In reply to:
If you all believe that every receiver in existence sounds the same
Holy crap.....it's like beating a dead horse. Not a single person here has claimed that all receivers or amps sound the same. We've only claimed that any two receivers that are measurably flat in their amplification will sound the same.
A linear amp changes the input signal only by making it louder. In other words, it changes the source signal's amplitude equally across the entire range of human hearing.
A non-linear amp will not increase a signal's loudness equally from 20Hz to 20kHz. There might be a gradual dip at the high end, resulting in a "warmer" tone. There might be a gradual dip on the low end, resulting in "anemic" bass.
All the "brain trust" -- to borrow a term from 2x6 -- has been saying is that two amps with measurably flat frequency responses will sound the same. To put it another way, measurably flat frequency response results in transparent amplification, as long as you're not overdriving the amp.
