The problem with ASR as of late is that such opportunity is not always given. A loud member, or a moderator, or a whole pack of them, publicly accuse an "inconvenient" member of disingenuity, of lack of knowledge, or of low intelligence, and then said member is immediately banned, with no way to defend himself there.
I don’t have the lengthy experience posting on ASR that you have, but I’ve certainly seen new members of subjectivist bent banned very quickly. And to put things in perspective, I’ve seen that many more times than I’ve seen an actual single- or double-blind test performed for or by ASR.
There are very frequent blind tests posted by members. Here is a very recent one:
Amir uses a different dictionary from others "frequent" here means "every now and then".
That aside, I am NOT a scientist. Never claimed to be. Never want to be. I follow science just like your doctor does.
Perhaps the site would be better named Audio Medicine Review? 😊
Here is the thing. A while ago I was looking around for a new DAC. I listened to about 8 and in no case was the cost of the DAC mentioned. I just sat in a chair and listened to the same music. One that I disregarded very quickly was the Topping.
While ASR-ers don’t actually perform DBT or similar nearly as often as they demand it of others, it is useful to consider what it is and why we should do them sometimes. If we take the DAC example, imagine if I were to do comparative listening test for DACs including a Topping? Now I’ve read ASR for a good while and watched enough of the videos so when I think of Topping I think of Amir. So how can I listen to a Topping knowingly and enjoy it? To give it a fair audition, I’ll need to disguise the brand.