How far have ss amps really come in the last twenty years?

Another huge applause for Symphonic Line.  I had read about this product over the years but rarely saw any for sale to audition.  Finally that option came my way.  I got a killer deal on their smallest amp, the RG11 two years ago.  I think it was one of the earliest versions....maybe from the mid-late 1990s, but in immaculate condition, and a beautiful polished chrome faceplate.  It was just to be an amp for for surround speakers but it stunned me how this silly thing drove the big SoundLab A1 speakers.  How could this be possible!  And the clarity/detail was phenomenal.  I just shook my head.  What a most beautiful sounding amp.  And then I tried it on Sonus Faber Amati Futura, and it did pretty well with these difficult speakers.  This small amp was so far beyond Belles mono amps and the Odyssey Khartago amp in power drive without making any unique sonic statement.

I have since bought the RG1 amp, one level above the RG11, also with the beautiful chrome faceplate, and this amp with the SF speakers is stunning.  I run the Sound Lab speakers with BAT VK600SE amps and the result is a great match, but I would love so much to try a stereo Symphonic Line Kraft or mono amps, even from a decade ago.  So difficult to find!

jafox, try getting in touch directly with Klaus Bunge of Odyssey and ask him to keep his eyes open for SL amps for you.  He sold my Kraft 250s to me, after he'd imported them for someone else who only kept them for maybe a month, at a huge discount from list price.

The is no doubt that designs and execution have advanced over time.  Yet I have to ask myself after deep reflection, how much better is it really?

When I purchased my first decent system of separates, 50 years ago while in the service, I had a small amp, Sansui 555 with it’s companion tuner TU-555.  Paired with Sansui SP-100 3 way speakers, a Dual 1019 turntable and AKAI reel to reel, I was the n heaven.

No doubt my current 3.6 Maggie’s are much better speakers, and McIntosh MC501 mono blocks are much better amps, yet I MUST ask myself, does I enjoy the system I have more than the one I had with in 1971?   

Somehow I think NOT.   I would be interested to hear from folks in my age group if they feel the same.

Not trying to hijack this thread, but following a natural thought progression IMHO.

No matter how hard we humans try to be objective, in the end we fall well short.

(Just rant, not directed at anyone in particular) 

Of course, objectivity cannot and does not exist anywhere in the human world.

By all possible forms of human logic (as all that exists is human logic) Objectivity is a figment of human imagination. 

Subjectivity is the only thing we know is even potentially real, but we cannot describe reality, that can only be done from outside of it.

And if we did manage to do so, there is nearly perfect odds that the result would be unfathomable to the entire reality humans are subjected to and try to reason from within.

Objectivity, in it's worst 'disconnected from scientific reality' (which is most pundits who are not trained scientists) aspects, is almost purely illiterate projected dogma.

Most frightening of all, they don't know or recognize the insanity, which is the nature of insanity....

..they just keep on persecuting reason... cuz the dang bible of facts keeps getting smushy and smeary at the edges which they explore.

So, a person can carry, think, etc... and attempt to utilize the tool of objectivity, but it is a simple state of mind and does not otherwise exist.

Proper objectivity is a state of balance, more than anything else.