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I'm not a real scientist.

Though I used to be. I'm a writer now, and an editor. I left behind a fairly promising career in science to follow my wife to another part of the country where she had been offered an excellent job. (a decision I remain very proud of, and which has worked out very well for me in the long run). Yet I learned a heck of a lot during the 10 or so years that I studied and practiced science, and I still draw on that knowledge in my thinking.

JC, with respect--and I mean that, as I have great respect for your accomplishments as a designer--you couldn't be more wrong in suggesting that a "real scientist" would remain neutral about the chip until listening. There are a couple of reasons for that, but one of them is that merely listening would never be considered a scientific test, at least not without adequate controls. Since no one has done a test with adequate controls, there's really no evidence that the chip works. There is, however, a great deal of justification for skepticism.

I am not suggesting--and have never suggested--that audiophiles should require scientific methodology. YOU are the one who suggested I was being unscientific. My response: there's nothing scientific about this whole business.

When I was practicing science--I've got about 20 publications in respectable peer-reviewed scientific journals to my credit--I was an experimentalist. So I have a great respect for experimental science; but every experimentalist has to know some theory--we take the same courses the theorists do--and should remain skeptical of any experimental result that seems to contradict established theory--especially the most fundamental established theory. That's a healthy approach; I'd even suggest that it's essential to healthy science. Because such breakthroughs happen very rarely, scientists learn to embrace very high standards of proof for really radical results. You have to--if you don't impose high standards on yourself, the reviewers of the paper you submit will impose them for you, and reject the paper. As they should.

No evidence that's been presented so far would pass even the least rigorous scientific test. From a scientific standpoint, there IS NO evidence that the chip works, none at all. That by itself means little. But combined with the implausibility of the chip--the complete absence of a viable mechanism of action--and any other attitude than the one I've taken would be unscientific.

Be Well,
Jim

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