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The Difficulties in Component "Shootouts"

First of all, I hate doing component "shootouts" or "this vs. thats" as if it’s a wrestling match. I find it tiresome and generally unenjoyable. That said, I purchased an Oppo 205 a couple months back and I’ve been really enjoying it, especially with my Oppo PM3 phones, now that it’s a bit broken in. But last night I broke my rules and decided to compare it directly to my EAR Acute CD player, which costs about 5x as much. OK, first of all, it’s impossible to do a realistic test at home because it can’t be a blind test, I’m using different interconnects and power cords, although of equal quality and I’m comparing CD to SACD, which may not even be the same mix. So that said, I was still curious. So I decided to use the Opus3 disc and the first track is "I can’t get started" that features a very realistic live performance on tenor sax. So I listen on the EAR and it’s pretty great. The tenor sax is up front, very live sounding with a lot of air and space. On the Oppo, even with SACD, the space around the instruments is not there and the horn sounds more honky and kazoo-like. But that’s not the point. The point is this - as I listen more to the Oppo, it starts sounding just fine. Nothing seems missing and I think that’s because the human ear has a way of filling in the missing pieces when we listen to music. That’s why I can listen to a Beethoven symphony on my Tivoli table radio with a 3" speaker and find it totally enjoyable. The brain completes the sonic picture that is lacking in the source. After a few back and forths, my ear became more and more desensitized and the whole experience just became boring and meaningless. So look - if shootouts are your cup of tea, go ahead by all means. It’s not my place to criticize how someone should enjoy his bought and paid for property, but I would much rather just sit back and listen at this stage of the game.  I'll leave that to BO1972, who appears to enjoy them very much. 
chayro
sisyphus51's avatar
sisyphus51
121 posts
 
Re. Learning to separate/differentiate - signal from noise.
When ones brain is in ’Fried Egg’ mode; it will work incredibly hard to make sense of noise. Don’t believe it!
ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse
4,312 posts
 
@chayro

My experience is pretty much consistent with yours. If there’s a real difference in sound associated with a new piece - wire or component - it’s most evident to me in the first few seconds of listening after making the change. The new/different does seem to become less evident with longer exposure, yet, somewhat paradoxically, longer exposure is often needed to decide if "different" is actually "better".

Tidal vs Spotify serves as a convenient example. Spend a few hours listening to Tidal then switch to Spotify (both via their premium offerings and each through the same system). Spotify initially sounds kinda murky. Listen longer to Spotify, and it doesn’t seem that bad....tolerable for sure. In this example, however, it doesn’t take much exposure time at all to decide sound quality from Tidal is not just different but better.

david_ten
5,480 posts
 
If they say otherwise, they probably don’t know what they are talking about.

If they did know, their argument would disappear.

Good posts, @teo_audio  

Additionally,  On temporal lags and reconstruction...

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/time-on-the-brain-how-you-are-always-living-in-the...
wolf_garcia
6,708 posts
 
My hearing is hard to quantify unlike herring which, clearly, is a fish. I've been hired to work at a concert later this month where the performers are using all their own stuff but the concert producer doesn't trust them. Consequently, my job seem to be to oversee or something, and I'm getting my normal excessive fee so it should be a great gig...I can get drunk!
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