Are future improvements in Amp/PreAmps slowing to a crawl?

No - the future is already clear. The new switched Mode Power Supplies are reducing 60Hz hum and lowering noise floors further than ever before imagined with a linear power supply.

Look at the specs on a Benchmark ABH2! Can anyone find an amp with better performance specs?

Only a few years ago world class was around -110 dB SNR, THD etc... these improvements are nothing less than staggering and YES you can hear the extra definition, clarity or blackness that such performance brings even though the best speakers are only -70 dB in performance. (I was doubtful about whether this level of performance can actually be heard but my ears tell me otherwise)

@sean_heis1

Musicality is a meaningless term that can’t be measured. Improvements like SNR, channel separation, THD+N, and power into various loads are measurable.

This amp does not use negative feedback to achieve improved performance over competitors. It has a carefully designed switched mode power supply that pushes all power supply noise completely out of the audio band.

Benchmark had been making world class Analog devices for pro TV production for years before they embarrassed the audiophile world by building far better devices. I would say that competitors are catching up to their DAC technologies but this new amplifier is another leap in performance and another embarrassment to the long established amplifier providers churning out their mediocrity year after year!

Perhaps it takes someone from outside the establishment to make major advances.

@sean_heis1

If you find outstanding (better than anything else on the market or ever mass produced) measured performance to be a meaningless achievement then how do you propose to measure what you find important? I would put it to you and everyone here that if you can’t measure performance then there is no way to track improvement.

Perhaps this is the fundamental problem in the audiophile industry - it has become a fashion clothing industry that suits people’s tastes and follows trends with no goal to improve anything because "good enough" in clothing materials was achieved 30 years ago - so now it is about color and style in an endless circle of ever fluctuating fashionable trends.

Wow. Morphic fields!

I cant believe how these threads just go completely into fantasy land. It seems like some Audiogoners are just intent on obfuscation.

Early on I point out that Benchmark has produced the worlds best performing (as measured) power amplifier (ABH2) and there is no interest.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/benchmark-media-systems-ahb2-power-amplifier-measurements

Quote "Benchmark Media Systems' AHB2 is an extraordinary amplifier. Not only does its performance lie at the limits of what is possible for me to reliably test, it packs high power into a very small package, especially when used in bridged-mono mode. It is truly a high-resolution amplifier".—John Atkinson



Is there anyone on Audiogon actually interested in high fidelity or is everyone just fixated on making up completely imaginary pseudoscience nonsense?