Recently, I got new speakers and when I hooked them up, a/b tested against my old speakers, and heard tighter, punchier, deeper bass, more clarity and detail, I confidently told myself that the new thing is better, but over time I noticed that I was just not listening to music that much. Listening to my favorite albums or checking out a new one for the first time used to hold my attention, but now after a few songs, I would drift off down a YouTube rabbit hole and can’t get through an entire album. I put my old (apparently inferior) speakers back and I suddenly can’t get enough music.
I’m not going to go into over-analyzing those particular speakers, because I have had the same thing happen with headphones and amps as well. I think my takeaway here Is that in my time watching reviews and trying to judge what good sound is, I have inadvertently trained my self to look for certain characteristics of sound quality that aren’t actually what I enjoy the most… so how do you know what it is about sound quality actually keeps you listening as opposed to what checks the boxes you’ve created to distinguish “good” audio quality.
I know that I like trying new things, I am not so much hung up on a specific sound or anything. As long as it is smooth, clean and detailed that is. I mostly do a lot of vintage hunting these days and not spending a ton so I can afford to play with different stuff.
I don’t worry about AB tests or anything. It’s pretty obvious when a piece of gear sounds different. If the change is so subtle that I would need to do a strict AB test to discern the differences then I just don’t worry about it. I get more enjoyment out of extracting all the sound I can from the gear I have rather than chasing the dragon.
I am sure it is different from someone looking for a specific thing, I just try not to make the perfect the enemy of the good.