In my opinion here lies the deadlock of transistor schematic: designers change feedback depth, find faster semiconductors, increase energy input of power supply; they try out differential stages, current mirrors or 'broken' cascodes… Surely all these measures yield some result but for most listeners it's not perceptible. So is there a way out?
Alexey Syomin, founder of S.A.Lab, thinks the problem to be caused by the initially misguided approach to design. "Unlike tube, transistor amplifies current not voltage, — he said presenting a pre-market sample of White Knight integrated amplifier. — The main feature of this amp's schematic is the absence of amplifying stages in the ordinary sense of the word. Signal path consists of several emitter followers which amplify only the signal's power; its amplitude is 'accelerated' by several coupling step-up transformers with 5Hz–300kHz of bandwidth.