why do expensive amplifiers produce a better soundstage

@roxy54 

JBL 2241H 18", JBL 2251J 10", ESS Heil AMT.

I purchased the 18s in the JBL "clone" cabinets from a local church.  I purchased the 10s from eBay as well as the Heils (from a 1D) that included cabinets and woofers.  Luckily, for shipping, the 10s were close and the Heils/cabinets were local.

I made the wooden cabinets for the 10s as well as the acrylic stands and horn flares for the Heils using laser cutting and 3D printing.  I also 3D printed the ports for the 18s.

The real secret to the Heils!

https://audiokarma.org/forums/threads/im-fixing-a-hole-heil.1025205/

It has very little to do with price and a lot more to do with designer's niche knowledge. For example, I know a less than 2k amp that is conducive to a deep expansive soundstage and a 50k amp that fails at it (designer iq low, ears bad)

Choice of components, design of the circuit itself, signal pathway, etc

On the same note, amps can be made to measure the same, but, sound quite different, just SS designs. The low IQ measurement crew will struggle with this one...

why do expensive amplifiers produce a better soundstage

The above mentioned is where amp design can be considered an art form, not just grunt engineering.

Sub-par transformers, circuit layout, and attenuators/volume controls are where soundstage gets lost in many preamps. The conundrum is that some tubed pre-amps add artificial soundstage through second order harmonic distortion. The same second order harmonic is perceived by many as depth and holography. A little judicious added second order harmonic is a good thing-the ARC Ref 6 and 10 are examples. A bit too much creates more problems than usual with gear matching-the Primaluna Prologue Premium is an example.

I was led to believe that, expensive amp's had luxuries like silver solder. Rather than tin-lead s**t. Why has no-one mentioned that?