I see the issue with ABX blind testing

In every discussion about cables the question is always asked, why don’t you do an ABX blind test? So I was figuring out how I’d do that. I know the reason few do it. It’s not easy to accomplish. I have no problem having a friend come over & swap cables without telling me what he’s done, whether he swapped any at all etc. But from what I can see the benefit, if there is one, will be most noticeable system wide. In other words, just switching one po

 

This is extremely simple.

Step a)

Put blindfold on friend outside the music room (so he has no idea what is inside).

Step b)

When blindfold is on, hold his hand and waltz him to the seat, sit him down.

Step c)

Start swapping cables 25 times.

Step d)

- He's gonna hear the swapping sounds (as he sits blindfolded) while you swap away behind the gear. So, you can also "pretend swap" at times, i.e., unplug cables (give him the 'sound of swapping') and not swap, by plugging em back into the same sockets (tricky tricky 😑). 

If he gets it right, 23 out of 25 times it is a pass.

Otherwise, it's a fail.

How is this so complicated? It is very, very straightforward.

How is this so complicated? It is very, very straightforward.

You quoted my post and ended the quote before the reason it's difficult was stated...

But from what I can see the benefit, if there is one, will be most noticeable system wide. In other words, just switching one power cable the way I did before won’t be sufficient for you to tell a difference... again, assuming there is one. So I need my friend to swap power cables for my amp/preamp & streamer, XLR cables from my streamer to my preamp, preamp to amp & speakers cables. That takes a good 5-10 minutes. There is no way my brain is retaining what I previously heard and then comparing it to what I currently hear.

The human brain can retain & compare audio for about a fraction of a second. If it takes 5-10 minutes, or even 1 minute to swap cables, your ability to remember what you heard and compare it with what you're hearing now is effectively zero. 

Don't believe me? Take this test... 

Compare the sounds and see if you can tell the difference. But when you're comparing, wait about 5 minutes between listening to each test. 

So, someone needs to achieve a 92% rate of success in your test before you consider it a pass? 

You're a hard grader.  People are bombed based on "Confident" as there's no way to be absolutely certain unless you can see the person you want to bomb. 

By the way, Paul McGowan went through something similar when a friend came over and asked him if he could hear a difference, not knowing what was being changed and when it actually was changed, he was correct in all of his assessments. His friend was swapping out a fuse away from Paul as he sat and he couldn't see what was going on, let alone what his friend was doing. 

That really pissed off the measurement crowd. So much for parlor tricks.

All the best,
Nonoise

The human brain can retain & compare audio for about a fraction of a second. If it takes 5-10 minutes, or even 1 minute to swap cables, your ability to remember what you heard and compare it with what you're hearing now is effectively zero. 

I remember the Pink Floyd concert I saw in Raleigh, NC back in 1988 perfectly.  They sounded great.  I don‘t remember what I had for dinner last week.

The human brain can retain & compare audio for about a fraction of a second. If it takes 5-10 minutes, or even 1 minute to swap cables, your ability to remember what you heard and compare it with what you're hearing now is effectively zero. 

Don't believe me? Take this test... 

https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/how-well-can-you-hear-audio-quality

First :i could not pass this test at all because i never listen and will never listen seriously this pop song studio mixing soup to begin with...😁

Second : we must use a music we know perfectly well to do any test and do it in our own room system...😊

Third :the brain conscious memory of a couples of bit of sound is short in milliseconds yes...

But the unconscious emotional body who had memory engrams of the music we love and know is very powerful and i use it all along my tuning of my room ...it is not a conscious act but a feeling of the body...A reaction about what is good for me or what is bad... this memory endure and is related to long pieces of music we learned deeply in our known acoustic environment ... A change in sound here will be detected.

Reality is more complex than any techno-cultist ideology ...😊