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RE: I am convinced that is what is already happenning.

"I am not convinced of anything."

How in the bloody hell else you going to explain the recent resurgence in popularity of flea powered SET amps? Especially considering half the folks using this type of equipment are running those 8 foot tall ultra inefficient foil speakers. Seems like a not to much of a leap to get to the conclusion these folks like the sound of a soft limiting tube.

"I think by now it should not be terribly surprising when people claim an ultra low distortion amp doesn't sound good."

It would sure surprise the heck out of me. The best sounding file by far out of all four of the distortion comparison files is the no distortion reference recording if you asked me. BTW I think you might have meant harmonic distortion and more specifically a certain type, namely the soft clipping SET tube amp type. Most distortion types will sound terrible in significant amounts. Even harmonic distortion can sound bad. It is merely this special class of harmonic distortions that are common with certain circuit topologies that seems to have been deemed not only acceptable but even desireable by audiophiles such as yourself. After listening to the files that it's easy to understand the attraction to the type of distortion the clipping SET amp file allows one to hear, it just apparently isn't my thing.

"Of course its not the THD per se its the underlying mechanism resulting in the THD (ie. the circuit design and thus the transfer function)."

With all due respect Morricab, the point of my posts was pretty much making fun of some folks around here who think this is some big new discovery...this is not exactly fresh news. Guitar players have known about bitchen tube distortion for decades. Hopefully though no one takes it personally since I'm just giving a hard time is all.

I just haven't had it proved to me that there are desireable distortions that should be designed into the circuitry. Of course I haven't ever been exposed to a tube stereo that can do for me what I'm running now, otherwise I'd obviously be singing another tune. Please see paragraph above where I state my distortion comparison file listening preference, the no distortion reference file. To each his own, eh man? I really would like to hear a high end tube setup one day that I think gives my own system a run for the money in a way that would please me. However I predict if I like it it will be running out of clipping on some really efficient speakers. I'd love to be proven wrong sometime if I ever met someone local with that special tube based system.

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