Have you "lied" to yourself?


It is time for the utmost honesty. How many of you have made a fairly costly upgrade/purchase and weren't able to hear any difference (even if you struggled, it wasn't very obvious), but convinced yourself the difference was there (to avoid feeling embarrassed/taken, or facing that you don't have "golden ears")?

There's no need to mention the brand/manufacturer, but do mention the type of component as it would be interesting to see whether this type of thing happens more often with preamps, amps, cables, or sources (I doubt it ever happens with speakers).

I'll start. I'm guilty of spending about $600 upgrading speaker my cables and couldn't hear much of a difference.
128x128felthove

Showing 3 responses by felthove

Thanks Mezmo. I appreciate your candor. This thread isn't meant to make people humiliate themselves or anything, just to show us that it's not THAT rare to want to hear differences after dropping some cash (even if you have to struggle).
I'm enjoying the posts, but I think most everyone has gotten off topic. In typical audiophile form, folks are telling stories about how THEY can tell the difference in upgrades, how they appreciate subtle changes, etc. Can’t people get off the golden-ear high horse and expose a past disappointment after dropping some cash?

I was asking for postings from those of you that have added something, heard no difference, but wished you did. Those who are above this need not post condescending messages. I'm not claiming that this phenomenon happens to everyone, but I was hoping to hear from those honest folks who have experienced this.

Analogy: you buy a very expensive bottle of highly regarded wine from a great vintage. The reviews have given the bottle scores of 99 points. You open it up and you don’t like it, but you search for characteristics in it that make it great.