Quote Originally Posted by Arch
. Now most of you can dismiss my observation outright, its all in my head, etc, etc. But what I have done here is that I have a repeatable method of comparing the qualitative difference of 2 components.... you can try it yourself at home with your own gears and make your own judgement. It works for me (for now) anyway.
Good thing that's where you keep your ears and your brain!

I'd agree that if it requires that much effort to hear a difference, it isn't worth it. To others, it might be. I think that's the crux of the whole issue of subtle sonic differences. If we were to assign an arbitrary 1% difference in sound to CD player A over B, in the grand scheme of an audio system (including room acoustics and software), I think most people would call it meaningless and not worth it. But even a 1% improvement is worth thousands of dollars to some and they might not even call it "subtle".