How are you hearing no difference?


In my experience, I've never heard two pre-amps that sound exactly the same, nor two DACs that sound the same, nor two amps...etc. Yet, occasionally someone will claim that they heard no difference between Product A and Product B in their system.  I find it difficult to believe.
128x1284hannons
I don’t think listening blind will do any good. The problem appears to be people don’t know what they’re listening to or how to analyze sound in comparative situations. Obviously any tests are system and listener dependent so negative results should be taken with a grain of salt.
Because you are not listening blind. If you did demo blind, you’ll find a $500 DAC and a $2500 DAC (assuming cream of the crop for their price points) are not going to sound dissimilar.  
  
If an amp or preamp has good linearity, low distortion (THD+IMD), high SNR, high channel separation, etc., then it’s hard for them to sound appreciably different. 
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