I was at Animal Crossing lunch at Nintendo World and it was a massive line and my kids were sad that we couldn't go right in. Well I more or less owe my career to pirating software for people and if kids arent doing that today (which I doubt) more job security for me!
Old? Hasn't changed. Most of this is due to everything being SMD. Not paralleling transistors and using larger dies is probably better. I think Kevin's design is better, imho.
Um. That is my point. Kevin seemed to think so. Look at the pics in the thread.
Venting isn't the issue. The goal is creating some thermal resistance around the tubes so the top plate doesnt just conduct all that heat and act as a giant heat spreader.
My favorite 9018 implementation is audiolab. Westlake figured this chip out. I havent heard anything W4S has done that sounded anywhere close to good. Ymmv of course.