James Randi vs. Anjou Pear - once and for all

Meagan02 - I can't agree with your assessment. Randi may be trying to embarrass the hotshots, but by making this an open challenge, whatever vendetta he may have has been diluted and the question is now open to all. I'm not saying that someone "should" take the time out of their personal lives to do this - that they are bad if they didn't - it is anyone's choice. But his challenge lends itself to the scientific method. Why should we avoid such an experiment? And I think we do have something to lose, and to gain. If you really believe there is a 50/50 chance that the difference could be discerned - we have to lose an unsupported myth and we have to gain some truth. If 50/50 were the case, the truth would be that some people are dillusional and/or value status over their stated goal (enjoy the music). And the truth would benefit most people, that they don't have to spend that kind of money to get good sound. If it 80/20, or some other statistically significant combination, than the truth is otherwise. My experience tells me that this is the case, though I've never heard a $7,000 cable before!

When you ask who cares - I assume you mean who cares about the outcome of the test, not who cares about the truth. I guess my concern is whether such an experiment could be run in a convincing way - and I truly believe that it could - but would require some significant planning and design. With that kind of money, it would be a good project for a grad student in statistics and the scientific method!

Cheers, Peter

4est,

I know that in my system, different cables are easily distinguished

Have you contacted Randi about the Million dollars, or if not, why not (too busy like John Atkinson, for a million bucks)?

Why pick on Pear Cables? They're a small outfit. There are other cable manufacturers who have been around for years and "earned" multi millions of dollars. They sell cables much more expensive than $7500. Why not do them?
Also, I'd want to see proof the dude has the million beforehand. Remember the Twilight Zone where the guy wouldn't talk for a year and win a million dollar bet? The guy had his vocal cords cut but the other better didn't actually have the money.

Open challenge? Not. Sounds like more of a media stunt than a real challenge:

"This offer is not open to any and all persons. Before being considered as an applicant, the person applying must satisfy two conditions: First, he/she must have a “media presence,” which means having been published, written about, or known to the media in regard to his/her claimed abilities or powers...Several applicants have suffered great personal embarrassment after failing these tests".

"...That said, we offer the JREF million-dollar prize to – for example – Dave Clark, Editor of the audio review publication Positive Feedback Online, who provided the above rave review. If Mr. Clark should choose to apply for the prize, he would be unlike John Atkinson of Stereophile Magazine – see randi.org/jr/121004science.html#11 – who made great noises about being ready to snap up the million, then got distracted by things such as gullible readers who accepted his claimed abilities, and backed out. But we’ll see…"

Peter s:

I guess my concern is whether such an experiment could be run in a convincing way...

Good point. I assume it's not as simple as it seems at first glance. Not for $1M, surely.
Otherwise, there would be ways to "rig" the results... say, using a medium/high output impedance amp+insensitivie speakers (or highly damped amp & overdamped spkrs) and a ref "cheap" cable that has much higher inductance (under normal load) than the 7k variety...