Your statement about aural memory being myopic in the extreme is most certainly true – in a sense. I would, however, also like to point out that certain improvements which immediately sound like steps in the wrong direction may not only reverse (apparent) course, but do so to a remarkable extent – with continued listening (more than a couple of hours). I’ve had such an experience, so I’m speaking from experience. Oddly enough, this is highly suggestive of a persistence – which contradicts that ‘most certainly true statement’ (in a sense). Furthermore, it requires that we endure an adjustment period during which we relearn how to listen, as it were. I sometimes wonder if at least part of the break-in period of something new is actually a manifestation of this psychological phenomenon (no rocks please – I did say ‘part’).
I can’t help but be curious about how you’re going to execute equipment swaps on NASCAR pit crew timetables while guaranteeing such little details as volume matching – and remember that greater volume (at the same setting on your preamp) from amp ‘B’ as compared to amp ‘C’ doesn’t necessarily imply that the former has more power than the latter (part of what makes equipment synergy such a key element). It takes more than 30 seconds for my amp to sputter its way to silence (okay, for the caps to discharge). Adding some kind of switching system to facilitate expeditious changes introduces another interactive element that may prove to be the lens through which you view the performance of each amp.
Where was it that ‘road paved with good intentions’ leads?
"Jazz is not dead - it just smells funny" FZ
