opaqueice wrote: > Drugs trials aren't particularly relevant here - DBT as a methodology is > used in all fields of scientific inquiry where bias can be an issue > (including some large experiments in physics). The object is to remove > the psychological effects of bias. It doesn't matter if the experiment > or analysis is short or long. > > In this case what we want to know is whether there is really an audible > difference. At least in the experiments that have been done so far, > people are much better at distinguishing differences when they can > switch rapidly back and forth. So in order for what you guys are > saying to make sense, it would need to be the case that all those > results are misleading, and that instead people can distinguish > differences over long listening sessions that they can't hear in short > ones. > > I should add that audiophiles almost invariably believe they can > clearly hear the difference and the short A/B test will be easy, only > to fail when they try it blind. So not only must the research be > misleading, but beliefs which are provably false and explained by bias > in short-term tests must instead be correct for long-term ones. That's > stringing together quite a few improbabilities...
You are completely missing (or ignoring) the point that both Patrick & I have made, i.e. that it's not necessarily possible to hear subtle differences in short term tests. And that these subtle differences can be very important to the overall listening experience. That is why we are saying that short-term A/B testing doesn't offer much useful information, and neither does long-term A/B testing (audio memory is too short). When I'm auditioning equipment that warrants it, I may do a quick A/B(/C/D) test to make sure all the candidates are in the same ballpark, but after that I use extended listening. I don't really care if one piece of equipment is better than another, just that I enjoy listening to it. R. _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
