Personally, I would love to be able to take part in a fair double blind comparison. I do believe double blind tests are by far the best way to get at the truth of our own perceptions.
But to be effective in approaching that truth, I would want the comparison to be between amps I am already familiar with and which I already believe sound different. What I want to find out is if my perceptions are to be trusted.
Even though I hear, for instance, my Plinius amp as sounding identifiably different from, for instance, the Bedini of identical power it replaced, I am never certain that the differences I believe I hear are not mental constructs of the non-blinded situation combined with my own mental processes.
The program material must be familiar, also. All this is because the hypothesis being tested is: The Plinius 100 sounds identifiably unlike the Bedini Classic 100. That is the premise on which I am basing my purchase choices.
As a sworn skeptic, I want some better evidence of these phenomena than personal testimony or my own perceptions.
Using familiar gear, rather than strangers, means I have a ready yardstick by which to measure my results. I don't care what Richard Clark thinks. I just want to come closer to knowing whether I am fooling myself. After all, a lot of money is at stake: the thousands I spend on "better" equipment.
Setting up a double blind test in one's own room would be the ideal for this kind of experiment. Now that i have thought of this, I will perhaps try somehow to set one up. Obviously, if I do not score well, I will feel the test has exposed my prior self-deception. But, if I do well, I really will not be sure of anything because a really solid double blind test is pretty much impossible in my house.
Program material, also, would need to be familiar, for the same reasons.
But to be effective in approaching that truth, I would want the comparison to be between amps I am already familiar with and which I already believe sound different. What I want to find out is if my perceptions are to be trusted.
Even though I hear, for instance, my Plinius amp as sounding identifiably different from, for instance, the Bedini of identical power it replaced, I am never certain that the differences I believe I hear are not mental constructs of the non-blinded situation combined with my own mental processes.
The program material must be familiar, also. All this is because the hypothesis being tested is: The Plinius 100 sounds identifiably unlike the Bedini Classic 100. That is the premise on which I am basing my purchase choices.
As a sworn skeptic, I want some better evidence of these phenomena than personal testimony or my own perceptions.
Using familiar gear, rather than strangers, means I have a ready yardstick by which to measure my results. I don't care what Richard Clark thinks. I just want to come closer to knowing whether I am fooling myself. After all, a lot of money is at stake: the thousands I spend on "better" equipment.
Setting up a double blind test in one's own room would be the ideal for this kind of experiment. Now that i have thought of this, I will perhaps try somehow to set one up. Obviously, if I do not score well, I will feel the test has exposed my prior self-deception. But, if I do well, I really will not be sure of anything because a really solid double blind test is pretty much impossible in my house.
Program material, also, would need to be familiar, for the same reasons.