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Visual Confirmation Bias

Nice term, Paul. Very impressive. Very scientific.

And original. Well, at least I’ve never seen it before so I’m going to claim it as my own.

Visual Confirmation Bias (VCB) is a variation on confirmation bias that postulates that your brain causes audio gear, particularly speakers, to sound the way they look.

I came up with this idea a week ago when I got my new (used) KEF LS50s. (Note: I’m sure that dozens of people have been talking about VCB for a hundred years. I’m not particularly interested in who preceded me but raising points like that is one of the reasons that this forum exists.)


I had read lots about the speaker and I was expecting accuracy and soundstage precision. Their rich, full sound surprised me. These were not adjectives that were usually attached to these speakers.

I’ve been obsessed with these speakers for the past week, reading about them constantly. I find myself most in agreement with The Absolute Sound, which described the speakers—just after they were released—as possessing a “prevailing sweetness, a harmonic saturation that lends it a dark, velvety overall character, and a bloom that is so pleasing that I began affectionately dubbing it the butterscotch sundae of small monitors.”


But in the years that followed, listener after listener reported a “hard” “bright” sound. And when I look at the speaker, those words make complete sense. A tiny metallic driver in a small box? They look tinny and bright so no wonder some people hear that.

My own strongest experience with VCB: Many years ago, on the pretense of looking for a CD player, I walked into Sound By Singer at its old 16th St. location. After just enough feigned interest, I asked the salesman to listen to something “really pornographic.”

Surprisingly, he was happy to take me into one of the listening rooms. The only specific piece of equipment I remember was a pair of Wilson Speakers. I don’t know which model but they were white and just over six feet tall. Each the size of a restaurant-grade refrigerator. They were somewhere in the neighborhood of $250,000.

Then I settled into the listening chair as the salesman started turning stuff on. Preamp, monoblock, monoblock, God knows what else. I just remember him throwing switch after switch. I have to believe all that gear equaled the price of the speakers.

If ever a system should have disappeared, it was this one. If ever the music should have been revealed to me, it was now. But even with my eyes closed, all I could see—and all I could hear—were these huge speakers looming over me. They could not have been more present in my listening experience.

Visual confirmation bias kept me from enjoying the finest pair of speakers that I’ll probably ever hear. The phenomenon is not to be underestimated.
paul6001
teo_audio
2,197 posts
 
simple speakers are better, so no great loss. Big is not always the recipe and frequently illustrates this - across the entire large speaker spectrum of products. Effortless dynamics is not clarity, nor subtlety, soundstage, space, articulation, image height or depth of image, etc. In my opinion and experience there are fer better speakers than the big speakers of the high end world. So much so that I never go into those rooms at shows anymore. It’s the ass implants, breast implants, and collagen lips ’beauty’ end of the audio pool. Might sound like an odd thing to say, for a company that makes $25k IC's and $40k speaker cables, but it's true. There are better things to hear. There are exceptions, of course. I say that so everyone's favorite can somehow be exempt. :P

If you want to help out the LS 50’s try a small sealed sub, known for articulation and bass quality.

one 8"er sealed sub per side, is usually a good way to try.

there is a totem sub that might work.
paul6001 OP
98 posts
 
Unfortunately, my apartment is so small there’s no room for a sub. Although maybe the bathroom . . .

Actually, I find that I get the best out of the LS50s by playing “Singles Going Steady” by The Buzzcocks LOUD. Or at “elevated SPLs” as some might put it.

Opening with “Orgasm Addict” it’s one hit after another. You won’t believe how the songs come back to you. This is the real sound of ‘77.

The running length of the first five songs of the first five songs: 2:00, 2:52, 2:16, 1:47, 2:39. Even the Ramones have to envy that.
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,810 posts
 
I'm free of the condition. Look at my naked Quad ESL57s. They ain't pretty!
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