Nice post! ceejay;143986 Wrote: > A few random thoughts: > > (1) double-blind testing ... while granting some practical limitations > (like the hangover problem, or the number of trials you need to make, > or how long you need to listen to each sample, or making it really > blind), this does have a very valuable contribution to make in > answering the question "is there a difference?" Not, of course, "is > this better?"! But if a snake-oil salesman or his victim can't tell > the difference between A and B, then there really isn't one, regardless > of whether you favour an "objective" (measurement-driven) or > "subjective" (ear-driven) approach to evaluation. > > The consequence of this, in response to the last post, is that it's not > very helpful in comparing gear, but it is helpful in determining whether > a tweak has any discernable effect. > > (2) comparing gear ... the problem with this is that in the end, we > have to make a subjective judgement about what sounds best to us. This > is some mix of the behaviour of our ears (we do all have differing > frequency-response curves, my audiologist sister tells me), the > behaviour of our brains in interpreting the sound we hear, the impact > of our musical preferences, and of course non musical influences like > the price or the pretty lights. > > Does that make me a pure subjectivist? Well, no, because objective > measures are hugely useful in arriving at shortlists of stuff to listen > to, although reviews written from a subjective viewpoint can *sometimes* > be helpful. > > (3) audiophilia as religion ... it really is, you know. Hence the holy > wars that keep springing up on this board. Even worse, we are not > talking about one religion attacking another, what we have here are two > sects of the same religion which, as history tells us, gives us the > worst kind of religious war! > > (4) subjectivist/objectivist/realist ... going back to the very first > post, I agree that the subjectivist and objectivist are contrasting > positions, but I'm not sure that "realist" is distinct. I suspect that > the "realist" is someone between the two ends of the scale. And lets > not forget that there is another, orthogonal scale, ranging from > "raving audiophile" at one end to "really don't care" at the other. > > (5) bringing my last two points together... the interesting thing about > the subjectivist/objectivist spectrum is that unlike many other such > lines, where few people occupy either end but most people are somewhere > in the middle, in this one there are plenty of people at each end... > more of an even distribution than a normal one, say. > > So, in conclusion, audiophiles are not normal ! :) > > Ceejay
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