Isn't it all about feelings ? If I feel my system sounds better after a nice dinner, why not always have a nice dinner before I listen to my system ? If I feel my system sounds better with a red curtain than a blue curtain in the room, why not always use the red curtain when I'm listening to the system ? If I feel my system sounds better after applying a priority patch, why not always do new patches of the priorities before I listen to my system ? If I feel my system sounds 100 times better after applying 100 different patches (even though completely unrelated), why not always apply new patches to the system before listening ? If I feel my system sounds better if I've told the world about my improvements, why not always tell the world about my improvements before I listen to the system ?
I would say that it's not about facts, it's about the feeling that I've done the right choice to either spend my time or my money on changing something and being able to explain to others in which ways my system sounds better after the changes. Double blind tests destroys all this, they just give me a bad feeling that it doesn't matter if I have a nice dinner, spend 100 hours to fiddle with my system or apply various patches. What's the fun with this ? Don't we just want to feel that we make constant improvements to our system, either through reconfiguration or new purchases or other variables, independent if it's the case or not ? I think sometimes it's more about the experience and being able to justify spending time tweaking the system, room, mood in various ways than getting hard facts if it really made in any difference. If I feel it sounds better than it did yesterday it means that my experience will be more enjoyable, why change that ? (Even if it might in reality sound worse than yesterday if I had done a double blind test). I think when your system is getting above a certain quality level you get the most significant improvements through fiddling with your own mind and this isn't possible when applying double blind tests as their purpose is to remove the mind from the equation. So why remove the biggest chance to improve the system ? If the imaginary reality is better and more fun than the real world, why choose the real world ? At least as long as we are able to keep in touch with the real world now and then :-) Sometimes when I stop and think, I can sometimes realize that I've recently spent more time fiddling with the system than actually enjoying the music that comes out of it, this is when I can feel that it's time to go back and focus on enjoying the music for a while. Of course, for most audiophiles it's probably not about the music, it's more about the feeling that they make constant improvements. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ erland's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3124 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=94418 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
