Walking blindly into audio can work either way.
I decided to build a mobile disco in 1980.
Looked around at amplifiers and after looking at module amps decided to go for a discrete Maplin 225WRMS amplifier.
I then simply bought four Fane 12-50WRMS speakers and popped them into boxes with no though about size except they should fit in the car,
I was lucky it turned out ok. Never had any complaints about the sound despite speakers only working up to 3KHz. Only sound complaint was turn it down a bit.
My costs for the project were minimal compared to the thousands some people pay for systems.
I have to wonder if this observance brings into question the assertion that amplifier distortion - or distortion profile - effects perceived dynamics of material played through.
The lower distortion amp loses out because the ding of that triangle sounds a bit less like it's actually in the room. It - apparently - doesnt have as crisp a presentation, or seems overly attenuated when doing an amp comparison.
Of course, like explicit dynamic range expansion, there's only so far you can go with using distortion (profiles) to effect that perception.
Since those types of sounds are "missing" for me these days - I'll take all the dynamic range I can fake - before it all turns into mud of course. (If the triangle were actually being played in the room, I'm pretty sure I'd still hear it, even with my eyes closed. So why no longer in the recording?)
So perhaps the salesman should say "You're how old? Have we got a distortion (profile) for you!" Or there's an integrated amp with Input, Bass, Treble, Age and Volume controls on the front panel... Age goes to from 10 - 100...
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Didn't sound like distortion. In fact measured AHB2 distortion it is one of the lowest of any amplifier made today. Thus distortion as an explanation seems less likely when prior probability is considered. Also as previously mentioned, sounded more like noise modulation to me (smooth, subtle sounding noise in this case).
As an aside, sometimes it feels like audio engineers tend to be overly focused on HD. We may look for it because we have very sensitive ways of measuring it, and if we don't find any then we may tend to jump to the conclusion there can be not be any problem unless it is an imaginary one. Sort of reminds me of the story about the drunk looking for his car keys under a streetlight, rather than looking in the dark alley where the keys were dropped. Silly story, and easy to see when someone else is making the mistake. Can be almost impossible to realize when one's self may be involved in doing an analogous type of thing though.