So how much do you think the placebo effect impacts our listening preferences?
My hypothesis is that for ~%97 of us, the more a headphone costs the more we will enjoy the headphone.
My secondary hypothesis is that the more I told consumers a headset cost, the more they would enjoy the phones. i.e. a $30 headphone < $300 headphone < $3,000 headphones <<< $30,000 headphones.
I’m willing to bet that if I put the kph 30i drivers in the focal utopia’s chassis and told participants in this fake study that the phones cost $4k.... Everyone except for the 3%ers would never guess something was up. The remaining 97% would have no clue and report that it was the best set they ever heard.
Then if I gave them the kph30i and explained it was $30. 97% of people would crap on them after hearing the same driver in a different chassis.
My ultimate hypothesis is that build quality and price are the two most important factors in determining if people will enjoy a set of headphones. This how I rationalize the HD8XX getting crap on when only 3 people have heard it and publicly provided their opinion lol. "It’s a cheaper 800s, of course it’s going to sound worse!"
rols I mean, people have been operated on without anaesthetic and not felt pain thanks to placebo ...That sounds extremely doubtful unless other techniques were used, such as this. Otherwise, it would be an unconscionable experiment. |
@philbarone, "Some people just feel safer paying more." Particularly it would seem musicians. Didn’t Joshua Bell pay some astronomical sum of money for his Stradivarius, yet other violins are often preferred in blind listening tests? To be fair to Bell his Strad is likely to be a great investment and if it makes him feel better.. why not just as long as neither he or we insist it sounds better? I’ve long given up suggesting to my sister and daughter that more expensive doesn’t always mean better, but their argument is they don’t have the time or the inclination to do any research. So they tend to go on price, as is suggested more or less everywhere you look these days. As you say, "It’s funny though, I used to do blindfold tests in an effort to enlighten someone to certain things and when proven wrong they’d go into denial mode and insist they were right even after I had just disproved them wrong." That’s people for you, and don’t the marketers know it. Apple seem to be the masters of this image projection. I know quite a few people who will immediately upgrade to the new iPhone 13 in a few months without thinking. I already know it would be a waste of time suggesting to them that my Xiaomi (OLED, 2 speakers, 5000 mAh battery etc) at a quarter of the price might be a better buy. @cleeds, One of my colleagues has been telling me for years that her husband Eric is so scared of needles he’s even prepared to have fillings without anaesthetic! The best I ever managed was to have a deep clean and, despite the blood and pain, the proximity of the attractive dentist plus some some self induced placebo got me through. I definitely would not try it with any drilling involved but I can believe others may be able to. The words 'root canal' still fill me with fear. Of course it’s well known that under extreme duress people have been known to perform feats far outside their normal capabilities. The power of placebo should not be casually dismissed. Even politicians understand it and use it accordingly. Let’s face it, it’s everywhere and so familiar that eliminating its effect is far from easy. Did someone happen to mention blind listening tests? Or are we all too scared of risking invoking cognitive dissonance? Red pill or blue pill? Which one do you prefer? Just how much truth can you handle right now? Tough questions in tough times. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_pill_and_blue_pill |
From what I've heard about pain killing placebos is that they don't actually work when measuring pain objectively - which is usually done with a range of motion test. A person on a placebo will say they feel better and the pain is less bothersome, but when they are asked to lift their arm up, as in the case of shoulder pain, they can't actually lift it any higher. With a real pain killer they can - although maybe they shouldn't! |
