Blind fold hearing test

I can imagine the perfect credibility destroying nightmare scenario.

You come into the room sit down settle in and have a good listen and then proclaim the system to be running large speakers off giant monoblocks. It must be so because the bandwidth and imagery are both huge.

Then the blindfold is removed and lo and behold - you are a facing a midi system!

Identifying systems will be hard enough, never mind individual brands. 

No I couldn’t. But...
- I could probably identify electrostatic speakers from any other kind.
- I’d have a fair chance of separating most valve amps from transistor amps.
- I could definitely tell if TC and/or mats were in use in the system or not.
- I could tell if adequate vibration damping/isolation was in place or not.

It would also depend on the hour of the day. I could make much better judgements after 12 midnight.

Everything sounds different in different rooms and in different systems. Thus, you won’t be able to figure out what speakers, what amps, what cables, etc. you’re listening to if you were blindfolded.

The corollary of that statement is you cannot foretell what a system will sound like by knowing what components or speakers or cables are in the system. Nor can you tell what a system would sound like by looking at a picture of the system and the room. I’m afraid, gentle readers, those are all old wives tales.