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I think the market has clearly spoken. Impeccable measurements are not the key to success. Rarely someone combines the impeccables with the right story and presentation. Generally highly transparent gear gets called harsh, cold and unmusical. Has been that way my whole life. Musicality is the way to go. Yet all the most musical devices have a signature when you arrange to hear them vs true transparency.
I believe Vladimir Lamm may have some good insight. He has held cleanest specs aren't the most musical. He also claims proprietary models of hearing. He did do an interview way back when he first was in business about his goals. At any given power level he felt distortion must stay absolutely the same across the 20 khz bandwidth. He thought that distortion should not stay low till near clipping levels. It should begin a slow, but steady rise as signal level goes up. I believe he wanted peaks to max out around 2% distortion. Now some triodes come close to this though they don't hit all the marks. On his webpage he shows measurements of his amps and you see they follow the description above of steadily rising distortion with power level, and even distortion across the bandwidth at each power level. Distortion that varied with frequency would cause what sounds like a frequency response aberration.
So I don't know if he has a handle on best musicality in design, but I think he is onto something. Musicality sells and character rather than transparency sells. If it were me, I would make everything totally transparent and front the system with a musical pre-amp that met Lamm's guidelines. Easier than making amps. Even better get some DSP to make it musical. You will just have to come up with a cover story on your marketing. Everyone knows digital is bad mojo. No matter how transparent it is. You can't simply have a musicality plug in.
I believe Vladimir Lamm may have some good insight. He has held cleanest specs aren't the most musical. He also claims proprietary models of hearing. He did do an interview way back when he first was in business about his goals. At any given power level he felt distortion must stay absolutely the same across the 20 khz bandwidth. He thought that distortion should not stay low till near clipping levels. It should begin a slow, but steady rise as signal level goes up. I believe he wanted peaks to max out around 2% distortion. Now some triodes come close to this though they don't hit all the marks. On his webpage he shows measurements of his amps and you see they follow the description above of steadily rising distortion with power level, and even distortion across the bandwidth at each power level. Distortion that varied with frequency would cause what sounds like a frequency response aberration.
So I don't know if he has a handle on best musicality in design, but I think he is onto something. Musicality sells and character rather than transparency sells. If it were me, I would make everything totally transparent and front the system with a musical pre-amp that met Lamm's guidelines. Easier than making amps. Even better get some DSP to make it musical. You will just have to come up with a cover story on your marketing. Everyone knows digital is bad mojo. No matter how transparent it is. You can't simply have a musicality plug in.