It is obvious you have been infected by the audio affliction often referred to as 'imaginary' hearing. It come to all of us very early in our audio lives. Best to ignore it by selling off the offending piece of equipment. That way you can move on to your next imaginary experience.
why performance increase after pause?
Anyone notice that after pausing, once the gear is fully warmed up and has played several cuts, it immediately sounds better and then after a while levels off as before? I have several amps and notice the same thing with all of them. Could it be the CDP, pre, speaker crossovers cooling down?