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In article , wrote:

wrote:

think my Arcam CD23 FMJ sounds better than my AMC CD8b, although I
ascribe the difference to design, not to magic or "more money." Am I
wrong?

I wouldn't say that you're "wrong", I'd say that you're hearing
things
the way you want to hear them, and not the way they actually ARE.

Another possibility is that he is hearing a real difference--the result
of differences in output levels between the two units. If one is even
imperceptibly louder than the other, this could easily affect his
preference for one over the other.

Not a switched comparison, so that's not it.

I can't prove this, but I've often suspected that audiophiles
subconsciously tweak the volume control to favor the unit they "want"
to sound better.

I think it's also common to turn up the ugly one to find missing detail.

Stephen