I keep finding terms difficult when we are describing the experience of music.
Like transparency and resolution. The way they are usually used, they are positive terms, and if cold, hard detail were a part of them, I don't think folks would interpret them as good. Semantics are difficult when music is as good as it can get with Decware in the center of our gear and rooms.
As I think about it, I guess resolution in balance is a core prerequisite for the music to come through with authenticity. It allows everything to "resolve" naturally from an open and empty background. In this case I think of resolution as an aspect of "musicality." But if the "resolution" is not "transparent, if it is notably "colored," not resolving all that makes music with balance...in effect, it is not truly resolving the recorded material.
I don't think there is any aspect of the musical presentation that is more important than any other. If any part is over or under-stated, it sounds like it. I do hear complete, complex detail as a critical aspect of the music, something we hear in a studio or a good room, and something missing if our system/room does not have excellent resolution in balance. And not just for atmosphere, ambience, air..., but also proper detail makes the mids and bass more authentic..... body, warmth, attack, decay, weight, textures...isn't complex detail an aspect of everything we hear? But at the same time, detail without complexity, without the fine parts...it is too hard and rigid. It hurts.
Also, if my system is too dark...too full of weight and body, it does not sound "real." If it lacks the natural warmth and body of a human voice, or the warm qualities we choose an instrument for, it sounds wrong. Without the support of complex detail, "warmth" is just dark....
That said, I have not heard a Decware amp with stock tubes, wires and feet that has given me as full a sense of convincing authenticity as I like without tuning all the tools together in this system and room to get there.
So I welcome Steve's "transparency, resolution, and perfect bass" knowing I like his voicing, but also because I have always had to take these qualities further for what I need for a complete musical experience.
I do have a hard time imagining transparency, resolution and linearity being 80% better than I am listening to now with my MKIV. But I have worked a lot on these things....I am not very good at these percentage things either, and maybe Steve is referring mainly to resolution being 80% improved by the new transformers? I suppose I can begin to grasp this possibility, the musical finesse from very refined resolution being perhaps exactly what I have been working on my whole audio quest.... to resolve the complexity of natural music in a convincing way.
In fact, who knows what we are really talking about as we try to put to words the Experience of Music!