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

@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.

@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?

My ears and brain work together and outside of their limitations, I don't care because it's beyond my hearing and comprehension. 

I think the idea that advancements have slowed to a crawl is right. One area of improvement is the bringing of better designs to lower price points. To the masses, if you will. And then of course, the "B" and "C" tier can be had for even less these days.

But after reading this tedious thread, another thing comes to mind. It doesn’t matter what the subject is, folks will push their agendas ad nauseam. Class D, class T, pro amps, etc., I guess the future’s so bright for them I gotta wear shades.

This reminds of of the fervour with with some people will push their new favourite brand, like they just discovered the world’s first speaker. It’s another pet peeve of mine on these forums, the cult-like fanboyism with which certain internet brands get pushed, like fanatics at the airport. No thanks, dude, I gave at the office, okay?!