How can a 40 watt amp outshine a 140 watt amp

Am I really reading that all amps sound alike here on Agon and some actually think this is true. Come on - really?

This test and article must be a joke of some kind right?

My goodness I hear differences as true and real as day is from night with my eyes. Someone said if you can't hear the difference, then that is true for you. I agree and that is the bottom line. If you can't hear it, then no reason to invest in better amps! Just buy a 100 watt 1980's Sears MCS series amp for $35 and be done with it.

Strange a person with such ears would even bother with this site or any high end gear?

It is all in the match of the amp to your speaker, and the speaker sensitivity. If your speakers are 90dB sensitive, a modest sized room, 40wpc amps should play loud enough provided you don't want insane levels. Remember that to go from 40-80wpc only gives you 3dB, and from 80-160wpc, another 3dB, a mere click or two on the volume control.
SS integrated amps to consider among others...Odyssey Khatargo, NAD, Bryston, Tubes-Prima Luna, Manley, Vincent, CJ, Quicksilver separates and ARC.

Surely we must have some members on here that live near Cleveland and could help Mystertee hear a variety of equipment (probably set up with more care than many high end stores). Any volunteers? We've got a chance to win a convert here! I bet you make a new friend too.

Schipo, I don’t know why people don’t pass Clark’s test. But I do know that tests can be constructed to conclude in misleading results. Heck, forget about amplifiers sounding different. What about tube rolling. I hear remarkable differences from same value tubes.

I have an idea about what is going on w the Clark test. I am not a statistician but I do not think that you need 2 sets of 12 out of 12 correct answers to reject the null hypothesis that the 2 amplifiers sound the same. I would that that the chance of getting even one set of 12 100% correct is pretty low, esp. when you have audio memory/human perception issues. Its been a long time since I thought about/learned experimental design but I think what we are talking about here is the difference between a false positive (hearing a difference when there is none) and a false negative (not hearing a difference when there is one). One of them is called type 1 error and the other is type 2 error. I'll bet that if someone here knows a statistician or experimental design specialist, they could work out the numbers pretty easily. I'd be surprised if the ability to get 12/12 correct, twice in a row is pretty darn remote.