Smooth sounding curves

Abrupt curves look ugly. Why should they sound good?


Smooth curves are like a woman's body.


And they sound good.


Class A amplifiers are very linear at small levels and progressively nonlinear at high levels.


A music signal has such a tremendous dynamic range that it is impossible to keep it in the straight part of an op amp or digital system's "linear characteristic".


This applies to reproduction but even more so to production.


And this is major reason why electron tube made 60's recordings sound like the real thing.


Reference:


Tubes vs Transistors, Is there an audible difference? - Russel O. Hamm - JAES