IMO, an erroneous tittle to create a sensationalist article to sell magazines and make us read the review of a $230 000 SE amplifier - oops, the ML3 was really cheap ... Unfortunately it miseducates most audiophiles.
There is no contradiction or paradox at all in preferences between audiophiles. We have enough people posting in WBF enjoying SET amplfiers to know why they subjectively prefer them.
RH focus on extremes, misrepresenting modern audio engineers and measurements. This article is dated - I would accept in the last century, not in 2024. Martin Colloms and John Atkinson addressed the subject in HiIFi News and Stereophile decades ago with much more depth and seriousness.
BTW, David Berning is a renowned audio engineer and designer, I would love to see measurements of the Berning/Hi-Fi One Reference SET. something that TAS unfortunately does not supply.
BTW, the article inks to an interesting review that most SET lovers will hate. I quote " The innovative technology of David Berning’s output-transformerless topology is realized with cost-no-object implementation by people with a driving passion and uncompromising ethos, resulting in an SET that sounds like no SET before it."
Ok, it uses a single tube in the output ... IMO measurements are urgently needed!