scientific double blinded cable test

Trouble is blind tests don’t prove anything.

But they can disprove ridiculous claims.

Actually they can’t.That’s kind of my whole point. I’ll leave it to someone else to explain why not as I tire of repeating myself. 😛 True Believers 1, Naysayers 0, 

I think the reality is that many who maintain there are no differences between cables (or other things in audio) don't want to deal with the personal and/or financial implications of such differences being real. Denying differences are possible is their way of avoiding those implications.

I think the reality is that many who maintain there are no differences between cables (or other things in audio) don’t want to deal with the personal and/or financial implications of such differences being real. Denying differences are possible is their way of avoiding those implications.

To the contrary, I think that often (though not always) the reality is that those who maintain there is a difference between cables, etc. and who profess the superiority of one over the other have arrived at their decision in an almost completely subjective manner. The only objectivity in these cases might be the reliance on technical measurements by the manufacturer or third-party entity.

In my view, it really shouldn’t be all that unreasonable to expect that this same someone who professes superiority could detect whatever it is he/she feels is superior in a blind test.

Question becomes, why wouldn’t you want to subject yourself to a blind test in order to further confirm your belief?

EDIT:

It should also be noted that in no way am I hypocritical in this regard. If one refers to my posts at the time I obtained my Yggdrasil, I compared it my my Oppo and Emotiva. I didn't just haphazardly arrive at a conclusion it sounds better, I proved it to my satisfaction. Part of the proof process was bling testing. 

garagesale:

To expand on the question? Has there ever been measurable speaker differences with different cables? ETC? Frequency response? Impedance? Has an amplifier ever displayed a different level of distortion using exotic power cables? As in does an amp begin 1% distortion at 100 watts with a stock power cable but managed 105 watts with an upgraded one?

This image shows 3 speaker cables all driving the same speaker.
Cables are Rega Duet, Bob Carver's Music Link and a protoptype.
http://www.ielogical.com/Audio/TriWireZ.jpg

Amps definitely show different response into loads with different wires. Some combinations will make a less than bulletproof amp shutdown or burn up.

It is possible that an amp may put out more level into a specific speaker / cable combination, but the difference between 100 and 105 is only 0.21db and would likely only affect very short peaks.

brianmoriarty:

Such a test would need to be performed in an ordinary room  with speakers placed in less than ideal positions as the average listener would have things.  Testing high-grade cables and low-grade cables of equal electrical properties,  Like 2 coathanger’s stretched out compared with whatever high-end cable Of the same conductance.

This was essentially the test I ran at AES in the 80's. It is difficult to get exactly the same LCR parameters for different construction. We used 12ga THNN 19 strand and a Monster Pro, also 12ga. Some who took repeated tests could tell better than 80%. Many who took the test only once got results far above guessing and some did worse than guessing. When results were tabulated, it was pretty well evenly split. Many of those who did poorly were firmly in the 'canbenodifference' camp. Unfortunately, we did not collect information as to whether the participants could felt they could reliably determine differences or not. Just as some are color blind or tone deaf, some are not able to hear subtle differences in phase and level.

Quincy Jones once said that we mix in the studio making 0.1db changes for a great many who have trouble hearing 10db. Truer words were never spoken.