How do you define SOTA? Is it technological sophistication? Or is it ideal (subjective) sound?

It's hard to believe that it's a combination of for tech and subjective sound when pundits insist that the best sound is from the likes of SET and single-driver systems, technologies that have been around for generations.

OTOH, If SOTA is technology, then the real advances have been made in the likes of multi-channel high resolution like Dolby TrueHD delivered on Blu-ray, digital equalization, e.g. Audyssey, and in the improvements in light, cheap, efficient class D amplification.

Personally I don't know what to make of SET/HE because I haven't heard a lot of it. What I have heard, though, mostly lower end, hasn't impressed me all that much because I'm not convinced that it's really accurate sound. What bemuses me is that you can spend 100's of thousands on this stuff. I think there is a lot of "art" or maybe even "jewelery" involved; there is no science to demonstrate that silver wired transformers should out perform copper, but there are those willing to make them and those willing to buy them.

In the end I don't see the relevance of $10k+ SET/HE to me. But I do see a lots of trickle-down of the technology advances to the lower end equipment I might afford