Perception is in the eye of the beholder, and things that appear highly noticeable to someone intimately familiar with the gear in question, due to daily usage of it, may not be the thing that is noticed by someone simply LISTENING to two related products, but not instantly familiar with what has changed and what was in the old one...

Kind of like two recordings of the same symphony. There are some that can tell exactly which one is which, who conducted what, whether one is on period instruments and the other on modern ones, etc., and then there are the majority of listeners, who will simply notice that it is the same piece. And probably be unable to tell you what is different.

I never said there is NO difference, but to the casual listener, it is often FAR less than the user of the gear would like to think everyone can hear.

As I said,it is the PLAYER that still makes the largest difference, and I honestly cannot think of anyone on this forum that I thought was bad that now suddenly sounds great because they bought a newer arranger!