"Ian Molton" wrote in message

Andy Evans wrote:

This is the snag with making obervations without reliable
measurements. You end up having to try things 'at random' in the
hope some might seem better, but not then be sure if or why... (JL)

This is true, but it doesn't rule out trial and error as a
legitimate way of getting results. When you think how many times
Beethoven re-wrote the 5th symphony (a process typical to
composition), you can see that the final result was in fact a
process of trial and error. I think it's quite fair to think of
creating a sound system as an act of creativity,

Thing is that when creating a symphony there is no definable goal.

Horsefeathers. Composers have a variety of goals, some known, some unknown.
Sometimes the goal was on the order of mainting a nice salaried position in
some court, sometimes fame and fortune, sometimes the goal was to simply
pass the time.

when creating an amp there is only one definable goal, which is
linearity across the audible frequency range.

If there is only one definable goal for a power amp, then the goal would be
to be the proverbial straight wire with gain.

if you want to go for a 'coloured' amp design, then all bets are off I
guess.

Far better to just get a good parametric eq and a good clean amplifier.