Amplifier has been sounding better than usual

Music is art and art is no place for science. If it sounds better it is better.
 
There might be electrical changes causing acoustic differences, such as electrolytic caps that have sat unused for a while -- including possibly those that were replaced -- are re-forming, and slightly-tarnished switch and potentiometer contacts are getting cleaned by repeated use.

It might also be the more you listen, the more your brain gets used to the big picture and starts to concentrate on the subtleties. It's like looking at a great painting; after a while you start to notice details you didn't see before.

It might be you're feeling good, and your positive mood is improving your perception of sound.

It might be all of these at once.
I would believe in any of these explanations for improved sound, in any plausible proportions, as well. I particularly like the second one. I'll throw in a couple more.

It might be that you're feeling bad, even slightly paranoid, and Beethoven sounds even scarier than usual. In a good way. :rolleyes:

Or, it might be that zillions of electrons are persistently polishing their highways, molecule by molecule, by sheer force of numbers, due to their own free will and determination to succeed. "The nail that sticks up will be hammered down."

We may never know.
 
I would believe in any of these explanations for improved sound, in any plausible proportions, as well. I particularly like the second one. I'll throw in a couple more.

It might be that you're feeling bad, even slightly paranoid, and Beethoven sounds even scarier than usual. In a good way. :rolleyes:

Or, it might be that zillions of electrons are persistently polishing their highways, molecule by molecule, by sheer force of numbers, due to their own free will and determination to succeed. "The nail that sticks up will be hammered down."

We may never know.

Electrons shouldn't have free will or determination to succeed! They should only move from the point where there are too many to the point where there are too few. Orwellian electronics engineer :no:
 
LOL you guys. Here's a good one along those lines.

One of my first amps was a XAM Mark 2ta. Department store hi-fi from the 60's. Got it at a flea market for next to nothing. I was always trying to upgrade even way back then, but I always thought that amp sounded good. Anyway I moved on to JVC, Carver, and on up the food chain, and on down the rabbit hole.

A few years back I said you know what.. I'm going to find one of these and see if I was right or just.. inexperienced.

A popular internet site coughed up a fine example and a week later I had it installed in my vintage 80's system. It was spring. The windows were open. A beautiful day. Source was a JVC XL-Z555 CD player, speakers were Bose 301's. It sounded pretty dang good. I got busy cleaning and doing some chores around the house with it playing in the background. After a while I changed CD's and was completely awestruck by what I heard when I pressed the play button. It was nothing short of amazing.
Well.. I was right. It was a good sounding amp. No question about it. Warm. Killer 3D imaging. I listened to a few favorite tracks and shook my head. Back to chores trying desperately to rationalize what I was hearing. Blew my inheritance on some speakers and amps.. why?? I'm an idiot.Thats why.
After another 15 minutes or so I smelled something burning. I thought it was a neighbor burning trash or brush maybe. Oh no. It was the amp. The magic smoke was out and the rest is history.
Before it smoked out, it sounded the best it ever had. Amazing even. Was it like Audio Research tube good. Well, no. But for what it was and what I heard it could have easily held its own with a lot of higher end solid state amps. It put the JVC super A sitting beside it to complete shame, and thats no easy task. So somewhere in the middle of the meltdown voltages and resistances were at some weird optimum level? Stars aligned? Who knows. For this reason I dont discount what people say. Especially when aging electronics have been known to do some strange things.

One other fact and this is absolutely documented. I find the more I drink the better things sound!
 
LOL you guys. Here's a good one along those lines.

One of my first amps was a XAM Mark 2ta. Department store hi-fi from the 60's. Got it at a flea market for next to nothing. I was always trying to upgrade even way back then, but I always thought that amp sounded good. Anyway I moved on to JVC, Carver, and on up the food chain, and on down the rabbit hole.

A few years back I said you know what.. I'm going to find one of these and see if I was right or just.. inexperienced.

A popular internet site coughed up a fine example and a week later I had it installed in my vintage 80's system. It was spring. The windows were open. A beautiful day. Source was a JVC XL-Z555 CD player, speakers were Bose 301's. It sounded pretty dang good. I got busy cleaning and doing some chores around the house with it playing in the background. After a while I changed CD's and was completely awestruck by what I heard when I pressed the play button. It was nothing short of amazing.
Well.. I was right. It was a good sounding amp. No question about it. Warm. Killer 3D imaging. I listened to a few favorite tracks and shook my head. Back to chores trying desperately to rationalize what I was hearing. Blew my inheritance on some speakers and amps.. why?? I'm an idiot.Thats why.
After another 15 minutes or so I smelled something burning. I thought it was a neighbor burning trash or brush maybe. Oh no. It was the amp. The magic smoke was out and the rest is history.
Before it smoked out, it sounded the best it ever had. Amazing even. Was it like Audio Research tube good. Well, no. But for what it was and what I heard it could have easily held its own with a lot of higher end solid state amps. It put the JVC super A sitting beside it to complete shame, and thats no easy task. So somewhere in the middle of the meltdown voltages and resistances were at some weird optimum level? Stars aligned? Who knows. For this reason I dont discount what people say. Especially when aging electronics have been known to do some strange things.

