The Absurdity of it All

Like the bumper says “Old guys rule.” 
Doubless this was coined by an old guy. Most likely he was single. 

When I was a lad I gave my dad a bumper sticker that read;
Old age and cunning will always overcome youth and skill.
He loved that sticker. 

All the best,
Nonoise

@jpeters568. 
 I’ve brought this up many time to help illustrate my point. Take two capacitors from two different manufacturers, exact same specs, exact same measurements. Sound different. Do the same with two tubes. They sound different.

Shouldnt matter, I agree, but yet, it does. Why? Don’t know, don’t care. If I replace something, or change something up, I live with it for a while. Then I consider what is missing, or what there is perhaps too much of. Then I make a change again and listen for changes.

If you are watching a film of poor video quality, after a little while you don’t notice that bad quality so much. The mind compensates - especially if it’s a film that has captured your interest.

Same holds true for sound. If I’m trying to tune a bookshelf speaker after having been listening to electrostatics, it’s going to cause some problems. So, I live with them for a while, let my brain adjust before I listen critically and attempt to make changes. 

@perkri - first - thanks for engaging and teaching me something. I really do appreciate it! I can't speak to rolling tubes or changing capacitors, I have absolutely no experience with either. But I have experience  swapping out components which has made a difference. But it's immediate and I do an A/B right there and then and can hear the differences. (And with components at least, it's obvious - cables - not so much.) But, that's a 1+0 sum to get somewhere better. 

I don't understand why you have to have time between them - unless you mean just adjusting to something new. Yes, ribbons are different than boxes, etc. So I can see that with speakers and their designs, but electronics? Cables? Are you just adjusting to the sound, or is it a +1 difference? 

In the grand scheme of audio systems...less is more. The more tweaks you put in the system, the more hurdles that need to be jumped. My favorite music system for years is CD/DVD/computer player through passive volume control straight to power amp through 12 gauge copper to speakers. 

The quality of the recording dictates the quality of the playback. Buy better software.