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Amir and Blind Testing

Let me start by saying I like watching Amir from ASR, so please let’s not get harsh or the thread will be deleted. Many times, Amir has noted that when we’re inserting a new component in our system, our brains go into (to paraphrase) “analytical mode” and we start hearing imaginary improvements. He has reiterated this many times, saying that when he switched to an expensive cable he heard improvements, but when he switched back to the cheap one, he also heard improvements because the brain switches from “music enjoyment mode” to “analytical mode.” Following this logic, which I agree with, wouldn’t blind testing, or any A/B testing be compromised because our brains are always in analytical mode and therefore feeding us inaccurate data? Seems to me you need to relax for a few hours at least and listen to a variety of music before your brain can accurately assess whether something is an actual improvement.  Perhaps A/B testing is a strawman argument, because the human brain is not a spectrum analyzer.  We are too affected by our biases to come up with any valid data.  Maybe. 

chayro
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,103 posts
 

Someone can be anti-science using some scientific tools at his disposal...science is also about conceptual tools linking some field to another field...

Especially in audio where acoustic and his relation to psycho-acoustic is no less a science than electronical technology when we try to UNDERSTODD listening experience...

 Audio science is no more fetichism of the tool than fetichism of the gear......

Objective measure are not only around the gear they can be around the speakers/ears/room serving the subjective perception of the timbre experience for example ....

This possibility seems to escape "our si called  scientists" here....

😁😊

prof

2,932 posts

I’m ready glad that audio precision doesn’t think like the objectivists on this forum, they actually think there is more or better measurements that can be performed in the future to better understand what we are hearing.

So you are against the idea of searching for a better and more reliable understanding of what we are hearing?

That sounds like flat-out anti-science.

I’m glad there are people out there trying to investigate these things, rather than

being happy with our current state of understanding.

laoman's avatar
laoman
444 posts
 

You need to ask two things:

1) why do some other independent measurements differ from those of ASR?

2) What happens to the dacs etc when they have been tested.
Re 1) I suspect that certain manufacturers send cherry picked equipment, and Re 2 I do not hink the dacs get returned. Amir needs to make a living after all.

 

invalid
1,203 posts
 

So you are against the idea of searching for a better and more reliable understanding of what we are hearing?

That sounds like flat-out anti-science.

 

I'm actually agreeing with audio precision, but some measurement types seem to think we already have all the information we need.

 

 

 

 

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djones51
4,947 posts
 

I'm not sure where this notion that audio precision is sceptical of their products ability to measure. Are they looking to improve their products? Certainly what company isn't. But if this idea has come about from a YouTube circulating from an engineer from AP then you need to watch it again. He isn't saying their device is lacking in measuring but that some companies cherry pick measurements performed by an AP device so consumers need to be wary when looking at company advertised SPECs which are not the measurements. 

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