"The Audio Critic" B.S. or what?

To ICYR Anus: Blind testing introduces tension variables, such that even obvious differences become less obvious. Also, I firmly believe that you need visual stimuli and room orientation, for the "aural memory" to function properly. When you are in a blackened room, or wear a blindfold, all sorts of things can happen as your brain perceives the sound. YOU AREN'T USED TO DOING THIS SORT OF THING, UNLESS YOU ARE WITHOUT SIGHT TO BEGIN WITH. For instance, nobody denies that it enhances the enjoyment listening to do so in a darkened room. It's easier to "see" with your ears that way, and forget that you aren't at the concert hall. BUT WHAT IF YOUR HEAD SLOWLY SCEWS OFF IN ONE DIRECTION, AND YOU DON'T KNOW IT? SUDDENLY THE IMAGE CAN BE SLIGHTLY LOPSIDED, AND YOU DON'T KNOW WHY (or even consciously realize that it actually is lopsided)...since you cannot orient to the room/speakers. And there in lies the problem. Personally, I have not been able to listen with the lights off, without getting lulled into such a trance-like state, that it forces/compels me to CEASE ANALYTICAL THOUGHT COMPLETELY...and I just enjoy the music in a very "pure" way. My mind starts involuntarily imagining myself as floating, or even swimming around in the air, amongst the musicians/performers. The point is, I could still be hearing things like cable differences, but my aural memory forgets them, or else forgets to pay attention, and I don't even realize it. With the lights on, and myself changing the cables, I pay attention to every detail. Then I switch cables back and forth several times (I'm not a firm believer in settling times of cables, so long as they've all been up and running in the very recent past). I confess that if I (as many do here) forced myself to listen to a cable for months at a time, without changing it, I would get used to it's sound, and definitely could not remember how it's character affected music in a different way, from the previous one months before. I don't understand how anyone could make cable choices that way. In any case, if I can change cables back and forth, play the same piece of music, then move to a different piece of music...and I STILL hear the different signature as cables are changed, WHY SHOULD I QUESTION MY OWN HEARING, WHEN I JUST REPEATED THE TEST WITH DIFFERENT MUSIC, BUT HEARD THE SIGNATURE OF THE CABLE EXHIBIT EXACTLY THE SAME SORT OF EFFECT ON THE MUSIC? This has always been the case for me, when I compare any type of cable, and frankly, I have no reason to doubt what I am hearing...It isn't my fault that others might not trust their hearing, and want to take a "court of law" mentality, where everything MUST be controlled (so that the person who is listening is somehow out of control). WHY IS THAT MORE VALID THAN MY WAY? I guess it's like Parliamentary procedure, or something. Some people just can't make decisions for themselves, unless they get permission to do so from a group of people. I'm kind of a maverick individualist, I guess, and I like to do things my way...epsecially when I've never had a valid reason to doubt my own hearing. And yet, I DO have plenty of reason to doubt the hearing acuity of those a generation older than me...

I recently made a cable change and my wife noticed from the other room! She came into the room and asked what happened to the treble. People who say cables don't make a differance either have poor hearing or have never experimented with cables in a high resolution audio system. I don't care about blind testing. I did a blind test once with strawberry and rasberry jam and could not make the correct choice more than 50% of the time.

If we are truly to trust our ears, then blind listening is the preferred path. My idealized method for evaluating equipment would be a sound room where the listener cannot see any of the equipment. Some sort of sonically transparent fabric can separate the listener from the speakers. The listener can direct an assitant to insert or remove the product under scrutiny. The listener can listen to whatever music they like for as long as they like. The key is that the listener has no knowledge of what equipment they are listening to. Whatever, opinion is formed would then be a completely unbiased opinion based soley upon the sound quality of the product. Obviously listening like this is impossible in a home setting, but an audio dealer could easily implement such a setup. I wonder if any are brave enough?

Crispianus, in double-blind testing the reviewer does not know even whether a swich of equipment has been made (i.e. he is not told whether he is listening to A or B). I believe that is too extreme. It should be sufficient for the reviewer to know whether he is listening to the A or B equipment at each point in time if he doesn't know which is which. By the way, "blind" testing has nothing to do with being blindfolded. Whether or not the reviewer has his eyes open is, in my opinion, irrelevant (obviously so long as he doesn't look at the equipment, which can be coverred). I agree with your points on wine and beer tasting, and I agree the analogy is good. Finally, I don't take eber's opinions seriously for one second.

onhwy61, yure correct - ya don't have to be blind to do blind testing. while i have heard differences between amps, pre's, cables, etc., for reviewing purposes, when lotsa times, there's really a lot of hair-splitting, it would be helpful if there was some sorta review-proces whereby the "sighted" listener would *not* know the identity of the product being reviewed. sure, a $2k interconnect may be better than a $200 ic. but, *how much* better? is it really a major difference? or is it something more subtle? i'd bet some $200 cable comes pretty close to the expensive stuff. shouldn't be too hard to arrange this - speakers, it would seem to me, would be difficult, cuz of the *transparent* fabric needed - would it really be transparent in all applications? and source components would need a 2nd person to change the software. it would be pretty hard to disguise the identity of anything related to vinyl playback; cd-playback being only slightly less difficult. but, i still see no reason why commercial review publications could not have dedicated reviewing rooms where equipment is reviewed. the reviewers could also use their own home-systems as tangent-points. regards, doug