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Why Do So Many Audiophiles Reject Blind Testing Of Audio Components?

Because it was scientifically proven to be useless more than 60 years ago.

A speech scientist by the name of Irwin Pollack have conducted an experiment in the early 1950s. In a blind ABX listening test, he asked people to distinguish minimal pairs of consonants (like “r” and “l”, or “t” and “p”).

He found out that listeners had no problem telling these consonants apart when they were played back immediately one after the other. But as he increased the pause between the playbacks, the listener’s ability to distinguish between them diminished. Once the time separating the sounds exceeded 10-15 milliseconds (approximately 1/100th of a second), people had a really hard time telling obviously different sounds apart. Their answers became statistically no better than a random guess.

If you are interested in the science of these things, here’s a nice summary:

Categorical and noncategorical modes of speech perception along the voicing continuum

Since then, the experiment was repeated many times (last major update in 2000, Reliability of a dichotic consonant-vowel pairs task using an ABX procedure.)

So reliably recognizing the difference between similar sounds in an ABX environment is impossible. 15ms playback gap, and the listener’s guess becomes no better than random. This happens because humans don't have any meaningful waveform memory. We cannot exactly recall the sound itself, and rely on various mental models for comparison. It takes time and effort to develop these models, thus making us really bad at playing "spot the sonic difference right now and here" game.

Also, please note that the experimenters were using the sounds of speech. Human ears have significantly better resolution and discrimination in the speech spectrum. If a comparison method is not working well with speech, it would not work at all with music.

So the “double blind testing” crowd is worshiping an ABX protocol that was scientifically proven more than 60 years ago to be completely unsuitable for telling similar sounds apart. And they insist all the other methods are “unscientific.”

The irony seems to be lost on them.

Why do so many audiophiles reject blind testing of audio components? - Quora
128x128artemus_5
edgewound
259 posts
 

peguinpower29 posts05-03-2021 11:54amthe biggest irony with these testing nerds is that they are usually the ones with the least exposure to a wide and varied spectrum of equipment.
Its not even a question of affordability, but in most cases, its a dogmatic view of the hobby and refusal to listen.
that being the case, they fail the number criteria in scientific methodology. they fail to observe.
If you listen to a lot of music, and over the years have experience a good assortment of equipment, trust me, trust your ears. audio reproduction is no different from food or wine. Its is consumption that stimulates the senses. Its basis is science, but satisfaction and fulfillment comes down to giving the listener an experience.

if you want plain sustenance, Mcdonalds is right there for you. Its got everything you need and it measures well :)

Actually...McDonald's "food" is not good you, and will lead you to an early grave. This has been measured. 

Making such snobbish comments on those of us that don't buy into the all the audiophile nonsense, have actually listened to this varied gear and reach a conclusion that the prices don't justify the performance...by actually listening, and not falling for the psychologically subjective things they are told are there. Refusal to listen? That's an incredibly ignorant assumption and statement to make. You can snicker all you want at those that don't join your elitist club...the same reason's I never joined a fraternity. It's not what you know...it's who you know. And it's pretty fake.
artemus_5's avatar
artemus_5 OP
1,927 posts
 

If you want to learn this stuff the odds of running into someone like me who really does understand and can actually explain it are slim to none.


This kind of renaissance man is a thing of the past because we have been sold the idea of the "Expert". He/She supposedly knows a very large amount about a small subject. But I have lamented many times that the various experts know a lot about their specific ingredient which goes into the pie. And the amount of experts needed to build a pie may be 10-20-25, etc. But no one knows what the pie should taste like. Therefore the pie is often quite inferior to the one grandma used to make and she only had a 5th grade education.

This is not to belittle education but the process itself which is often quite flawed.
djones51
4,947 posts
 
And those posts were removed by the author himself. He was NOT censored.,

How do you know? 
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,842 posts
 
Just read the posts further up and you’ll see the OP stating that he did not have them removed. That only leaves one, other person.

It also follows a pattern of what some say he's done under other, previous incarnations.

All the best,
Nonoise
djones51
4,947 posts
 
I suppose but anyone could object not just the OP and he was suspended from the site.
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