Article: "Do Blind Listening Tests Work? My Sessions with the Colorado Audio Society"

I know, I realized it as soon as I posted it. The IPA and the blind word side tracked me.

Blind testing for me has always worked best when I don't have much skin in the game. Blind testing to hear differences can be easy. Blind testing to hear if one thing sounds better than another is another kettle of fish.

I recently did a thread here on blind testing two different CD sampling rates - 44.1 vs 176.4 with the latter being an upsampled rate offered by the same transport playing the Redbook CD's at 44.1. I could easily hear the difference between the two. What did surprise me though was that my previous preference for the higher sample rate changed to liking either rate for different applications - applications meaning different sorts of music recorded or mastered in different ways. The revelation was that one sample rate sounded better for some types of music and the other rate for other recorded music situations. It also opened me up to the notion that both rates could sound good on the same music - just different. It seems to me now that listening to the back and forth between the two modes was educative and delightfully so.

I fall asleep is that considered a blind test? Glad people experiment and report results.enjoy the search

When the self proclaimed experts maintained that an ethernet switch couldn’t possibly affect sound quality, I arranged a blind test to satisfy myself it can. It was something I only needed to do once to give me confidence in my own judgement.

If a hifi component is genuinely better in terms of reduced distortion, noise, etc, most people can easily hear the improvement. There is no need for blind testing, which is difficult to do rigorously.

It’s when we resort to obsessive tweaking that makes only small or imperceptible differences that we run into trouble and the craziness starts. 

I am with @ghdprentice, comparisons of anything, components, cables, etc., all require time. Some differences might be immediately obvious with quick switching, however it frequently takes time and listening to decide on the merits of those differences. And the subtleties take even more time. Nonetheless, it is an interesting study and useful, a good reminder to be aware of our biases.