Ian Bell wrote:

No, of course you can have as many stages as you want so as much gain as
you want, however its gets harder to apply global feedback with more
stages as you start to run into problems with phase shift.


Agreed but surely true of any topology?

Yes, anything with RC stages and transformers is prone to this, its part
of why valve amps tend to have low (or none) feedback.


Now
some will prefer that effect, but in that case, the same sound can be
obtained by PP amps using feedback,


Interesting. IIRC PP systems can only produce odd harmonic distortion which
sounds more musical. I am not sure what the primary distortion mechanisms
are in valve SE designs but you statement infers it must be mainly eben
harmonics.

Yes, traditionally SE produces predominantly second order harmonics.


And I am just curious to know more. I have no axe to grind either way.


Fair enough :-)

--
Nick