does more power=better quality ?

"I believe a lot of audiophiles prefer music that has had
the harsh "edges" removed by some wimpy amp. You may
prefer it - but it is not accurate."

This may hold some water. But it isn't the case with all of us . Now your making blanket statements. Not all flea powered amps are created equal. I can't live with warm and fuzzy. Just doesn't work for me.

I've heard high powered amps that round edges off and make all recordings sound like I have cotton in my ears. My flea powered amp doesn't do this. I do not want to argue just trying to clear the notion that all low wattage amplifiers smooth over the recordings.

Good Listening!

Morbius:

As for blanket statements, I wrote "my experience has very much been that lowered-powered amps, assuming reasonably sensitive speakers, tend to sound cleaner and more life-like than mega amps." The words "tend to sound cleaner" prevent this from being a blanket statement, assuming a minimal understanding of the English language.

PS - Unlike you, I do not provide my name and profession when posting on public Internet forums, but I will give you a clue as to my profession and say that, should you ever be offered a chance to provide expert testimony in litigation, be it in a matter involving your specialty, hi-fi or anything else, you will definitely want to pass.

I am now out of this insipid exchange.

Raquel, I've followed this thread with interest and I want to congratulate you on your brilliance and fairness. The law profession is lucky to have you. As for the pompous little bully, we can only pity him for needing to proclaim himself with his scientific qualifications and HUGE FONTS to compensate for something we don't want to know about.

I too have followed this thread and was interested to read an engineering/scientific point of view as to why a higher powered amp has the potential to be more refined when it has more amplifying devices. And I feel Mr. Greenman made a fair and honest attempt to explain this. As for him being labeled a pompous bully, I don't see the justification for this at all. At least he has the integrity to sign his name here.

As for the use of huge fonts, I suspect it is due to his frustration that his measured lab results are at significant odds with claims by others on device linearity, semiconductor theory, etc., that are more based on home and audio shop listening experiences, magazine reports, etc., than bench testing.

It's always unfortunate when a thread of potential value results in a game of "I can write and speak better than you, so my advice to you is to not even bother trying to beat me here". It matters to me not at all how someone speaks in court as it's all a game of whose more clever with words and very little substance there anyway. But trying to discern why and how two amplifiers of a same company may sound different strictly due to the number of power output devices....now, we have some substance. And the simplicity of a set of graphs comparing device linearity, should be rather straight forward to present even to a court room.....well, one where the judge or jury has at least some level of technical competence. But I'm not even going to get into that.

If I went to an audio shop and the sound of a $200k system was no match for a system in another room, at a fraction of that cost, the only conclusion I'd make is that the owner of that shop needs to get in that high priced room and find out what is wrong. Until that was resolved, I would not give a lot of credit to the shop owner beyond his/her ability to throw high-priced products together in an attempt to impress others. And if I did suspect it was an amplifier fault or difference, I would definitely want to hear another amplifier in that system in an attempt to eliminate the amp as the cause of the problem or lack of "musicality".

Oh, and the issue of linear amplification ........ ah yes, the Convergent Audio Technology JL series.

John

I have been listening to music since before a 45 watt ss amp was the biggest baddest thing around, a Sansui AU999, for those who remember.
Graphs, are indeed a point for noting and do indicate basic paramaters for measurement, squarewave formation, slew rate, etc. There is though a basic and real diffeence between measurement and music.
I cannot prove this, but I believe with enough info it would be quite able to get two different amps, even different types of amps, at equal wattage whose reaasurements were commensurable but whose sound was not.
Measurements are a good starting point but I believe a poor ending point. Yes, I do prefer the sound I search for via various components, cables, power cords, and sources. It may or may not be neutral, authenticly-live, etc. but it is what I like. I believe the good doctor and the good lawyer were talking past each other, their points were not so much mistaken or even misspoken as not heard.
The Drs. view that audiophiles may prefer a less than measured neutral actual live sound may indeed be true.
The lawyers that lowered power amps tend to sound clearer etc. is probably also true. It is his ears after all. OUrs may listen differently.
Getting all hot because the specs and measurements are so cool is a good starting point but a poor buying one. Once again Trust your Ears. And perhaps agree to disagree when necessary