The paint doesn't match the color chips. My wife and I are trying to choose a new exterior paint color but when we bring home samples to paint test swatches on the house the colors look way different than the paper color chips. This closely matches my hifi upgrading experiences. Sound familiar?
inserting new component--predictable results?
Here's the scenario. You're done your reading, done your research, listened to different makes and models in the stores, hauled two or three of the finalists home for the weekend, and finally bought the one that you liked the best. (For the purposes of this post, it doesn't matter if it's TT, cdp, pre-amp, speaker, etc.) In the course of this quest, you've listened to the new component with perhaps 1%, 2%, 5% of the discs in your collection that you know really or reasonably well, or with that clutch of discs that you tend habitually to use when you try out new components.
So here's my question. When the new component is inserted in the system, and based on your experiences up to the moment of purchase, now when you come to play other discs, are the sonics of these now also entirely "predictable"?
To put my question more clearly, let's imagine a hypothetical concrete example. You're looking, let's say, to warm up the system a bit and flesh out the bass (or gain transparency or greater presence--the specifics don't matter). You find a component that, based on your trials with your trusty discs, does just that, so you buy it and insert it. But then does it sound that same way, to a greater or lesser extent, as you work your way through other discs in your collection, discs that you hadn't heard with that particular combination of components before? Or are there surprises? With certain discs, do you actually get other effects, or even opposite effects, from what you might have expected based on the trial process?
I'd be curious to hear of people's experiences--either confirming a certain reliable predictability or recounting their particular surprises.
So here's my question. When the new component is inserted in the system, and based on your experiences up to the moment of purchase, now when you come to play other discs, are the sonics of these now also entirely "predictable"?
To put my question more clearly, let's imagine a hypothetical concrete example. You're looking, let's say, to warm up the system a bit and flesh out the bass (or gain transparency or greater presence--the specifics don't matter). You find a component that, based on your trials with your trusty discs, does just that, so you buy it and insert it. But then does it sound that same way, to a greater or lesser extent, as you work your way through other discs in your collection, discs that you hadn't heard with that particular combination of components before? Or are there surprises? With certain discs, do you actually get other effects, or even opposite effects, from what you might have expected based on the trial process?
I'd be curious to hear of people's experiences--either confirming a certain reliable predictability or recounting their particular surprises.