A $1,070 gap that sounds smaller

One streamer cost me $329. The other cost almost $1,400. After more than three months side by side, both bought with my own money, the gap I heard was nothing like the $1,070 gap I paid.

I played them on my reference system and on a lesser one, switching between identical tracks: Six Blade Knife from Dire Straits, Patricia Barber's This Town, Take Five. My first impression has not moved since. They sound uncomfortably close for anyone who paid four times more.

On paper it should not be close at all. The Eversolo is objectively superior, with better measurements, better build, better components and more features. On my system, with a treated room, Wilsons and McIntosh separates, I can tell them apart 10 out of 10 times, because I know what to listen for. The difference is real, and it is the last 3 to 5% of performance.

Now take away the visual cues, pause for a while, and move to a system where most components sit in the $5,000 to $10,000 range. I am not convinced anyone tells them apart there. We do not listen to specifications. We listen to music, and the music here is closer than the invoice.

Is it four times better? On my reference system it is a few percent better, and a few percent is not four times.