Do you use SAM?

[Soniclife]

So I think there is another way of looking at this, when I did the 'Gui test' I could discern a benefit to micro details with SAM off, but this difference was tiny, vastly smaller than the positive benefits I get from SAM on.  So taking two data points (not statistically significant I would agree) , we get one claim of a tiny difference, and one claim and one claim of no difference.  This makes the micro detail influence of SAM on / off somewhere between tiny but discernible and nothing.  More data needed I think!

And I prefered it with SAM on, when I did it as blind as possible. I used Tom's Diner by Suzanne Vega, the dry studio acoustic seemed slightly more accurate*, the difference was very small though. This might be a big speaker vs small speaker thing, or it could be a all in your head thing, it's certainly not a big enough of a change to influence a SAM > 0% vs no sam decision.

*One of the big problems with this is even if you were at the original recording, human memory isn't accurate enough to remember small details like this, so judgments are often made on what sounds best to us, not what is more accurate.