mswlogo;375776 Wrote: > There is a related discussion here > http://www.meridianunplugged.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=82988#Post82988 > (See bullet #7) about A/B testing (on subtle differences) which claims > it's extremely difficult because of how the brain works. >
Can I quote from the original: "In Bob's opinion, double-blind listening tests are useful for a limited set certain psycho-acoustic research areas, but generally are not appropriate for comparisons of different equipment. The problem is that the human brain does not respond in the same way to a repeated identical audio impulse. Meridian, apparently, have learnt how to perform such comparisons and, if I understood correctly, it involves learning (training the brain) what a test audio sample sounds like through repetitive listening so that comparisons are possible. Just listening to music will not work." If you believe the problem is -AB using repetitive sound clips- then why draw a conclusion about sighted versus double-blind? This problem is presumably just as acute for sighted AB tests using repetitive clips. What about a double blind test where you swap between A and B whenever you feel like. Sometimes you listen to the same clip again and again and sometimes you listen to whole albums before switching sources. You listen to whatever takes your fancy, mostly "reference tracks" but throwing in some unknowns. Sometimes you listen intently and sometimes you do other things and listen in the background, suddenly becoming conscious of the sound at particularly impressive moments. Change the volume level at any time you're digging the music! At the end of this long process make a simple judgment as to whether A or B is superior or they are the same. This blind test, presumably, would have so many holes picked in it it would look like swiss cheese in five minutes! Yet this is the typical sighted listening methodology and most people are _quite_happy_to_draw_fast_conclusions_from_it_. But I say if you're going to be nit-picker have the decency to nit-pick consistently. ;) Darren -- darrenyeats SB3 / Inguz -> Krell KAV-300i (pre bypass) -> PMC AB-1 Dell laptop -> JVC UX-C30 mini system ------------------------------------------------------------------------ darrenyeats's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10799 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=57173 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
