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Small difference equating to a big difference?

My system had started to sound a bit dull and lifeless to me ever since I put in some blue jeans interconnects. I'm getting a lightspeed attenuator in a week or two so I purchased two pairs of short, inexpensive interconnects with a really low rated capacitance in order to use them with the lightspeed. Anyways, I replaced a pair of audioquest diamond back rca's between my dac and pre, and a pair of signal cable silver resolution xlr's between my amp and pre amp with the blue jeans so that I could have them broken in by the time the lightspeed gets here.
Anyhow, my system had, what I thought, lost a lot of detail and "life" and couldn't really figure out exactly why. So I grabbed two pairs of analysis plus oval interconnects to demo tonight and voila, right from the first song, I had my detail and "life" back. When I a/b compared them to the blue jeans I couldn't spot big differences like I thought I'd be able to, but for some reason it does in fact sound like a big difference and I can't put my finger, errrr, ear on it. The analysis plus do have slightly more detail and sound slightly more fleshed out but the don't sound day and night different but they do; does that make sense to anyone?
At the end, I a/b compared the original diamond back from dac to pre, signal cable silver res xlr between the pre and amp to the analysis plus between dac and pre and also between pre and amp. The diamond back / signal set up had more bass and equaled the analysis plus in all other areas but for some reason I still slightly prefer the analysis plus.

I've found also that sometimes it's hard for me to give a product an honest assesment if I've read reviews on the product before I listen to it because I'll be anticipate hearing the pros and cons about that product before I even begin to listen.

So what do you think is going on here with such perceived slight differences making a bigger difference? Is it possible I'm picking up on things in the sound that I'm not consciously aware of analysing like tone or prat?
128x128b_limo
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,928 posts
 
A small difference is usually all it takes to make an impact of larger proportions.
Once something sounds more 'real', the small amount of improvement done is all it takes to make it all the more appreciable and seemingly, a larger and more rewarding improvement.

A drop or rise of a few degrees can make a big difference in ones comfort. Knowing that a small difference exists in listening and that small improvement was all it took to improve your listening comfort level (the level it takes for you to just listen for pleasures sake) can be quite the revelation.

All the best,
Nonoise
rsjm80
207 posts
 
Could just be as Ivan has said that the inclusion of 2 of the same branded ICs has that better synergy that is making that difference. But might I also ask if you made any other subtle adjustment to our system as well when you changed the Ics? And yes review hype CAN INFLUENCE what you hear or at least change some of your preseption but how much time had the Analysis had on them as opposed to the Blue Jeans? That burn time also could have some serious influence on what you're hearing or not hearing as well
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,460 posts
 
Humans are fallible creatures. That's basically it. Accurate assessments take time and a lot of care.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Maybe you are more like me; a lumper rather than a splitter (of individual attributes). I'm not very analytical in my listening; more of a gestalt kind of guy. Which one "speaks" to more? Does it give me a better emotional connection to the artist? Sometimes I can identify the reason, sometimes not, but in the end I really don't care.
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
Wait a cotton-picking minute B_limo....are you trying to tell me that you hear sonic differences between cables????

Wait right here, I'll go round up Rok2id, Irvrobinson and the rest of the cable police to read you the riot act.

You didn't perform a DBT, so the differences that you think you hear are invalid. ;)
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