But I was not taking that thinking further and would not want to such an obviously unrelated comparison.

I'm talking only about the audio performance of a pre/pro: how it sounds.

Manufacturers learned how to get near-perfect sound from analogue devices decades ago. Digital stereo soon after the CD's introduction. Multi-channel soon after it appeared. Differences in sound (distortion, noise, and frequency response) should, and for all intents are, negligible. Yes there can be noticeable differences between devices in how signals get decoded and processed (soundstage, presence, depth, etc.) - depending on the mode - but the basic "sound" should be nearly identical. And certainly not so different as to conjure images of multiple layers of blankets wrapped tightly around one's speakers!

I'm really surprised that more people don't challenge such remarks. Otherwise we degenerate into audio voodoo land.