I think you're doing apples and oranges and most of the time is in the file stuff. You will get a decent boost if you drop the OO interface and copying the hash. 

#   decode_json($json);
              Rate load_config   load_json
load_config 13.8/s          --        -79%
load_json   66.1/s        380%          --

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In reply to Re: Shouldn't JSON be faster? by Your Mother
in thread Shouldn't JSON be faster? by sflitman

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