how does current work in an amplifier?

Unsound, most of the studies I am aware of in this area are so new that they are not published yet. However, one of the people conducting them is a Nobel Prize neuro-chemical scientist. I understand that High Emotion Audio has based a lot of their work on his studies.

Dsper - the owner at the store I deal with is constantly telling me to ignor specs and just listen. He's given me some extrememe examples of equipment that he's heard where the actual sound was the opposite of what was expected. It was something crazy like 9 wpc and a THD in double digits that he said was amazing.

He also noted that there isn't really any true regulations going on to verify specs. Many of the specs are taken at the one and only ideal frequency. Think Ford commercials.

Specs are advisory to the knowledgable and misleading to those who aren't.

Magfan, isn't that the other way 'round? :)

Specs done well are useful for helping determine up front how well components might work together. I definitely recommend using specs for this purpose to get where you want to be faster rather than putting pieces together blindly and hoping for optimal results.

Less useful for determining how good a particular piece is. Since it always takes two or more components to actually produce music, this is really not very important anyhoo.