Best Amp for Timbre, Depth and Spatial Resolution?

So here's a question in line with the OPs.

How does one determine teh pecking order for amps alone in regards to timbre, depth and spatial resolution? There is nothing I know of that canbe measured on an amp that would clearly determine this. The speakers, speaker setup and room acoustics are the most important thing it seems to me. SO if one does the speaker thing right, and has the right amp to drive the speakers to their maximum potential, is there anything else that needs to be addressed explicitly?

Just wondering. I'm not so sure there is much more to it than getting the speakers set up well for max performance and using good quality stuff in general upstream to feed it.

I'm hoping it might just be that simple?

I thought the general consensus was that so many show setups were haphazard affairs in bad rooms often using gear that wasn't even broken in, to the extent that it was often impossible to attribute the resultant poor sound to any one piece of the system?

If so, then why would any knowledgeable installer use what he heard at a show as proof positive that a given piece was lacking in some way?

Mapman, I could think at a number of factors. So in no particular order:

1) the spectra balance of the amp. Some amp-speaker combinations can emphasis (or de-emphasis) the frequencies that are more problematic (or less problematic) in one's room. Obviously this ultimately depends on one's room.

2) The ability of the amp to control the subwoofers.

3) Like with the response of the two speakers at the listening position, the amp is also suppose to have zero differences between the left and wright change. How large and/or significant such error are in reality, I do not know. But I can imagine that such differences exist and play a role, as not two components are identical.

BTW, I am not saying all amps sound the same. But an amp alone has no sound. So what specs/measurements on an amp alone can be used to determine a pecking order in regards to timbre, depth, and spatial resolution? I am not sure there are any. But they can be used to determine relative matches to specific speakers. Then you are in business.

So you can assess how any particular amp + speaker combo does in this regard, but I am not sure it can be done for amps alone.

If an amp plays in the forrest does it have a sound?