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

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

I agree with Sedond. I believe cables and interconnects have their unique sound qualities but to spend thousands of dollars for a pair of ICs? I think that money will be better spend in upgrading your Speakers/Amps/Preamps. I have witness in a blind test where identical ICs were used but with different color jackets. And to everyone's surprise, every person that participate in the demonstration said that the blue ICs are more detailed, warm or better imaging than the Red ICs or vice versa, even though they are the exact interconnect? Try this on your friends....you will be amazed

I do not see anything wrong with blind testing, but I do not believe that it is an "end all." No two people perceive reality in exactly the same fashion IMO. And since it all boils down to personal taste anyway (since we do not all share a common system), I again say "what's the big deal." I do not nit pick when it comes to my opinions on gear. What purpose would it serve as we all hear and judge differently. The most a review/opinion can give me is the "general" characteristics of a piece of equipment. The fine points are left (as always) to my discretion. Taking into consideration how much the listening room, system synergy and even the shape of our ears (both internal and external) affect the sound, just exactly how accurate can any review/opinion be? When you also take into consideration the inter working of the individual mind, "get out of town" with the fine details. These details are most likely yours and yours alone, or theirs and theirs alone. Carl noted how different music sounds when we listen with our eyes closed. Yes, it sounds way different IMO. There are too many variables involved to achieve an accurate "anything" that can be used by those of us that are trying to push the envelope, so to speak. These types of reviews and opinions are entertaining to read, but they are not gospel, not in my book anyway.