To assume that the system used for the test is operating perfectly, that it is sufficiently revealing for the specific test, to assume that listeners have sufficiently good hearing and know what they are listening to or for, these are all unknowns. Going on the basic assumption that most audiophile systems are pretty standard sounding, I.e., generic sounding, it wouldn't surprise me one bit that results of blind controlled tests would tend towards obtaining negative or up inconclusive results. Which is actually pretty much what Olive's speaker evaluation showed.
In defense of ABX testing
We Audiophiles need to get ourselves out of the stoneage, reject mythology, and say goodbye to superstition. Especially the reviewers, who do us a disservice by endlessly writing articles claiming the latest tweak or gadget revolutionized the sound of their system. Likewise, any reviewer who claims that ABX testing is not applicable to high end audio needs to find a new career path. Like anything, there is a right way and many wrong ways. Hail Science!
Here's an interesting thread on the hydrogenaudio website:
http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=108062
This caught my eye in particular:
"The problem with sighted evaluations is very visible in consumer high end audio, where all sorts of very poorly trained listeners claim that they have heard differences that, in technical terms are impossibly small or non existent.
The corresponding problem is that blind tests deal with this problem of false positives very effectively, but can easily produce false negatives."
Here's an interesting thread on the hydrogenaudio website:
http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=108062
This caught my eye in particular:
"The problem with sighted evaluations is very visible in consumer high end audio, where all sorts of very poorly trained listeners claim that they have heard differences that, in technical terms are impossibly small or non existent.
The corresponding problem is that blind tests deal with this problem of false positives very effectively, but can easily produce false negatives."
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- 56 posts total
- 56 posts total