new amp vs old amp

What are your other components? I recently played around with two different amps that I owned (Aragon 8008BB & Pass Labs X150) It was a quick audtion in my own room with my gear. The differences were subtle in some recordings obvious in others. On these recordings even my girlfriend who really just humors my obsession in audio was able to pick out the Aragon and the Pass. She did it over and over again! So I think as the post above say it really depends on many things such as your system, the quality of the recording, etc.

Hi Ampzilla; Sean has a good list of possibilities above. One I would add is becoming very, very familiar with a particulat recording with one of the amps. I mean get so familiar that you are almost sick of it-- then put in the other amp and see what you think. If the music still sounds the same, I would guess there is a weak link somewhere else in your system.

At some point you need to become totally confident in your hearing and hearing perception(s), ie maybe they really do sound the same. Although I would guess that there should at least be a difference in bass character/quality. Good Luck. Craig.

I'd like to share my expierences in changing audio pieces or cables. This may seem strange but I've run across this many times. On occasion when auditioning a different piece of gear or cable I would hear either subtle or no difference. But when I would put the original piece or cable back in my system is when I would realize the different characteristics of the piece or cable that I had taken out of the system. This may not seem to make any sense but for me it has become part of my auditioning pratice. Perhaps I don't have the golden ears others have, or I wish I had. ----->Ray

Ampzilla: your "brief A/B testing" makes it seem as though neither piece was warmed up thoroughly. By "thoroughly warming up" I mean powered on for at least 30 hours.
In solid state equipment it takes that long a time for the power supply regulators to attain thermal stabilization; any comparisons prior to that may be preliminary at best.

for the record the rest of my system,aside from the new and old amp!are amc cd8b,p.s audio 4.5 vandersteen model 1,and also some tannoy proto j's.im about to replace the p.s audio in favor of an older preamp,believe it or not.im going to buy a thalia,well see what happens,thanks for all your helpfull advice!!!amp.