Room Acoustics

[Charlieshafer]

All of this is true, and yet it doesn't change the perceived sound that you're hearing, which can influence one's judgement of a particular mandolin in isolation. Which is what the OP was talking about.

When I move from my practice room/library in my house, which is very "soft" in acoustic terms, and also somewhat short reflection, to the big room where we invite friends over to play, which is much larger with a mix of early and late reflections.... my mandolin suddenly sounds twice as expensive in that room with better acoustics.

Yup! Now we're into overlap with the other thread on the placebo effect of the name on the headstock of an instrument. I think we can safely say, based on all this, is that if you play the bathroom circuit you can get by with a much less expensive mandolin.