Hmm, I see that maybe perception is being a little underestimated. Let me give you an example of perception.
I am a motorcyclist, yes I know... a temporary resident, and organ donor, etc. I get involved in tuning motorcycles, remapping ECU maps etc, seeing the difference different exhaust pipes do to increase performance etc. Now, we dyno a bike to test its power and torque this is graphed, place a new exhaust system on and for a few weeks the person is convinced that the power increase is amazing, describing it as an amazing rush of power... now this is where perception comes in. We place the bike on the dyno and get the data... first thing that is quite evident is that the bike is louder, this makes you perceive that you are going faster. We then get both power and torque curbs from both runs and superimpose them, not only did it create really bad power and torque after the addition of the new pipe at low to mid revs, but it suddenly curbed up steeply in the mid to high range. At no time apart from just prior to the rev limiter did it produce more power and at no time more torque.
The sound made if feel faster, when the power started to come on, it was a rush, not because it was producing more, but how it was producing it.
Perception is a very interesting thing.
