Twl, have you ever looked at the distortion levels of many "nice" sounding tube amps as power increases ? The distortion curves vs power output are not very linear to say the least. A good example of this can be found in a earlier review of a BAT product in Stereophile. If you remember, there was a HUGE uproar about the test results with this unit when the review first came out.
To top it off, I just saw an "updated re-design" of the Marantz 8B in Audio Xpress. While the factory Marantz was rated at 30-35 wpc, this "new and improved" design that uses a notably bigger power supply, wider bandwidth transformers and automatic biasing should do more power with better frequency response and lower distortion. If you look at the test results, this amp is COMPLETELY "done" at anything above 10 wpc if your criteria is low distortion reproduction.
I would like to see something like an Atma-sphere, Tenor or one of Roger Modjeski's designs on the bench to see how they measure up. My guess is that they would probably be somewhat similar ( albeit better ) to the above mentioned products. I think that much of the "richness" and "harmonic structure" that we hear with tubes are artificial byproducts of the distortion that they generate. I think that most humans like that "feature" of tubes and think it sounds good. However, i don't think that such designs are "accurate".
Please keep in mind that i have 7 different pieces of tube gear that i currently own, so i'm not coming from an SS vs Tube point of view. I think that SS and tube do sound somewhat different in many aspects and one should buy what they like and will enjoy listening to. Sean
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