The listening experience is totally mental. Tweaks that do not alter the sound are just that in a given system with a single user. If I do not hear or feel something (a tweak) in my system then it does not exist as a change to me. People as individuals not only have tastes/preferences each unto their own, but also varying degrees of observation. Some things involving sound can be no more than a slight annoyance instead of something that can be pinpointed and described. However when these problems are remedied either through trial and error, or perhaps even through dumb luck, enjoyment of the system can increase greatly over long listening sessions. I guess that these would be referred to as minor tweaks and many do not find a need to deal with them. If something makes a change in the sound that can easily be identified and described, then I consider it to be just another component (regardless of what it is, whether I personally like the change or not) and not a tweak @ that point.
Tweaks just mental?
Some say that the effect some of the tweaks make are psychological. Let's say that it's a fact that some changes to your system are mental. What's wrong with that? We all know that we perceive sound differently. And we have personally experienced a situation with someone and had a totally different experience.
Just how mental is the whole listening experience? I'm not pretending to know, but I wouldn't be surprised if we find out that it's more and more mental. For instance, let's say I could make no changes to my stereo, but I could have the house alone for the weekend, I could toss my cares out the weekend for the weekend, play it at any volume that I desired (still no changes to the system). Further, I could reroute planes and vehicles away from my house, so that I didn't get low-freq interference.
I remember seeing a post where several audiophiles said that their best listening time was around 11PM and they attributed it to either smoothed power that time of night or more mental peace in their household. Hmmm ...
Just how mental is the whole listening experience? I'm not pretending to know, but I wouldn't be surprised if we find out that it's more and more mental. For instance, let's say I could make no changes to my stereo, but I could have the house alone for the weekend, I could toss my cares out the weekend for the weekend, play it at any volume that I desired (still no changes to the system). Further, I could reroute planes and vehicles away from my house, so that I didn't get low-freq interference.
I remember seeing a post where several audiophiles said that their best listening time was around 11PM and they attributed it to either smoothed power that time of night or more mental peace in their household. Hmmm ...