I tried designing a modest amplifier using op amps for the majority of the frontend. It's basically impossible unless you add a lot of stuff to buffer the opam

I tried designing a modest amplifier using op amps for the majority of the frontend. It's basically impossible unless you add a lot of stuff to buffer the opamp (which is why I wanted to use an op amp instead of discrete stuff)... big power op amps that have decent distortion exists, but not at their rated power. You get like 0.1% thd at typical levels needed to drive an output stage. And also thermal distortion will absolutely be an issue at that point.