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How Long Should One Wait Before Switching When A/B ing

Evening All,

          Ive been having quite an indepth and somewhat involving on going disscusion with an audiophile aquiantance regarding what would be considered the "Ideal" waiting time before one should switch from one component lets say,to another to actually appreciate in its entirety,a devices personal signature,Nuances,or its overall sonic portrait..One against the other.Its been said that our auditory memory as far as retaining information on a whole is in effect the poorest of all our faculties.This individuals personal school of thought is that you should give at least a solid week of listening to a given peice of equipment,and than and only than,switch to the "Other" device to be able to fully appreciate this phenomena of A/Bing,and capture all the information that each individual components features may or may not be readily available to us! I,on the other hand,beg to differ of this approach.Soley basing my self of this "Limited Auditory Memory" we all have! So my findings and resolute conclusions on which component do what,and how it will behave being compared one to the other,will in MHO be discovered in a matter of an hour,or maybe two.Switching from one to the other all the while! I firmly believe that THE component in question that is to be evaluated against another will not reveal themselves more in lets say a weeks time,than when you first did the initial A/Bing that first day you began this process of possible illiminations or the reverse for that matter!

I wholeheartedly invite whomever it may be to share your own experience on this matter.
zyac39

Showing 1 response by jbrrp1

jbrrp1
423 posts
 
I think short term comparisons can more confuse than help, in that it gets you focusing on the "audiophile" aspects of sound reproduction, whereas long term listening gets you discovering how much musical enjoyment the change in gear brings you - - and isn't that the end goal?  Do you get drawn into the music more, do you stay engaged and just want to keep putting on the next record (possibly at the detriment to your sleep schedule!)?  That's what long term listening reveals.

Short term highlights the highlights (wow, those smooth highs! that punchy bass!  that creamy midrange!).  These individual elements might contribute towards a better musical experience, and then again, they might actually detract from it, drawing your attention to hifi details as the expense of emotional engagement in music.  So, give it all time to soak in.  That is the process that absolutely works best for me.
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