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

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. 🕋

kosst_amojan

"...most people feel that amps with extremely low distortion figures sound analytical and lifeless"

Therefore if you have an amp with no distortion it will sound bad?
The answer is no. Those other amps that have low dist figures sound bad for a plethora of reasons - not because it measures low.

Hear is a simple formula:
Live = no distortion
therefore
no distortion = Live

The live nature of a sound event is exposed by the stable speed at which it is flowing toward you (Mach One). The formula above breaks down as soon as you alter the speed or velocity of the delivery system. The electrical version of the event is the odd man out. You have to force the electrical representation to include the environment of the original venue.
All you want to do is generate an air pattern in your listening room that is an exact copy of the air pattern at the hall. This air pattern is merely a log of 2 things. Instantaneous air pressure or amplitude (Vertical axis) and time (Horizontal axis) . If you alter either on of those properties - you have distortion.

Conventional amplifiers only deal with amplitude. Any work done to reduce its distortion is in the vertical axis and is a poor attempt at keep the timing right.

If on the other hand you maintain constant velocity in the amplifier then you have emulated one of the properties of air - mainly its velocity which is zero. A zero velocity medium guarantees that sound waves traveling through it are not artificially accelerated or de-accelerated. Remember the sound travels at Mach One. The medium is motionless. The sound appears the be live simply because of its stable "playback" speed.