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In Reply to: RE: Confession time: Have you ever "tricked" your own ears? posted by genungo on September 11, 2014 at 08:14:29
I'm glad you began this conversation, because I think it's very important. I have noticed seemingly big differences in the sound of my components from day to day when nothing has changed--same sources, components, room, listening position, etc. One evening I'll hear a hard over crispness that seems to vanish the next listening session. Surely our hearing mechanisms vary slightly day-to-day with our physical state, the temperature and humidity in the room, etc. that can affect what we hear.
As you suggested, expectations of what we are likely to hear affect our perceptions too. Lately, out of curiosity, I bought some "exotic" speaker cables and interconnects. I bought used stuff not wanting to spend too much money on this experiment. The cables cost on the order of 100 times the cost of the Radio Shack interconnects and inexpensive stranded copper from the big box home center I used and, while I could hear differences, they were very minor, certainly not so significant that I was encouraged to look at even more costly components.
Good topic!
Best,
George
Follow Ups:
"they were very minor, certainly not so significant that I was encouraged to look at even more costly components."
There you go!
For decades I have been saying that if you have to sit on the edge of your seat and scrunch up your face and you still get a "now I hear it now don't" feeling it simply is not worth pursuing, it simply is not there.
Which brings me to another notion that holds that one tiny difference may have no significance in and of itself but that many such tiny differences could aggregate to a more appreciable difference.
Now one can think about the distinction between "difference" and "improvement" for a mighty long time.
At any rate no component can be evaluated subjectively on its own and only entire systems should be judged as they are just that: "systems".
Bottom line: subjective reviews as we know them are entertainment and not valid evaluations of what we all listen to: a sound reproducing system.
If subjective evaluations were to be of any real use, the variables would have to be taken into consideration and they are not. All you get are rank amateurs on line writing too little and "pros" in magazines writing too much.
It's all willy-nilly, it's all entertainment, it's all low quality information, but it's so much fun!
Hey middleground, that was well-written and spot-on.
I especially like your reminder that these are "systems". All too often, people have a mindset that you can simply swap one component for another, with disregard for how it interacts with the components it's connected to. I remember John Meyer (Meyer Sound Labs) telling me way back in 1974: "It's a SYSTEM", and emphasizing the importance of matching components to each other. There has been good progress over the past 20-30 years in general thinking and understanding when it comes to matching amps and speakers, but much less in matching electronic components with each other.
Synergy matters!
:)
I've had experiences similar to yours.However, I don't regret spending the relatively modest amounts I've spent on better interconnects and powercords because they are sturdier and better connectors than any stock cables I have on hand. The sonic improvements are pretty subtle ones, at least to my ears. I like the budget interconnects from Audioquest and Kimber. PS Audio's entry level powercords are very nicely made and I'm not tempted to pay a lot more for the higher models.
Edits: 09/12/14 09/12/14
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