyone would employ negative feedback in their design if there wasn't, at least in the designer's mind, some net benefit to doing so. Maybe not directly, but perhaps because it allows the employment of something else in the design that more than compensates.

Better yet , how many KT88's would one need for 500 watts necessary for the real thing ?

.......

How close are we to the real thing?

Since I listen exclusively to classical, I find this subject fascinating.

The truth is: we are very far. Why? - Because audio and acoustics are still treated as an art, not a science. I think that audio is now in the same stages as medicine was in the Middle Ages: we know the basics (anatomy), but the remedies are still experimental. A trepanation is made to extract madness; blood letting is supposed to be the cure for many illnesses. Our amps, cables or speakers are tweaked in the same empirical way.

Sound engineers and other people along the music production line DO NOT scientifically aim at achieving an exact reproduction of the acoustic sound; instead, they mainly make sure that the recording sounds nice, and they all use different microphones, monitors, consoles, room sizes, etc.

On the listener's end, we all use different amps, speakers, and our rooms all have different acoustics.

If there was a real willingness to achieve the sound of the real thing, the whole process would have strict standards: microphones, amplifiers, consoles, cables, loudspeakers, rooms, etc. would have ideal specifications. Listeners who can afford would be able to reproduce these specifications at home - if necessary going as far as building a room to the exact specifications.

The Middle Ages ended 600 years ago. Let's hope we won't have to wait that long for audio to be close to the real thing. All what it takes, is one producer setting up a recording standard that can be replicated at home.