wrote:

Keep the spin coming Trevor.Or is it just dogma?

The Gainclone chip amps were evolved by the former Head of Design at
Luxman.This is the man who dared to make tube amps and low negative
feedback SS amps at Luxman during the 1970s when it was very
unfashionable.[The Duo Beta series of SS amps]
His amp and preamp designs are noted for their ability to image
precisely[relatively anyway], which is something very rare in
mainstream equipment from that era.Clearly he discovered similar traits
with chip amps and this motivated him to start 47 Labs.
These things are not perfect,and the component cost might be low-but
they really do put to shame even expensive and well designed SS amps
when it comes to imaging precision and depth.Especially those with high
damping factors and feedback.

JT - you really don't understand how a 'Gainclone' amp works.
There is very little design or 'evolving' involved. You just buy a two dollar
chip and copy the circuit from the manufacturer's datasheet.
If you read the datasheet you will see that the amp is a power opamp,
and is used with plenty of global negative feedback.
If you really want to use it without negative feedback, put a capacitor from
the inverting input to ground. You will have very high gain, high distortion
and low bandwidth. Actually, you probably would like the imaging and depth!

--
Eiron

No good deed ever goes unpunished.