psnyder149,
You posed an amusing challenge. But statistics and voting are meaningless on several levels. Take presentation 1, 45% vs 55%. The absolute difference is 10%, but the relative difference is 10/45 = 22%. Take presentation 3, 37% vs 63%, absolute difference of 26%, relative difference of 26/37 = 70%. In the real world of rare diseases with an incidence of 0.1%, suppose a toxin increases the incidence to 0.2%. The media loves to make sensationalist headlines by saying the toxin doubles the incidence, but the actual increase is only 0.1%.
But my nitpicking about proper statistical interpretation is less important than the experience and qualifications of the individual listeners, voters, etc. We’ll never know this crucial information. There were a few YT listeners who actually posted in-depth analyses of what they heard with the Rouge vs mystery amp. The general tone of the in-depth comments was that the Rouge was more detailed, but the mystery amp was more musical. This all came down to preferences only. Butt-kicking is a foolish characterization.. I SLIGHTLY preferred the Rouge, but would not say it butt-kicked the mystery amp. Before the A/B, I believed that Jay’s amp was a euphonic marshmallow by comparison, but after careful listening and being honest, I admitted that they were close, and so did lots of people. I came away liking Jay’s choices, delighting that he also values clarity, with a little warmth added.
Dangerous assessment tools are polls and surveys. They don’t tell much of value. On a plane with 100 passengers, and 2 pilots, who do you trust for your safety? If there are no trained pilots among the passengers, do you let the ignorant 100 passengers outvote the pilots on the proper way to land the plane, or do you trust the minority 2 pilots who know what they are doing?
P.S. I just read Jay’s description of his new king of neutrality amp. I am intrigued. Suppose he did a shootout with this King Neutral amp with the Mystery amp. I bet the people who thought the Mystery amp butt-kicked the Rouge would also find that it would butt-kick the King Neutral amp for the same reason--they just prefer euphonics. That’s still OK, just their preference. My message is that they should not say that A butt-kicks B but just say, "I like A much more than B." That’s honest. Then explain why, which is informative to listeners of all preferences.
But the Mystery amp is gone, so that shootout won’t happen. However, Jay, just please get the Benchmark AHB2, do a shootout between Prince Neutral (AHB2) and King Neutral. Since you now value neutral amps, that would be most meaningful and helpful to all. If you don’t put up the money (although you get it back in a trial for a month), perhaps you can convince jimmy2615 (see the top of this page) who bought the AHB2 and found it delightfully neutral, to send it to you for a listen and then shootout. Jimmy, you will be appreciated, thanks.
