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

kosst,

He doesn't know what a 100% distortion-free amp sounds like. He's never heard one.

I thought that was the whole purpose of his visit.

Unless he has calibrated microphones for ears, oscilloscopes for eyes, and a distortion analyzer for a brain, he cannot substantiate your claims.

My gear is built for humans to enjoy. No cyborgs.
Our ears,eyes and brain are far better than man made test equipment when it comes to making observations.
I'm surprised that someone so deeply embedded into specs like yourself would swallow some pride and go for the added distortion needed to make it tolerable. What's up with that?

I never had a customer call me and ask if I could give them a knob on the front panel so they could add a little distortion.

Quick interrupt. If he really was a liar wouldn't his pants be on fire? 🔥

kosst

Everybody knows you can manipulate a signal to sound like all kinds of things

Well that is certainly true especially if you have a way of adding your own flavor of distortion.

...even those things you claim your gear does.

Here is where there is a problem. It is the absolute absence of manipulation that makes it distortion-free. You know like air.
You must be disappointed when you go to a live concert. Do you bring your own bag of distortion with you? Or wait for the CD version to come out and listen to it at home where the "proper" amount of distortion can be added.

I can't wrap my head around the idea that we need distortion in our playback systems.

Your amplifier circuit by itself (without adding distortion) apparently is making enough mistakes (errors) to warrant having to do something to hide or cover up whats happening.  

...applies some positive phase second order distortion through the NFB loop balance to warm the sound up and open up the stage.

Translation: without adding second order - the raw circuit is "cool " sounding and has a narrow or restricted sound stage. Yes?

...applies some positive phase second order distortion through the NFB loop balance to warm the sound up and open up the stage.

Translation: without adding second order - the raw circuit is "cool " sounding and has a narrow or restricted sound stage. Yes?

No.