tomjtx;144052 Wrote: > > If I had listened to unfamiliar recordings I think it would have been > harder to hear those differences. > So, is it possible that much blind testing relies on short term aural > retention rather than long term. Perhaps a blind test which uses > recordings testers are intimately familiar with on that system could > yield different results? I don't have an opinion on that, just curious. >
Well, when I bought my current amp (a ~$1200 upgraded Odyssey Cyclops) I went to some effort to compare it to the old one (a Technics, new price maybe $400 in 1992). I compared them using the SB by making "mono" files - I used Audacity to take the left channel of an original .WAV and make a new file, with the orignal left channel now on both channels. So no digital processing of the sound file - just both outputs identical. Then I sent one out to one amp, and one to the other, and connected each amp to one of a pair of speakers. I tried this both with and without an external DAC. I had a friend switch which speaker was connected to which amp back and forth out of my sight (so blind, but not double blind - but I'm reasonably sure she didn't give me any clues). I'm also an (amateur) musician, have played an instrument since age 4, and have very good high-frequency hearing (I've always been able to hear the sound of a TV monitor, which is somewhere around 16kHz). In the end, I could tell the difference, but only on some tracks I knew very well, and even then just barely. I found it easiest to discern on a recording of the Bach cello suites - there was a difference in timbre, and possibly in detail. But it was very subtle - and this in a comparison between an extremely highly rated and reviewed amp custumized and upgraded by the manufacturer, and a 15 year old medium to low grade mass-market surround sound receiver. My (personal) conclusion from this experience? Spend money on music, speakers, and room correction. Amplification has been solved. -- opaqueice ------------------------------------------------------------------------ opaqueice's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4234 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28368 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
