Do your ears deceive you?

"The first principal is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P Feynman, speaking to some of the most brilliant scientists in the world in 1974.  Confirmation bias is rampant.

carlsbad2

Confirmation bias is rampant.

Indeed. For example, if you’re convinced cables "don’t make a difference," that’s likely what you’ll hear if you demo them. It won’t matter whether the test is blind, or not.

Confirmation bias is real. But some cables do make a difference. If you can’t hear it you either have the wrong cables, an insufficient system, an inability to hear those differences or confirmation bias against cables. 

It’s kinda funny....I’ve wanted every single set of cables I’ve ever installed in my system to sound like "The Ones", yet several sets hang on the wall of my basement shop, got passed on my boys, or got resold, because once all the excitement and expectation bias wore off, they just weren’t what I had hoped they’d be.  It can take quite a while to recognize all the subtle things going on.  

It’d sure be cheaper and less frustrating if I couldn’t hear the difference.

A truly blind test is when I change a cable or add a tweak unbeknownst to my spouse and the change is perceived immediately.

I think my bias is that I do expect a difference.Why else make a change? But it's not always positive or sometimes so subtle it's not a keeper.