AB Testing Experiences


Anybody done much AB testing.  Hard to do at dealers with much variety, and in homes even tougher.   Anyone done much of this and able to share experience.
My kenwood tape deck from 1980 allowed this, tape play vs recorded sound.  
My curiously would be an AB test between avr vs stereo preamp,  tube vs ss, McIntosh vs audio research preamps, high end spkrs, amps, etc  I can do some AB testing at home between avr dac vs bluesound vs chord.  This shows lots of differences. Bluesound was quite bad. The 5014 Marantz avr dac for heos streaming wasn’t bad, very open and detailed. 


emergingsoul
No Millercarbon I have not conflated anything. I said tonal balance. How we perceive a sound is based on how we perceive a whole set of frequencies that make up said tone or sound. That is absolutely impacted by volume. That is irrefutable. It’s how our ears /hearing system works.


With the same sound, louder volume does not mask quieter passages unless you are reaching saturation of the hearing system EXCEPT as described above the impact of tonal balance due to Fletcher Munson. Increasing the volume makes the bass increase in relative volume more than other frequencies which can have a masking effect in addition to changing tonal balance. You proved yourself wrong right there. You are trying to ignore biological reality to suit a particular position.

Listening experience can make you better able to extract information, but it does not change the basic biology you were born with hence why it is so important with AB to level match.
Yes you need to level match. Get a SPL meter and do the best you can with it getting volumes close. I've  done it with DACs and could never pick the right one though I do admit the Node2i has a pretty bad implementation.