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

The thing with extended auditioning is that there is a lot of adaptation and not working using short term memory. 

Kind of like going to the eye doctor, the changes in the lenses magnification is deliberately quick because one's brain is working in short term memory and very good at knowing what is good for him. Eye doctors don't send you with a lens to test for a week and see how your eye feel. 

There are a lot of papers discussing this subject in the Audio Engineering Society. I wish I could post some parts but my petition was denied. If one is really interested in these subjects it is worth joining, but be prepared to read long papers with a lot of math and statistics.

Fun story, a few years back, I had my eye doctor and his dad, also an eye doctor, and I asked the young one if he knew why they change the lenses so fast and he said because he usually want to finish quickly, his father almost gave him a spank and asked if I knew or I was being me curious so he told me that  short memory  key in finding the right lenses, because the short memory comparison is key. 

Many times with my dealer we discussed why he plays one short passage and switch, and he says that after their blind test you should have 2 components you like over  the others, and if you are unsure then buy the cheapest.

My dealer also referrers to the long auditioning as a good way to find those things that bother one, like interfaces, switches, esthetics, and anything that is in the functionality domain and see if you like the sound in your home.

All the times I leverage the long term, I only bought something else because something bothered me, I am autistic and some things just don't fit in my brain. Even if the component sounds better, whatever it is distract me from listening. 

English as nth language.

That is why I only like to make changes that are immediately noticeable and not subtle. The subtle ones I am sure add up over the long term, it is just tougher to appreciate and justify them.

@astolfor

"...his father almost gave him a spank and asked if I knew or I was being me curious so he told me that short memory key in finding the right lenses, because the short memory comparison is key"

Thanks for sharing that interesting post.

Short term memory comparison does seem to make a lot of sense whenever we have to rely upon our senses. Everytime I look at a picture or a scene and then close my eyes to visualise it, I’m always a little disappointed to find upon opening my eyes once more just how much detail and nuance had faded so fast.

As for autism, unfortunately it still seems to be a mysterious condition, even in 2022.

Best of luck to you.

In blindtest to detect DIFFERENCE in sound working with the short term memory is the best yes...

But a difference in sound is an IMPROVEMENT or a DEGRADATION in some direction relative to many aoustical cues at the same time : timbre spectral evenlope, timbre time envelope, imaging, soundstage, dynamic, LEV/ASW ratio, reverberation time, and others acoustical cues relating to the head/torso relation to each speaker for each ears... Then to detect if a difference will be qualified good or bad we need TIME and the detection must be made in a KNOWN acoustical environment with a known musical cues...

To evaluate these changes only relatively long listening session linked to the body/feeling/ brain memory make sense in the acoustical room/ speakers TUNING direction..

We have very short term memory of sound yes but also a body memory linked to emotions associated with past sound long term experiences... It is why hearing sounds must be learned in acoustic and music....The long term memory is not a direct storage of the sound but a feeling engrammation related to the sound...

This acoustic feeling is what a musician use to qualify a sound/music well done... Perfect pitch hearing is another matter...Most musician must learn to reproduce and recognize pitch...They learn how to feel it...And the feeling associated with the tone nevermind the timbre is memorized...It is why a minor chord or a major chord own different feeling meaning...Joy or sadness for example...

By the way i studied practical acoustic in my room for the last 2 years, i discovered that we dont understand what sound really is...i say that but i am not a scientist for sure...It is my informed opinion based on my listening experiments...

Acoustic is a marvellous very complex field and philosophically super deep....

For example sound is not a wave but the wave is the image of the resonant body source....

For sure without air wave there is no sound hearing, but air also make possible fire but the air are not the fire but a cause of his qualitative manifestation.. To hear sound we need a resonant qualified body to be the source interacting though air wave with our ears ...To have fire we need a combusting matter interacting with air and our feeling body called that "hot".......

Human ears/brain are able to detect QUALITATIVE information from the resonant sound source by the mediation of the wave image...Like blind people use waves image trough a resonant echo to reconstruct without eyes the environment geometry and the object matter various densities around them ...

@cd318 Autism is my gift, tool and best feature for vast most part, so much to thank.  I just have some quarks, some find them funny and some they do not know what to do and get kind of scared  so they don't get to know me. I have a great partner, son, adopted daughter, very good friends, and colleagues. To be frank I can't ask more from life.