does more power=better quality ?

I too have followed this thread and was interested to read an engineering/scientific point of view as to why a higher powered amp has the potential to be more refined when it has more amplifying devices. And I feel Mr. Greenman made a fair and honest attempt to explain this. As for him being labeled a pompous bully, I don't see the justification for this at all. At least he has the integrity to sign his name here.

As for the use of huge fonts, I suspect it is due to his frustration that his measured lab results are at significant odds with claims by others on device linearity, semiconductor theory, etc., that are more based on home and audio shop listening experiences, magazine reports, etc., than bench testing.

It's always unfortunate when a thread of potential value results in a game of "I can write and speak better than you, so my advice to you is to not even bother trying to beat me here". It matters to me not at all how someone speaks in court as it's all a game of whose more clever with words and very little substance there anyway. But trying to discern why and how two amplifiers of a same company may sound different strictly due to the number of power output devices....now, we have some substance. And the simplicity of a set of graphs comparing device linearity, should be rather straight forward to present even to a court room.....well, one where the judge or jury has at least some level of technical competence. But I'm not even going to get into that.

If I went to an audio shop and the sound of a $200k system was no match for a system in another room, at a fraction of that cost, the only conclusion I'd make is that the owner of that shop needs to get in that high priced room and find out what is wrong. Until that was resolved, I would not give a lot of credit to the shop owner beyond his/her ability to throw high-priced products together in an attempt to impress others. And if I did suspect it was an amplifier fault or difference, I would definitely want to hear another amplifier in that system in an attempt to eliminate the amp as the cause of the problem or lack of "musicality".

Oh, and the issue of linear amplification ........ ah yes, the Convergent Audio Technology JL series.

John

I have been listening to music since before a 45 watt ss amp was the biggest baddest thing around, a Sansui AU999, for those who remember.
Graphs, are indeed a point for noting and do indicate basic paramaters for measurement, squarewave formation, slew rate, etc. There is though a basic and real diffeence between measurement and music.
I cannot prove this, but I believe with enough info it would be quite able to get two different amps, even different types of amps, at equal wattage whose reaasurements were commensurable but whose sound was not.
Measurements are a good starting point but I believe a poor ending point. Yes, I do prefer the sound I search for via various components, cables, power cords, and sources. It may or may not be neutral, authenticly-live, etc. but it is what I like. I believe the good doctor and the good lawyer were talking past each other, their points were not so much mistaken or even misspoken as not heard.
The Drs. view that audiophiles may prefer a less than measured neutral actual live sound may indeed be true.
The lawyers that lowered power amps tend to sound clearer etc. is probably also true. It is his ears after all. OUrs may listen differently.
Getting all hot because the specs and measurements are so cool is a good starting point but a poor buying one. Once again Trust your Ears. And perhaps agree to disagree when necessary

What an interesting thread, amongst all the angst and outrage, some telling points have been made and I've learnt a lot. The only fair conclusion is that there is'nt one, some of the assumptions are revealing, particularly the one that the more accurate and more "linear" the response the better. A good audiophile attitude, but I am, one afraid I don't subscribe to,I like a system whose sound I enjoy with the music I listen to. Accuracy and linearity can go hang.
It seems to me that "low Powered amps" bring certain advantages to the party that allow them to be driven nearer an amps power limits and into areas of higher distortion. The obvious example here is the "soft clipping" of tube amps, possibly due to there tendency to even order harmonic distortion. I would also argue that a class A Watt and SET watt is not the same as a Class A/B, SS watt and I do'nt think that is contentious. So even if amps are driven into areas of distortion, there are good reasons why this is less of a problem in high quality, low powered amps.
Another point I would take issue with, is that in a given range, a higher powered, more expensive amp will sound better than its lower powered brother, into the same speaker. Given the proviso that the amp is matched to a sufficently sensitive speaker, there are many examples where the lower output amp gives better results. I would suggest here the Pass labs Aleph 3, at 30 watts, the lowest powered and arguably the best sounding of the Aleph range.
To consider speaker choice, a good high sensitivity speaker with benign impedence allows the use of low output amps, I use Living Voice Avatars with an 845 SET, to great effect. That does'nt alter the fact that many of the very best, full range speakers, are power hungry. You can't run Wilson Grand Slamm or BandW 800 Nautilus on a 3 watt 300B SET. That does'nt make the speaker a bad choice.
It's not suprising, I suppose, how many of the threads on this site end up with "it all depends", or "on the one hand X and on the other Y". Few things in life are straightforward and there is'nt one valid approach to system building. The only responses I am dubious about start "well it's obvious" or "the only valid approach is". Frankly if there was only one approach, life would be a bit boring.

It seems to me that "low Powered amps" bring certain advantages to the party that allow them to be driven nearer an amps power limits and into areas of higher distortion

That's a statistical conclusion rather than a fact of life: it's very difficult and copious and much more expensive to produce MANY outstanding watts.
1) Very good amplifying devices (like the 845 tube or the 300, etc) only offer a few db's of gain. More gain increases the complexity manifold... bipolar transistors and Jfets can be good too, but if you want many class A watts, you'll probably end up with mosfets... SO, there's a good choice of devices offering a few excellent watts for less than the price of a new house -- but very few giga watt equivalents (for less than the price of a new house).

2) It makes more practical sense to choose a very sensitive speaker since there is lots of choice out there, and the price levels are comparable to their insensitive brethren.

3) Many tube designs offer their best performance at 1-3W. Many ss devices offfer their best performance level at full power.

When someone says "It makes more practical sense to choose...", what they really are saying is "It makes more practical sense to ME to choose..."

In a perfect audiophile world I actually would agree that high sensitivity speakers are the way to go, but in the real world there are limitations with that approach. For a wide variety of reasons, some logical and some not, there is a limited availability of practical high sensitivity speakers. By practical I mean reasonably full bandwidth (40Hz-20kHz), capable of at least 100dB playback and are not overly large, at least by audiophile standards. Such speakers are available, but it's not as if you can walk into the average hi-end retail store and find one.

For better or for worse the marketplace is dominated with medium sensitivity speakers and 30 to 100 watt amplifiers. Such systems are capable of truly excellent performance. As you move out of the audiophile mainstream you will encounter problems -- availability, cost, limited choices, more critical system matching, less trouble shooting support, etc. For any given person overcoming these "problems" may well be worth the effort, but not all people would agree.

Gregm, "ss devices offer their best performance level at full power". Where does that come from?