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

@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.

I find SNR & THD+N to also be meaningless. Same with THX certification. However, I agree that the best switch mode power supplies are really good these days.

Benchmark is a very good company. They take pro gear and package it for hifi buyers. If your flavor leans towards the clinical side, they could be an excellent fit. They won't embarrass anybody that shouldn't already be embarrassed. Only Schiit can do that. ;-)  

Dragon_Vibe,

"maybe the Future is already here and we are at the very end of technology breakthrough regards to audio?"

This reminds me of the patent office wanting to shut down decades ago because "everything has already been invented"

Breakthroughs happen every day. As far as designing amplifiers with the express goal of having a particular sound to me is a waste of time. It means the designer has given up on the notion that "perfection" is not attainable. 

Take a look at this viewpoint of distortion...
 http://h-cat.com/images/H_CAT_White_Paper.pdf

Roger

@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.

THD analyzers are good for getting you in the ball park. It will at least tell you if you have really bad distortion to deal with. However the problem is that they don't go far enough. IOW they are not capable of detecting small problems that occur at or near the fundamental [image] at the input.

Such problems slip well under the "THD" radar and go unnoticed.

If you examine the full spectrum which includes radio and light frequencies - you will see that only the audio portion of the spectrum requires the medium of air to exist (acoustically). Everything above that can exist in the vacuum of space. Therefore if you design an amplifier to be specifically used for audio then you must include the impact that the medium of air has within the design goals.

"Live" has a playback speed. That constant speed is what is recognized as the "live" indicator or marker to the brain. If you pass the sound as electrical data the does not take into consideration its exact speed - then you have stripped away the "live" marker. The brain defaults to "fake" instantly.

Since audio flows as a sound wave - you have to include the wave as part of the critical data needed by the brain to accept what it hears as "live".

The portion of an audio signal the has the embedded wave information is extremely small and exists right at the fundamental signal. Capturing the velocity of the wave data and using it as the speed governor for the outgoing signal is the trick.The brain is convinced that what it hears is "live" because the "live" marker still exists after the amplifying process is done.

This has already been done and it works perfectly.

Roger

Shadorne , I'm sure you already know, specifications shouldn't be used as an indicator on what sounds good. and you also know there is gear that have terrible measurements but sound spectacular. Plus you right, you can't measure musicality but you just know its there when you hear it.