Bob Carver, the legendary amp designer was one of the first to get “tube sound” from transistorized components by means of shaping circuits. Others have done similar work in digital to analog circuits, if one wants to pay dearly for the high end audio stuff. I dearly love Yamaha’s amps and receivers (even their low end stuff) for their utterly clean sound, even with the DSP being used to create their legendary digital sound fields(from digitally sampled echo info taken from famous public and concert venues).
I've wanted a Silver 7 amp for a couple of decades now. I remember reading a Stereo Review article about it. Their comments about the amp was that, like most manufacturers, Carver was less than 'truthful' about the power his amp was capable of. However unlike most manufacturers, his power estimates were actually wildly conservative, because he was unwilling to certify a power level with any audible distortion at all. Unfortunately, the abuse I've subjected my ears to over the years has really rendered my ability to hear the nuances his hardware brings to the table.