Home Propeller Head Plaza

Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics.

[ Follow Ups ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Propeller Head Plaza ]
[ Alert Moderator ]

Pat do you need explaining that one test a *trend* does not make? Besides that

one need only examine the listening environment of the test in question, contrast that environment with the listening one does in one's own room, or for that matter even the setup at a decent audio shop, to realise that the test was seriously flawed, i.e. from the article:

---
The room available to us at the show venue, the Dunfey San Mateo hotel, could hold about 55 seated people without crowding; as it turned out, the tests were so popular that we had to squeeze in additional people who were content to stand or sit on the floor (footnote 4). As then only about 10% of the listeners would have received any semblance of a stereo soundfield and the room was particularly lively, especially in the upper midrange and treble, differences in soundstaging performance between the test amplifiers would not have contributed to any subjective differences, I felt. In addition, there was often a problem with breakthrough from the adjacent room, despite Jeff Rowland keeping his sound pressures to mainly reasonable levels.
---

Now true while the test avoided the low-N conditions of many of the early ABX tests clearly it was hardly done in a manner that approximated anything near normal listening ... does the typical audiophile conduct any significant portion of his/her listening in a group setting?

Now it may seem that I wish to have my cake and eat it too, i.e. on the one hand criticise the ABX crowd for low-N tests, on the other criticise (this particular) the large-N test because of the conditions. Well the simple answer to that is YES! ... do the damn tests properly or forget it!

....

Also, as to audiophiles in general having a bias toward hearing differences I say ... So what? Fact of the matter is that most amplifiers, CD Players, TTs, per-amps, etc. *do* sound different, that's what my personal experience tells me and my findings seem to be consistent with a great many audiophiles.

The other reason for the "So what?" is that biases are not something to be feared, they do not have the power that many objectivists would like to have us believe. Basically one needs to be aware of their biases, to be on guard against them.

For example given two interconnects, one $100, the other $500, I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of audiophiles would be inclined (biased) to expect the $500 one to provide better performance. It is precisely for that reason that one listens carefully when comparing ... there's not mystery here!

BTW, I've heard cables that didn't rate up to their price range, and I don't have the least reluctance to name them! E.g. I thought the GutWire Synchrony performed about as well as I would expect for a $100 IC (most of which are beaten by a decent DIY DH Labs BL1) but the Synchrony costs a lot more; BTW, the Synchrony looks fantastic, I'm a big fan of the look of cotton outer cover and the RCAs are damn sexy as well!

No Guru, No Method, No Teacher

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  VH Audio  

Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups
You can not post to an archived thread.

[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]