castleofargh
Sound Science Forum Moderator
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The notion that our expectations can alter what we perceive won't turn a donkey into an orbital station. The suggested behavior is that once we recognize something using a bunch of patterns we're familiar with, the brain may dismiss some of the extra information. Basically, once we think we know what we're dealing with, we don't "want" to bother with the details. Probably to avoid overloading the brain with too many senses and too much data.I heard not what I expected to hear. About 3 weeks ago the heart of my system, a 20 year old Sony TA-E9000ES Multi-channel Preamp/DAC went silent. I was quite disturbed by this, since the unit features a mix of inputs and outputs I use but are no longer found on today's Pre-Pros. At any rate, realizing the Sony was for the most part receiving input from stereo sources I recognized a 2.1 preamp could replace the Sony. Looking into it, I purchased a 2.1 Parasound P6, hoping it would deliver a sound as I had become accustomed to from the Sony. To my surprise, I did not get what I expected to hear. Instead, I got more low volume detail and a black as coal background. I also got better bass management. So, all in all, the new Preamp is working out nicely. It makes me think, had not the Sony went silent I may have never known that anything better was out there, meaning I did not know I did not know. The point being, enlightenment and exposure are two elements needed to know much of anything regarding the appropriate equipment needed to enjoy recorded music.
If the preamp still looked the same and you didn't know it wasn't the Sony anymore, then maybe you would have been inclined to assume that everything was as usual and that would have allowed your brain to ignore some possible changes in the sound. That's a more likely scenario as you get all the known patterns first, giving the opportunity for the related expectations to "decide"/cause to ignore some of the rest.
On the contrary, you knowing the Sony pre is dead, that this one is a different device, your eyes confirming it, all those cues are telling your brain about things that are not the usual patterns. The expectation is more likely to be that the sound coming from it will also not be usual. You might very well have thought that a pream is a preamp and that it wouldn't change the sound. That is certainly an expectation leaning toward not bothering with extra details of a known result. But in this scenario, that idea has first to face the other knowledge and sensory cues(not even audio ones) I mentioned. And all the other stuff rejects the model for your expectation. It's new, it looks different, it's different, etc.
At least that's how it makes sense to me. I don't know nearly enough to claim that my made up model is accurate^_^.