James Randi vs. Anjou Pear - once and for all

Meagan02 - your answer doesn't answer the question of why someone won't step up and win the million dollars. I just did a listening test last night with a couple of buddies - Purist speaker cables (Elementa Advance, not their priciest) against a couple cheaper mail order cables (no need to mention, they are decent cables). Everyone in the room felt that the Purist cables represented a significant improvement (all 3 of us). On a resolving system, this should be quite differentiable. What are the rules of his challenge? Who is the jury. A million bucks can buy a lot of audio equipment, and the contestant doesn't risk anything besides their time (is this true?). So, somebody with time - step up!!!

I feel that it would depend a lot upon the system used in the test and who decided. I know that in my system, different cables are easily distinguished, even by a nay sayer engineer (price does not dictate quality). However, if it were in a system built around a midrange cd player and tri-amplified self-powered loudspeakers, one may not be able to. IMHO of course.

Peter s,

It's not my place, nor yours, to answer the question why someone won't step up and take the challenge. Actually, that's not even the question. Randi is baiting Dave Clark and John Atkinson, not you or me, or any A-Gon member. We've got nothing to lose. And on the 50/50 outside chance we could actually tell the Monster Cable from the Pear Audio...who freaking cares? Randi just wants to embarrass these two hotshots, not schmoes like us. Wisely, these guys aren't going to risk their reputation--and careers--to let Randi make saps out of them.

But feel free to call him and try to win the $1,000,000.

More info on the challenge:

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/cables/messages/13/132144.html

Meagan02 - I can't agree with your assessment. Randi may be trying to embarrass the hotshots, but by making this an open challenge, whatever vendetta he may have has been diluted and the question is now open to all. I'm not saying that someone "should" take the time out of their personal lives to do this - that they are bad if they didn't - it is anyone's choice. But his challenge lends itself to the scientific method. Why should we avoid such an experiment? And I think we do have something to lose, and to gain. If you really believe there is a 50/50 chance that the difference could be discerned - we have to lose an unsupported myth and we have to gain some truth. If 50/50 were the case, the truth would be that some people are dillusional and/or value status over their stated goal (enjoy the music). And the truth would benefit most people, that they don't have to spend that kind of money to get good sound. If it 80/20, or some other statistically significant combination, than the truth is otherwise. My experience tells me that this is the case, though I've never heard a $7,000 cable before!

When you ask who cares - I assume you mean who cares about the outcome of the test, not who cares about the truth. I guess my concern is whether such an experiment could be run in a convincing way - and I truly believe that it could - but would require some significant planning and design. With that kind of money, it would be a good project for a grad student in statistics and the scientific method!

Cheers, Peter