Well, no offense, but gain staging is something you have to do for ANY PA... Why does it make so much reported difference to the SOUND if you aren't red-lighting it? There seems to be a lot of anecdotal post about people that didn't like it, and the response is always 'well, he didn't gain stage it right'.

Which, apart from the distortion (which out to be apparent) ought not to affect the TONE of the PA, the perceived EQ balance. Why is this gain sensitive? My conventional PA sounds exactly the same at any gain setting short of outright clipping.

Flat is flat, no red light means no distortion... Why is it any more complicated than that?