I see the issue with ABX blind testing


I’ve followed many of the cable discussions over the years with interest. I’ve never tested cables & compared the sound other than when I bought an LFD amp & the vendor said that it was best paired with the LFD power cord. That was $450 US and he offered to ship it to me to try & if I didn’t notice a difference I could send it back. I got it, tried it & sent it back. To me there was no difference at all.

Fast forward to today & I have a new system & the issue of cables arises again. I have Mogami cables made by Take Five Audio in Canada. The speaker wire are Mogami 3104, XLRs are Mogami 2549 & the power cords are Powerline 10 with Furutech connectors. All cables are quite well made and I’ve been using them for about 5 years. The vendor that sold me the new equipment insisted that I needed "better" cables and sent along some Transparent Super speaker & XLR cables to try. If I like them I can pay for them.

In every discussion about cables the question is always asked, why don’t you do an ABX blind test? So I was figuring out how I’d do that. I know the reason few do it. It’s not easy to accomplish. I have no problem having a friend come over & swap cables without telling me what he’s done, whether he swapped any at all etc. But from what I can see the benefit, if there is one, will be most noticeable system wide. In other words, just switching one power cable the way I did before won’t be sufficient for you to tell a difference... again, assuming there is one. So I need my friend to swap power cables for my amp/preamp & streamer, XLR cables from my streamer to my preamp, preamp to amp & speakers cables. That takes a good 5-10 minutes. There is no way my brain is retaining what I previously heard and then comparing it to what I currently hear.

The alternative is to connect all of the new cables, listen for a week or so & then switch back & see if you feel you’re missing anything. But then your brain takes over & your biases will have as much impact as any potential change in sound quality.

So I’m stumped as to how to proceed.

A photo of my new setup. McIntosh MC462, C2700, Pure Fidelity Harmony TT, Lumin T3 & Sonus Faber Amati G5 & Gravis V speakers.

dwcda

I concur with this soix opinion. When you learn acoustics with your "ears"/brain you smile at the faith of these two crowds. 😊 The cable worshiphers and the cables denyers...

I’m sure you know there’s no point in debating anyone who worships at the alter of blind testing or similarly are of the “belief” that cables make no difference — aka people who can’t or haven’t developed the ability to use/trust their own ears so must have their opinions justified/confirmed by some objective measure.

@soix Sorry you feel that way. I am a trained scientist and I know how skewed our internal system is. As I said, it is part and parcel of our survival mechanism. I do not trust ’golden ears’ because they are just as biased as the rest of us and as you age, hearing degrades, period.

The point being is that blind testing, if done right takes out all that bias out, however small it is.

I would say, it is the golden ears ones that are scared to find out all the massive expensive cables are just that, massive and expensive. When they say, ’aka people who can’t or haven’t developed the ability to use/trust their own ears’ I am done with the discussion as arrogance rules the day.

Hey, if you don’t like fungi, don’t eat mushrooms. drink Tokai or Sauternes, drink saki, eat blue cheese, use soy sauce/miso or many other naturally fermented products.

As I said, I am out of this discussion. Enjoy all.

botrytis

... When they say, ’aka people who can’t or haven’t developed the ability to use/trust their own ears’ I am done with the discussion as arrogance rules the day ...

You've proven your point admirably well.