I guess all the audio magazines that came out were all wrong about the au 717 and all the people that rave about it including me.
I don't think that's what Ken is saying :
1. High end, well engineered (ie, engineered to amplify evenly across the spectrum) amps will sound the same at the same volume level...
The au 717 was arguably "high end" and "well engineered" at a time when most integrated amps were not.
..., assuming the capabilities of the amp are not being exceeded at that volume level (ie, the amp is not clipping)
I haven't seen formal tests to support this, but my impression from reviews is that the au 717 was quite "overbuilt" for its specs, so it's probably fair to say that it's capabilities were comparable to more powerful amps at the time.
This is just my impression from when I was learning about vintage Sansui components myself, but there do seem to be solid reasons why people like them (the appearance/styling/build quality seems really nice too). That said, I don't believe any of this is in conflict with the points that Ken made, particularly the one about "exceeding the capabilities" of the amp.
