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RE: But my expectation was that the first amp was going to sound great...

"right off the bench and it did not, much to by disappointment.

Expectation bias should have had me thinking my re-build with all new film caps 300B mono-block should sound GREAT.

But the DC-link caps, as most of the film caps in the re-built amps are, seem to be fine after a couple days of daily run in, say 12 hours per day.

But for the first day, I was quite disappointed."


I would have thought one could construct a purely psychological explanation that fits these facts quite well, even if we suppose, for the sake of argument, that in actuality the effects of the changed capacitors were minimal or unobservable. One could imagine a scenario like the following:

One begins with great expectations of a dramatic improvement after having replaced the capacitors. The immediate reaction upon listening to it is therefore one of huge disappointment, since it doesn't sound any better than before. In one's disappointment one may even start thinking it sounds worse than before.

Then, after the initial shock passes, one starts to ponder on how it really *ought* to sound better, especially because the capacitors were quite expensive and everybody is always saying they should sound better. Gradually, one convinces oneself that it is starting to sound better, and finally one reaches the stage of believing it is a great improvement.

I'm not saying that it necessarily was like that. I'm just saying that an initial phase of disappointment when one's expectations were dashed seems like a perfectly understandable part of the "expectation bias" process.



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