Class A Power in A/B amplifiers?

What I meant to say that my own ears have yet to discern a preference of Class A over Class A/B or even D which is even moderately consistent.

:) This is an entirely different issue! If the amp has feedback, you'll probably not be able to tell anything about class A or AB. If the amp is zero feedback you will. Most amps that are class A or AB and run feedback simply don't run enough, so you'll get artifacts on that account (usually brightness and harshness caused by distortion). Pretty hard to tell which is which when that issue is overshadowing things.

Well, @atmasphere read my previous post and responded appropriately while @georgehifi seemed to have ignored the point I was making, which is about audible benefits and sticks to cherry picking statistics which he feels must prove his point.

As I’ve mentioned like, forever: a measurement is not audible nor a preference. It’s just a number.

To be "better" to me it has to sound better. Otherwise it’s either equivalent or worse. We can argue that 0.01% THD is better than 0.03% THD, given equal harmonic distribution of the distortion, but you can’t prove one is audibly better since I assure you I cannot hear it.

And so, I have yet to hear evidence that any amplifier class is inherently superior all by itself. Even @atmasphere starts to get into feedback vs. non-feedback which occludes the entire discussion over amplifier classes. I might induce he’s saying feedback is more important than amplifier class. :)

I am going to state, categorically and forever that brand names are more important than amplifier class and that everyone who argues otherwise is a muggle.

If the amp has feedback, you’ll probably not be able to tell anything about class A or AB.

@georgehifi seemed to have ignored the point🤦‍♂️

NO! this is bad information and definitely not correct
I have built many Class-A’s (even a massive water cooled one), I and friends could tell if they were in low bias or high bias, with feedback applied, using global or local, and using matched complimentary outputs.
And if you don’t believe me ask Nelson Pass one of the foremost Guru’s of Class-A amplification that neither of you could hold a candle to, he’ll set both of you straight.

Coda is a very old school Company Threshold Nelson Pass - 
his engineers when Nelson decided to go Solo became Coda
they  offer 3 power variants like the excellent CSIB integrated amp 
the preamp is in pure classA ,Mosfet,and FET   the separate Amplifier section 
the first 18 watts are in pure class-A ,then 150,300,600WPC,2 other power choices the higher in power the lower in pure classA,
with largest potted low noise power supply I have seen at under $15k a 3kva transformer and over 120 amps ,that’s enormous power- control on demand and 40 matched Bipolar resistors on the outputs

If referring to vacuum tubes a SET amplifier I believe is around 9 watts Max 
In a 300 B amp amplifier ,you can get 18 watts in a class A parallel circuit 
from my experience from my Tube. Expert  friend Radu.