I’m sure you do remember specific sounds very well, I do too working in professional audio everyday for years - once you focus on details and how they perform in a space and what adjustments sound like you embed those impressions into different memory locations than ‘what this song sounds like’ memories. It forms a different neural pathway.
Now, comparing to smelling potatoes and onions (ok, now hungry) is not an accurate comparison to sound as smell memory is in a completely different part of the brain, and one that is more closely linked to memory; mammals have this historically to identify our mothers and den and danger and enemies. The olfactory center is much more hardwired to memory for this reason and isn’t a good comparison to general sense-memory.
The brain absolutely plays tricks on our minds vis-a-vis sound quality, sound details - certainly when we ‘focus’ on what an adjustment has done our brains often corroborate our expected results even when the factual change is not commensurate. This is the nature of forebrain perception. However, when NOT concentrating on the changes or ‘what does this sound like now’ the brain will absolutely be able to tell that ‘something has changed’; so I’d say that, much like looking at a faint star where focusing off to the side allows our retinas to engage with the more sensitive rods rather than cones, if we listen as we normally do rather than focus on the timbre of a specific instrument, it will be readily apparent when things have changed, for better or worse. In my experience. Then focusing on what has changed and why is more possible. However, it takes practice to not fool yourself. And even then, perception is slippery.
And, on top of all that, people hear differently. There are absolutely ears that ear well and specifically resolve details, and there are ears that don’t. Meaning brains that don’t. So, knowing what kind of ear/brain system you have is a basic starting place to understanding how to evaluate sound reproduction. My 2¢ (from years of experience evaluating critical sound reproduction systems.) YMWV. (Your Mileage Will Vary…)
Oh. And dogs 100% remember day to day and suggesting otherwise is ridiculous (I know you weren’t suggesting this but referring to others). They perceive and retain information differently than we do, but their memories work great for what they need. Their sense of smell is hundreds of times more sensitive than ours, and hearing is generally more acute, but in any case sensory cues are committed to a dog’s memory just as they are with ours. Just note how they know the difference between our footsteps and those of a stranger, and if we’ve been with our ex-girlfriend by the smell of our clothes, or where that bone was buried two seasons ago… they remember without doubt. They just form sense memories based on different cues than we do, generally - much more reptile brain, fight-or-flight level stuff. Not so much sound quality of a stereo system level stuff.
EDIT: And to vaguely stay on topic: latest build working very well for me, no hiccups installing or playing so far. Thanks!
