Why do we hold amplifiers to such high standards?

[egellings]

The dynamic range of your system will be limited by the one piece of gear with the lowest dynamic range (weakest link) and the noise adds up from all the gear sort of. BUT as far as hifi electronics go the power amp is the hardest to design with high sinad. High gain and high power. So, often this is the weakest link.

10X is plenty gain for a power amp. Not hard to get.

 

[Cbdb2]

10X is plenty gain for a power amp. Not hard to get.

From: https://the-ear.net/review-hardware/bryston-4b3-power-amplifier/

"Gain can be configured for 23dB or 29dB to suit preamplifiers with higher or lower outputs, I found the higher gain setting well suited to the Townshend Allegri passive controller used for much of the listening."

That will increase the noise from all previous gear and the input section by up to 29 dB, while preamps (not counting vinyl inputs) decrease the input noise and all you need are some opamps. Add to that high currents and heat and you get even more noise in power amps.