What's really funny, or sad, is that all the blabbing away is usually done by people who have never heard a low feedback class-a amplifier playing back a 50's vinyl..
THAT is the test which makes people understand over here at my place..
I have been screwing around with audio amps for decades now, and it was my highest priority as a kid to get as close to the music as possible..
people come over and listen to the records and their expression is that of pleasent surprise... it sounds like a performance.
you can, in my experience, only get this reaction from a low feedback tube amp setup in class-a.
triodes have inherent neg. feedback.. true... but it is local.
I prefer the sound of pentodes with neg. feedback from anode to grid sometimes.
Sahib, you will NOT get the answer at the local hi-fi store because low feedback amps are very expensive to make properly, with PSU parts being hyper-critical as well as other issues such as stability etc.
without high feedback ALL of the deficiencies of the various caps and transformers become evident..
STILL... the low feedback design when used in conjunction with anode chokes is the most lifelike of sound amplifiers.
it ALL depends on the quality of the active and passive components.
one reason why the 50's tube mics burn modern 'low distortion' mics is because they are a low-feedback, class-a design..
or why the fairchild, with all it's distortion, is great on vocals.. the only feedback is the internal feedback of the tubes, and the 4 tubes are wired as one stage with no coupling caps and an inductive load..
but what would our engineer friends do with the new technology then?