Alan Shaw has long welcomed any debate on his opinions regarding cables and amps.
This is nonsense. He largely
discourages such debate, and considers his views to be
facts, not opinions. And the condescension towards those who think otherwise is often palpable.
In fact he once even offered a pair of his top of the range M40s to anyone that would be willing to undergo an unsighted amplifier comparison test.
Level matched of course.
Unsurprisingly, despite the endless online amplifier hullabaloo / advertising / promotions etc there were no takers.
I'd need to see the actual challenge, but the way that you present it is likely to be disingenuous at best. Shaw, and those who share his views, have been forced to admit that amplifiers can indeed sound different, but argue that it would only be true of those which produced a certain (unspecified) amount of distortion.
They scoff at the likes of Nelson Pass, who is fully transparent about his choice to "voice" at least some of his amps with a certain amount of
Second order harmonics, because they are not as neutral as possible.
Anyone who claims that all amplifiers sound the same is, to put it kindly, on very shaky ground.
One final point: level-matched AB-X testing is undoubtedly a very valuable tool, but in practical terms, very difficult to achieve. Two (or more) amps, using exactly the same speakers, interconnects, etc.?
Good luck with that.