One other fact and this is absolutely documented. I find the more I drink the better things sound!

It's like what they say in drag racing. "They always run their best right before they let go."
 
When you accept that a piece of equipment is sounding the way you want it to, it has now obtained "kudos" to the brain. If the same thing happens the next day, it gets "super Kudos". Upon the third day, the weather changed, the barometer changed, you felt stuffed up and then the ketchup fell off the hot dog. If it still sounds good after 30-60 days, I'd say you've really got something.

The brain and its senses also get used to things and then it says :what else ya' got? And then boredom and depression set in.
 
Firstly, I am one of those 'deaf, dumb and blind engineers'. Also I am trying really hard to be kind to you. Because these accusations have existed for decades now, without anybody heeding our replies. I will not expound on as to who is - er - incapable of comprehending .... ;)

Well, one can but try again ......

Firstly, not sure how to inform you nicely, but there are not matters audiowise that "can't be measured'. Electronic instrumentation has passed that point several decades ago. You can inform yourself by reading up on the capabilities of audio instrumentation, also vis-a-vis the limitations of hearing. The latter has been researched to death, not nearly because of hi-fi, but in aid of acousto-medical research in the service of those with impaired hearing. Such information also abounds on the internet. :)

What strangely appears to consistently 'fall through the gaps', is the equally well researched and documented ability of human hearing to adapt, compensate, introduce misconceptions (the latter the influence of the brain) etc.; plus the very powerful psychological influence of 'expectation bias'; plus the inability of the hearing mechanism to accurately remember even for tens of minutes, the exact nature of a previously experienced sound - yet again thoroughly researched and documented! :) :)

Perhaps it is not too much to ask that you inform yourself of the whole scenario regarding human hearing, before hurling derogatory opinions/accusations?? :D :D
I appreciate the kindness, the gentle tone, and the smilies. But not the condescension. Perhaps I had it coming.

How do you measure your soundstage dimensions? With a tape measure and a protractor? (No, I mean electrically, of course.)

What are the measurements that could determine, say, whether a component or recording has an unpleasant edge? Or a sweet top end? Or authority in the bass? A cupped-hands coloration? What can be measured can be measured very precisely, but no set of measurements can predict how an amplifier will sound, IME.

As for psychology, I used to say that the state of the art is about where surgery was, when surgery was practiced by barbers. Maybe by now we've moved up to Civil War era proficiency, I suppose. The fact that we are only now beginning to associate brain activity with external sonic stimuli, and with memories, via MRI techniques should be enough to prove my point. Only the beginning, to quote Chicago.

I happen to believe that expectation bias can explain a LOT of the B.S. in the audio world. But it would be juvenile to believe that bias colors every sonic judgement.

And the notion of poor sonic memory established by science is either measuring something else than the kind of sonic memories I've made on occasion, and recalled many times since, or it is B.S.. I expect the former may be more probable. At any rate, when I hear something new in a familiar recording, I don't chalk it up to poor sonic memory.

Peace.
 
Poor sonic memory? I dunno. I hear a Mopar 383 at WOT from two blocks away and I KNOW it's a 383. Similarly, if I hear a 1980's Mustang GT from two blocks away, I know what I'm hearing.


I should also note that when I hear Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467 played by Murray Perahia I know that's the one I'm hearing. Damn that guy can play the hell out of Mozart. But I'm biased because his parents lived in my building in Miami Beach. :)

One more edit. If you know the parents of an artist the music also sounds better.
 
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To prefix. I've noticed it with both headphones and my speakers, my amp has been re-capped for a few months now. My hearing still seems to be the same, up to 16.5K in my left ear and 16K in the right.

So I've taken note that my amplifier has steadily sounded better and better as the days have passed, for instance, when I first listened to Animals by Pink Floyd it sounded great but the more I listen the more and more it sounds as if the music is becoming clearer and defined, quiet parts inbetween beats just sound clearer and instruments sound more defined, I'm even noticing background noises sounding clearer and even hearing parts that wern't there before. Not just this album but even with albums I've heard a million times before.

I always though "Burn in" was bull$hit but well... I can't really come up with another answer... Thoughts?

A recapped and rebuilt amp that uses quality audio grade parts will sound better after some burn in. Burn in is not BS, I have definitely heard it several times. What you describe sounds like an improved power supply. Fresh and good quality electrolytics will help a lot and even if you can’t hear an improvement you can feel good about the reliability improvements.
 
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