What's your process for comparing new gear, cables, etc.?

Okay so I don't know what to do in your case. I never met anyone with zero memory before. How you even remember you have a stereo is beyond me. Probably you have memory and the problem is you remember what someone told you about not having a memory replace your personal everyday experience of actually having a memory. Happens all the time. To audiophiles. No one else ever has this problem. Trust me. No don't take my word for it. Ask any random person- can you remember the sound of your mother's voice? Answer will be yes. People do have auditory memory. Fantastic long term auditory memory.

All you need to do is learn how to use it. In just the last week I must have written a thousand words on exercises you can do to improve your listening skills. It takes work. It takes effort. It does not happen overnight. But it can be learned. In time a lot of the nonsense you believe now you will come to understand is utter and complete nonsense.

But in the beginning it might help to eliminate a few variables and standardize a few things. So go ahead and keep the volume the same and play the same boring tracks over and over again if you think that helps.

What really helps is to only change one thing at a time. If you are comparing cables then swap out only the cables. If you are comparing amps swap only the amps. That means if you are using a power cord, cones, fuse, etc (like you should be) then you move all that stuff over to the comparison piece. Otherwise its not a valid fair comparison. Got it? One thing.

That's it. That's the whole enchilada. Then you just listen. Everything goes through a settling in process. Even a used cable when you first get it has been bent and twisted and unused for many hours and will take some time to settle in. How much time? Listen. When it stops changing its settled in.

When you are a good listener you will know a long time before that. Give it a good year or three. You will get there.

millercarbon" I never met anyone with zero memory before. How you even remember you have a stereo is beyond me."

This yet yet another insulting, degrading, "pendantic" remark from one of the cite's most confused contributors and authors Millercarbon I direct you're attention to some of the things you think you have remembered but in fact were shown to have been completely false, erroneous, and dangerous remember when you said Normandy was in Italy of course that was not dangerous just ignorant! In another thread you have dispensed instruction, advice, and theory clearly shown to be potentially lethal and then you claim your being nitpicked! And then there was that time you got so confused about the process and nature of induction and when I corrected you you called me a "retard" and insulted my country! So maybe you should respond to actual question's here and try to stay on topic rather than instruct on you're superior knowledge, experience, and wisdom.

Clearthink, although we usually don’t agree I always respect your opinion and in this case you are absolutely correct. His tone is always very condescending to others. Millercarbon must be slipping though, he didn't link his system to the post. Maybe he “forgot”.