Danny has done a lot to teach us about component quality in speaker and crossover design, how much of that knowledge translates into other components like power amps, preamps, and receivers?
I know that parts matter, as does circuit design/topology, but I don't really know what parts are best when it comes to power amps or preamps? We've seen from Danny's teardown of some expensive fancy brand name speakers that they'll include "cheesy" parts inside speakers that cost thousands of dollars. From watching all of the GR Research videos I'm able to identify poor-quality components in a speaker, I wish I could do the same for preamps. All I have is one brand's marketing brochure vs another brand's marketing brochure.
For example, I'm looking at stereo preamps right now I'm interested in offerings from Anthem, NAD, and Rotel, to pair with my Parasound Halo A23+ stereo amp. I'm looking in the $2000-$4000 price range. Rotel talks about component quality a lot (slit foil caps, dual toroidal custom-wound transformers), and their Michi line is supposed to be top-of-the-line stuff, at a good price. But is it really? IDK. The THD%, S/N, specs of Rotels $2000 preamp are almost the same as their $4000 preamp, what makes the $4000 preamp better, or is it mostly marketing and a fancy look case?.
I know passive speakers are relatively simple compared to preamps, and power amps and circuit topology probably play a bigger role so maybe it's not as simple as looking at the parts, but I was wondering if y'all had any guidance on this or possibly this could be a subject for a Youtube video.