Psychology and the Art of Hearing
I think it does, thanks for your input DyedBlue! I went looking into nearfield monitors, perhaps there's something for my situation there.
Talking about distance, when I sit right next to one of the Phil3's, the sound is even much more wonderful (hardly any soundstage of course, I mean just the quality of the audio that's coming out). But probably that's just a sign that I could improve the acoustics of this room.
This is probably a good a place as any to speak to how much influence anticipation/expectations may play into what we hear from our speakers/system. My 12+ year old NAD C370 integrated amp "seemed" to be humming louder than usual lately (or maybe I haven't been paying close attention). The humming wasn't coming from the speakers and could not be heard from my listening spot about 9 feet away. I touched the amp and it seemed warm, but not overly so, but i was starting to feel a bit concerned that maybe something internal was going afoul. So, today I decided to open it up for the first time. Not knowing what to look for, everything seemed OK, to my naive eyes - no leakage, charred marks, melted components, etc. It was a bit dusty but, surprisingly, not severely. I proceeded to give it the most thorough vacuuming I could without taking apart the boards or busting connections, then screwed it back together. Then, I turned it on and played a CD to make sure I didn't screw it up. Now, here's the strange thing. It seemed the amp wasn't humming as loudly, in fact I had to strain to hear it. i cued the CD to the last track I listened to the night before and it actually sounded more life-like, like there was more presence (Funny. I see the OPPO ad to the right - "it's like lifting a veil" Ha!). Of course, none of this makes sense and was likely the result of feeling pride and accomplishment at opening and vacuuming the amp - wow, I'm a real electrician, now. NOT! I kind of liken this experience to washing and waxing my truck, then driving it around and feeling like it runs smoother, with less drag. Hogwash! I guess my whole point is that we can tweak here and tweak there for that perfect sound, but sometimes, I think, what we hear is all about what's between the ears.
Update - My ears weren't deceiving me, after all. The hum was significantly reduced, but not because I vacuumed the amp's innards. After all these years, I just discovered that the humming is barely audible during the day but clearly audible during the night. Now, I once read somewhere that appliances used elsewhere in the house could cause humming. Well, the only main difference here at night is that the kitchen flourescent lights are used. After a simple test, I isolated the culprit... the lights! Hmm. I wonder how I could fix that? Now, could the reduction in transformer hum have anything to do with my perceived sound improvement? If so, I feel I could trust my senses, once again. Thoughts on this anyone?