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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 shadorne

shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,477 posts
 
The best way is to compare is to match timing and SPL and then A to B instantly as much as you want a quickly as needed.

Some of the newer DACs are very good for this as they lock in to a signal in a few milli-secs. Many DACs are slow at switching and synching - some will change the pitch of music for about a second while they adjust timing to a new source which can lead to perceived differences.

All you need is a couple of hours and you need to select a variety of music (at least 10 or 20 very different tracks) to test as differences may not be easily audible with all tracks.

My experience with the latest DACs is that they are becoming very close in sound. Lots of good choices.
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