12-Oct-2016, 18:57
Frankly, it seems to me that you're trying rather too hard to ascribe a technical explanation to things that are much more likely psycho-acoustic in origin. The most plausible and economical explanation to my way of thinking is that during the few days after upgrading the firmware you've simply stopped listening (consciously or unconsciously) for changes. Whether or not there are any objective changes doesn't really matter, it's the change in mental state that's significant.
If there were any objective, technical effect such as you describe -- which personally I doubt -- then it would surely result in changes that were orders of magnitude smaller than normal levels of distortion and noise, changes in listening conditions, mental state, etc. Furthermore, why should such an effect always lead to improvements in sound quality over time?
On a related note, there was a very interesting programme on BBC TV yesterday about how unreliable our senses are. In particular, it highlighted how much of what we hear, see, taste, etc. is determined by input from our other senses and by our expectations. The McGurk effect is a clear demonstration of the effect of sight on hearing, for example. It's worth Googling that if you're not familiar with it, because it's a very strong effect which apparently can't be ignored even if you know what's going on. When you see demonstrations like that it puts a lot of these discussions about sound quality into perspective.
If there were any objective, technical effect such as you describe -- which personally I doubt -- then it would surely result in changes that were orders of magnitude smaller than normal levels of distortion and noise, changes in listening conditions, mental state, etc. Furthermore, why should such an effect always lead to improvements in sound quality over time?
On a related note, there was a very interesting programme on BBC TV yesterday about how unreliable our senses are. In particular, it highlighted how much of what we hear, see, taste, etc. is determined by input from our other senses and by our expectations. The McGurk effect is a clear demonstration of the effect of sight on hearing, for example. It's worth Googling that if you're not familiar with it, because it's a very strong effect which apparently can't be ignored even if you know what's going on. When you see demonstrations like that it puts a lot of these discussions about sound quality into perspective.
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK
