don't be a PRaT, don't believe in the marketing-speak. Listen for yourselves, there are great amps out there, many designed and made in Japan!
Having worked with UK and Japanese design teams, I can say that there is a big cultural difference between the two plus a complete different way of listening.
A typical Japanese listening session would cover classical music, female voices and small Jazz trios. The focus is on tonal balance and imaging. Yes, a Japanese amp can time well, but that's more accident than design feature.
A UK design team would look for timing more than imaging and tonal accuracy. They would listen more to Rock or Pop, not to typical Audiophile music. Some of them would not even sit in the middle between the speakers, but only listen to the emotional part of the music. Yes, a typical British amp can do image and can be tonal correct, but it would be accident, not a design feature.
OK, I'm maybe painting it bold, but in reality, it's a bit like this.
Having both philosophies in my listening room, I can swap within a minute and demonstrate the difference. Listening with the Naim system, the music is "riding" on the bass guitar and on the drum kit. The more classic set is doing the bigger, wider image, but you have difficulties to follow the rhythm in the music as easy as you do it with a NAIM system.
Both systems have been designed that way - by people with a type of sound in mind.
Whenever somebody is working on modifications, he is trying to adapt to his own "filter" to the kit. That might give more imaging on a NAIM system or smoother top end and the balance is OK for him.
From that experience, I stopped making a kind of religion out of it.
ATB KH
