Unfortunately I can't see any correlation between the use of different driver stages, power stages, and power supplies and the amplifier comparison chart.
I suggest that users ignore the technical details and just focus on the Amp Comparison chart. Off course you can't correlate fully because it is not as simple as assembling lego blocks to get certain result. What we have shown is the
concept.
Forget about the WHY, just follow the recommendation.
For example, if you are a circuit design engineer, then you would know the trade offs between Full Bridge and Half Bridge circuit. If you don't, this is not the forum for circuit design, and I am certainly not qualified to explain. Similarly, how challenging is using discrete transistor to create the desire sonic characteristic? What we have explained here (preamp stage, Class-D amp stage, switching PSU, linear PSU and various trade offs) are known to circuit design engineers, but very few would be able to achieve the kind of control, precision and performance that we have done here. An analogy would be "we all know how to drive a car, but few can win the Indy500".
I have a master degree in electrical engineering, but major in computing. And I can only understand half of what my chief engineer is telling me (may be half is a big exaggeration). I do understand how a transistor works, and have done simple design with transistor (long time ago), But what he has done is really hard.
I met a German speaker designer at the high end show in Munich in May. He doesn't know how it works, but he is smart enough to buy the STA-9 and IDA-16, take the preamp stage of STA-9 and combine it with the power amp module in IDA-16, and created a new sound and he told me it is incredible. I guess he doesn't want as much warmth as STA-9, and also not as neutral as IDA-16. Bingo.
So imagine if one day we can let you customise your sonic characteristic comfortably at home by flipping a few switches, everything is so smooth, so powerful, so dynamic, so perfect and yet customisable. Did I just describe audio heaven? Hopefully we will get there in less than 5 years time. And it will be affordable.