“There are two kinds of love / that you oughta know / Twooooooooo… kiiiinds of love…”
So sang the doo wop lords of the street outside of Rocky’s apartment as he carried Adrian back to his place on their wedding night. God I loved that scene. I’m from the Philly area, just old enough that I can actually remember cats like that, gathered around trash can fires, drinking wine, singing. Who knows where the time goes.
There are at least four kinds of A-B’ing that you probably know (possibly more, definitely not less). I was thinking about this recently as I was ears deep in a comparison between two very enchanting R2R DACs.
1. A=B
2. A=B*
3. A>B (or vice versa)
4. A>B (or vice versa) *
The first happens less than our non-obsessive-compulsive-audiophile acquaintances and loved ones would believe. “Does it really sound THAT much better? They both sound the same to me.” And yes, there is always a degree of truth to that ever annoying observation. From a VERY wide angle lens a $200 A/V receiver you bought at Target and a $20k Dartzeel integrated are indistinguishable, in the same way that a glass of Two-Buck Chuck and a glass of Lafite Rothschild both taste like wine. To put it mildly, however, when you sharpen focus just a bit, nuances emerge. “How important are those nuances? Do they matter?” That is between you and your god. Suffice it to say that when you’ve spent twenty thousand dollars on an amplifier (or a bottle of wine) you’ve answered the question and then some.
(“Should they matter though?” This question has no meaning).
There certainly are times when traveling through the A-B diaspora when I’m left with no choice but to admit to myself (always reluctantly) “I hear absolutely no difference between A and B.” Rarely when comparing source components or amplification, more often with cables, or tweaks, tubes, fuses, etc. I go back and forth trying to convince myself that I do hear a difference, really working at it, even though my hard and fast rule is that if I’m working at it I’m wasting my time. And yet I persevere. This is the insanity of the enterprise right here. If you’ve found your way to this site, I know you feel me.
Number two, A=B*, is when you do hear a noticeable difference, but it is so inconsequential in effect as to render no meaningful improvement to the all-important Musical Enjoyment Scale on either side. Again this is largely a result consigned to the cable and tweak heap of A/B experiments.
The third option, A>B no asterisk… this is the gold standard, exactly what we hope for when we make the plunge on Audiogon or US Audio Mart or any of the other online crack dealers. Slot the new whatever it is into your system, drop the rock or press “play”, and bang. That… THAT… is clearly better than what came before. Bigger faster deeper tighter smoother. You go back to what came before just to be sure, that which just a day ago was providing you with utter sonic bliss, and now all you can think is “this is just sad… how did I live with this shit?” There’s no going back. Put it this way – you were perfectly happy doing the blow you bought in the bathroom at the club, that nasty shit that’s mostly ephedrine and baby laxative but fuck it, it does something. Then this weird Argentinian dude shows up at your friend’s crib with this shit that’s like… newfallen snow. The silken dandruff of angels. One bump and your facebones are melting. Whole world just changed… and it’s gonna cost you.
Option #4 – A>B* – this is the one that interests me. This is where I landed with my two R2R DACs (I’ll get into the specifics on that another time). A was clearly better to me than B, more natural, better balance, a greater sense of ease and flow to the music. And yet, when I went back to B, I didn’t miss A at all. In fact, I very quickly found it hard to remember what it was that was different. When I went back to A, I would hear it. “Oh yeah there it is.”
I guess you could say this is an iteration of A=B* but it wasn’t really – there was no question to me that A was better than B. But… and it’s a big BUT… this brings us to the x factor hovering over the entire A vs. B enterprise – the almighty dollar.