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

By the way i dont pretend to teach their job to acoustician...

I pretend to have been able to tune my room..

Then dont put in my mouth what serve your goal...

And in case you dont know it, SMALL ROOM acoustic is a recent field in acoustic science investigations ... The market for small room acoustic is few decades old...Amphitheater exist for millenia...

i dont pretend to know anything, i only experimented 2 years non stop in my room...

And my room beat my 8 headphones... it is not perfect but it is enough for me..

And by the way the best acoustician in the world are on the net with their articles and books... They are not in the ASR site...And if they are there. did they contradict the idiotic way to judge a piece of gear by numbers alone ? Inform me about that i dont know... 😊

How do you think i learn to tune my room? By consulting acoustician articles on the internet...And creating my own experiments...

Serious Acousticians are not dwelling in audiophile forum for sure and not in your ASR site either , they WORK ...

Read my post right please before categorizing me in the "deluded audiophile "box your avatar name suggest....

I expect you went there and tried to tell some experts in acoustics how to do acoustics, and it was not well received.

 

I manufacture batteries @tonywinga , or more specifically I develop the technology for the batteries that are manufactured. The only thing I am defending is common sense and against those that try to look like they know what they are talking about when they really don't. This place is great for music suggestion, good for speakers, and I like looking at rooms for design ideas which is why I have read it over the years. Some of the best music suggestions you will find. Otherwise, too many people who are convinced of their expertise in all things audio though they have likely not seen a physics class since high school. They are easy to tell, they throw around terms like Bureau of Standards in 2022, even thought it was eliminated in the 1980's. At that point it becomes obvious they picked up a term from someone else who also did not know what they are talking about either. It's tedious, and it is disrespectful to spread false information under the guise of fake expertise to a community that supposedly you respect.

Mahgister, you appear unable to both form a coherent paragraph, nor stay on topic. Throwing out names like Helmholtz nor TYPING IN CAPS does not make your point any more succinct or accurate nor confer any expertise on you. You made a blanket statement that the users of Audio Science do not care about room acoustics. That is patently false. There is no walking that back. You made a false statement. It would be best to just admit it.

I hired an expert who participated on the Audio Science site. He came highly recommended and his references included professional studios, many business who set up studios, and high end residences. I had a great chat there with another gentleman who is a distinguished Bell Labs scientist. I have even ran into an old colleague from my TI days, I was working on a wafer process that was critical to a product he was lead on.  Oh, I also chatted with someone from Gik there too (the acoustic panel guys). So your claim about acoustics experts not participating there is also false. I did get directed to Gearslutz (now Gearspace) for a deeper dive into some acoustics discussions. The acoustics discussions are definitely deeper there, but of course more focused on studios and mixing spaces. The concepts are similar though.

I am not sure why you are comparing your room to headphones. They don't sound the same. That is an apples and orange comparison and does not mean anything.

Mahgister, you appear unable to both form a coherent paragraph, nor stay on topic. Throwing out names like Helmholtz nor TYPING IN CAPS does not make your point any more succinct or accurate nor confer any expertise on you. You made a blanket statement that the users of Audio Science do not care about room acoustics. That is patently false. There is no walking that back. You made a false statement. It would be best to just admit it.

You extracted my sentence of his context...

Nobody in his right mind can clain that there is no one interested by acoustic here or in ASR... this will be false... this is evident for ANYONE...

Second: I spoke about some people in ASR claimingv that measuring a piece of gear say all there is too say about his Sound quality...

I said we must listen any produtct in good acoustic condition...not only read some chosen electrical measures to assess his quality...The final quality of any audio system is DETERMINED by his relation to a ROOM acoustically controlled...

is it clearer?

Dont pick fleas in my back, try to understand context...

I am not sure why you are comparing your room to headphones. They don’t sound the same. That is an apples and orange comparison and does not mean anything.

 

First anybody in his right mind know that we cannot compare headphones with speakers...They are different BUT.......They cannot be compared en GENERAL, they can be compared by an owner in his room...

Second i prefer my speakers now to all my headphones why?

Because i can replicate the INTIMACY we feel with headphones with my room/speakers ...And all other acoustic cues are on par or better with my speakers..

With the same system it was not the case a few years ago without any acoustic control of my room... i prefered headphones at this time in the same uncontrolled room...

is it clearer?

 

The acoustics discussions are definitely deeper there, but of course more focused on studios and mixing spaces. The concepts are similar though.

i dont doubt a second that the acoustic discourse is better on ASR than here...i know that there is more "specialist" there than here...

 

This does not means that measuring a piece of gear ONLY and only measuring it is the final word about his quality...If Amir say i take measure and this dac is good this other bad...This is not enough  information about the sound quality of anything... Improving Acoustic conditions in my experience beat most  upgrade... This is my point...

The final word is a listening in the room with a good acoustic...

A reviewer speaking of any product in a non treated and non controlled room for me cannot give the final word... be it here, in an audio magazine or in ASR...