FWIW, I think that for most 'ears' it is more about 'different' than it is about 'improvement'. Given a certain level of quality to begin with (high) IMHO most of what the manufacturers are doing with new products is tweaking a product and, perhaps, just moving the sound in a different direction. Yesterdays 'romantic' became todays resolution/clarity/dynamic range, but not, I think, because of any fundamental changes in design so much as popular expectation. In lesser products new iterations are not necessarily so constrained. :-)
Maximum Upgrade Potential
I have a 20+ year old Prima Luna Dialogue One, and am looking at other tube amps for some unknown time in the future. I recently replaced my power tubes, and a thought occurred to me: When do you get to the limits of an amplifiers ability to be improved, or maximum sound quality? If I got the best available tubes, power conditioner, cables, etc., how much improvement would I expect relative to an amplifier a step or two up the quality chain? Will the best and most expensive tubes improve all amps equally or benefit some more than others? And at what point is one just putting lipstick on a pig?
Thanks,
John Cotner
New Ulm, MN