In reply to:
So far as going to audition a receiver, despite the "trust your ears" mantra we often hear, I don't think much is learned in the process.
I am basically with JohnK on this one. Yes, you will occasionally be able to hear the real difference between today's receivers/amps. However, in order to "convincingly" evaluate the difference, I would say you have to:
(1) Have instantaneous A/B comparisons driving the receivers with the same source material. Many large, chain-store dealers have this facility, but the equipment selector (which is often "digital" these days) takes more than a few seconds to switch between receivers, and even this significantly impairs your ability to tell the difference. A major problem in the in-home auditioning is that very few people actually bother to have selector switches that enable instantaneous A/B comparisons (despite the fact that they are fairly cheap). Without doing so, you are more likely to hear the difference in the psycho-auditory processing in your own brain, rather than the physical difference between the receivers. The problem is, the processing in your brain is so powerful that you will hear the difference almost inevitably. Serious!
(2) Set the volume level exactly identical between the receivers being tested. In an A/B comparison, you are extremely sensitive for minute changes in sound levels, the slightly louder equipment often giving a more favorable impression. When you A/B audition at your dealer, you have to bring (or borrow) a test-tone DVD and an SPL meter to calibrate the volume level down to +/- 0.5 dB or so with respect to all channels/speakers (and while calibrating, of course you should set the channel delays and speaker settings [large/small etc] correctly and identical between the receivers, too). Without doing so, you risk yourself to evaluating the receivers based on a minute difference in the sound level.
(3) Set all of the sound "features" to default or neutral. Today's receivers have so many sound features, some of which may be hidden deep in the menus/controls and left "on." These will have profound (readily audible -- if not, why bother having them?) effects on their sound, and you do not want to base your evaluation of the "pure" or basal sound quality of the DSPs/amps on the effectiveness/quality of their sound features. Of course, the evaluation of the sound effects itself is a totally separate matter, and the quality and repertoire of these "features" may well be much more important for you in the end.
These are a heck of tasks. I tend not to trust any comparative listening reviews unless these aspects are explicitly incorporated in their testing, which is very rare.
