Are future improvements in Amp/PreAmps slowing to a crawl?

I think the idea that advancements have slowed to a crawl is right. One area of improvement is the bringing of better designs to lower price points. To the masses, if you will. And then of course, the "B" and "C" tier can be had for even less these days.

But after reading this tedious thread, another thing comes to mind. It doesn’t matter what the subject is, folks will push their agendas ad nauseam. Class D, class T, pro amps, etc., I guess the future’s so bright for them I gotta wear shades.

This reminds of of the fervour with with some people will push their new favourite brand, like they just discovered the world’s first speaker. It’s another pet peeve of mine on these forums, the cult-like fanboyism with which certain internet brands get pushed, like fanatics at the airport. No thanks, dude, I gave at the office, okay?!

My answer is "yes".  But I approach it with three factors in mind: 1) is it organically musical; 2) is it transparent, and 3) is it reliable.  I believe we essentially are there with at least some gear..

kosst_amojan

"I'm not sure what you're talking about as "speed" in a wave"

Sound waves travel at Mach One approx 750mph. Thats considerably slower than the speed of electricity / light.

After sound waves get converted into electricity it is the job of the amplifier [chain] to make a larger version of the input signal and pass it on only to be converted back to sound waves by your speakers. When this whole process of converting it one way and then back to the "original" way is examined we can see that the handling of the fragile "data" that is embedded in the signal has been compromised or corrupted. The degree of damage to the signal is not readily noticed because it is so slight. The problem is that the integrity of the payload (embedded image) has been modified by a composite of non-linear events no matter how small. This is like recording with an apple and playing back with an orange.

I wanted to make the electrical handling of the smallest detail the highest priority. This is why I refer to a cloning process because all the data is recovered at a "DNA" level and duplicated or repeated. When 100% of the signal is "cloned" then the copy at the output also contains the marker or cue that it is "live". This marker is the first thing to go in conventional amplifiers.

Aside from the obvious visual cues, a phenomenon at the concert hall tells your brain this is live. Your brain recognizes the medium of air because air does not distort. If you are trying to make your brain accept music fed through (any process other than air) then you better make sure it does not distort otherwise the "live" characteristic is not in the final conversion.

Roger

The real advances in preamps and amps in the future will involve metaphysics not physics. I'm afraid they've run out of options trying to somehow improve upon the current model. More designers must think outside the box. 🕋