Patrick Dixon a écrit :
Since high-end audio is all about how it "sounds"... I can't fathom why
somebody would nix blind listening tests
Perhaps because they feel blind listening tests don't accurately predict
how music "sounds" when you listen to music, rather than equipment.
When your hypothesis doesn't fit the facts, you have to look closely at
your hypothesis - rather than dis the facts!
Or you can get some facts from the medical and drug design industry and
learn about placebo effect and related things. Your mind is so powerful
that it can actually heal your body not only when you believe your are
given an active drug, but also (in case of single blind tests) when the
nurses and doctors believe your are given an active drug.
Many audiophiles are pissed off because they can't tell the difference
between things that "sound extremely different" under blind test. So
they reject the facts which actually are that those things do not sound
different. No fancy explanation needed here.
Andy gave a very interesting explanation why the standard ABX testing
methodology might 1) rely on short term memory 2) put you under a lot of
stress. This might give an explanation why people fail to recognize
different equipments under the ABX methodology (I'm not completely
convinced, but at least there are some explanations). But, this does not
apply to blind AB tests in which you level match the devices and then do
what you want (listen for one full day to A and then to B, etc.).
The same anti science rant was used by some "psychics". Some of them
refused to perform there tricks under the supervision of a magician or
taped by several high rate video recorder. They claim that the bad vibes
of the magician were disturbing them and other strange things.
Fabrice
PS: by the way, thanks a lot to sleepysurf for reporting his test results.
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