Who else can't sleep the night before their fancy new gears arrive?

This just demonstrates how we are ruled by the sub-conscious.  Such irrational excitement goes a long way to explain reinforcement syndrome because we WANT the new piece to sound better.

Beware, and try to be objective.  But actually there is nothing we can do about it.

@roxy54    Not really.  Perhaps regrettably I speak the truth on this.  It is others who persistently refresh the erroneous notion that the sound we perceive is the same as that which leaves the speakers.  As I say elsewhere here recently, hearing and, more importantly, listening are not purely mechanical functionalities, inconveniently for those who would like things straightforward the brain lies in between the ears and the perception of the sound.

@roxy54     Sorry, I'm certainly not intending to be obtuse but it's an important point I am trying to make.  I am not trying to quantify anything.

If you refer to my contributions to the current string about the poll on sound perception of changes in power cords, it may become clearer.  In that debate the question is whether people hear such changes.  I am pointing out that any change in the sound caused by changes of power cords will emerge from the speakers.  But what we receive from our hearing is not the same as what emerges from the speakers.  It is that, plus the changes made by our conscious and sub-conscious brain input.  Such changes are caused by all sorts of factors, but mainly centering around mood, in its widest connotation.  In the same way we do not experience exactly the same taste from the same food and wine every time we consume it.  Sometimes it tastes better than usual and sometimes duller.  You might suggest that bottles of wine that are adjacent in the case can vary (not by simple being faulty) and indeed they can (especially pinot noir), but the changes we perceive go a long way beyond that.  Sometimes a scene in a film or play (or a piece of music for that matter) may make us cry.  But another time it won't.  But what was on the screen or the speakers is just the same.

@roxy54   I'm saying the same thing in both places.  But I agree it's more to the point in the other thread.

Joyful anticipation is a worthwhile experience by itself, but necessarily ends on connecting the new equipment (as it's no longer anticipation).  If this thread ends at that point then there is nothing else to say, save of course that when the new piece was demmed my previous comments apply.

@samureyex      I'm sorry, I'm unclear what point you are trying to make, but I'm sure you will perceive your new power cord seems way better than the stock item.