You are absolutely right - in the UK, the SS amps that you were going through were generally pants HH, scrap heap junk stuff. So Trace, being able to deliver "normally" was a bit of a novelty... And lets not forget, these Trace watts were normally demonstrated with multiple cabs... moving a lot of air... so yes, these Trace amps sounded massive to that 1x15 crackly piece of junk that it was being pitted against.