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

kosst,
I'm not accusing you of being the measurements freak. I'm sorry if you got that impression. I'm trying to show the difference between an amp that measures zero compared to an amp that IS zero.One sounds awful and one sounds incredible. Can you tell me how to measure zero distortion with a music signal as the source?

If you measure the voltage level (of the source) like an orchestra playing normally and you get X amount. (lets say 1/2 volt nominal) Then without changing a beat - add the guy with the triangle at the back of the hall when he adds a single note to the mix. Besides not being able to identify it on a scope - how much additional voltage appears now that the triangle is playing. How big is just the triangle voltage? Millivolts? microvolts? nanovolts? picovolts? This is the range of signals I work with and have mastered control over.

If the entire orchestra was quiet and just left the triangle - it would be seen on a scope as closer to the noise floor. In order to successfully project that object back to the rear of the hall and keep it in focus - you need circuitry with enough sensitivity and resolution to handle the task of rendering that object at that distance. The greater the depth or distance of an object - the harder it is to place it back into the image unscathed.

You can't show me a circuit that does what you claim. You can't because it doesn't exist. If it existed you'd have patented it.

Patience grasshopper - and all will be revealed.

I read this entire thread, oh boy.

From the peanut gallery, all recording systems have inertia. Inertia will always distort the time domain relative to the original input. You can’t get away from this. It is a physical property that is built into such mechanical-to-electronic-to-mechanical transducers (microphones, loudspeakers). Zero "velocity distortion" is an oxymoron. Just as there is no net movement of air molecules in the propogation of soundwaves, so too there is no net movement of electrons in the propogation of electrical signals in audio circuits.

Enjoyment of music comes first. Reinventing physics comes second.