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

I hate to judge these things too quickly but it certainly appears that human sensory perception, psychoacoustics and how the brain interacts with its surroundings (mind matter interaction) are subjects that tend to make grown men and audiophiles run in the opposite direction as fast as their little feet will carry them. What grown men really want is far from neuroscience or evolution, very far. What they really want is things that make sense. Not things that go bump in the night. Something they can vaguely remember from high school or find quickly on Wikipedia. Something that at least looks like real science, real engineering. Something they can measure. Well, not them, specifically, but somebody. 😬

ok, now I’m curious - where can I read about the advances in understanding human hearing & perception thereof (psych. not physiol.) since the 1960s?

beyond any Google or Gloggle?

if you have a book or review paper post the cite & I will check it out

I have access to Jstor and other scientific and engineering sources

@raindance 

You said "Progress will be when a "full function" preamp has useful tone controls once again..." -Wholeheartedly agreed; let's get some full function back. You may not have to use them most of the time, but they are sure a lifesaver when needed.

I’d say about 90% of the problem audiophiles face is getting all the music that is in the grooves and all the data that is on the disc. It’s really a playback problem. The challenge is to resurrect or archaeologically dig up the information, clean it, deinterleaved it, make it coherent, so it makes sense. You are not protected by the Error Detection/Correction algorithms. Only 10% has to do with equipment and even cables.

Without tweaks, without isolation, without room treatments, there can be no high end. There is no artificial ceiling that cannot be broken through, some silly line that signifies Audio Nirvana. There is no hyperbolic curve of system performance. Hel-loo! Those who believe they only have 2% or 5% left to go before they reach Audio Nirvana are simply mistaken. You don’t know what you don’t know. 😳 Think of Audio Nirvana like climbers climbing Mount Everest. Many climbers get up one morning and declare, "Hey, we made it! What a view!" 🏔 Then they’re informed, "Dude, chill! We’re only at Base Camp." Which by the way is only half way up Everest. 😛