Pbb and Danvetc, I can only report my experiences. As probably both of you know from my many previous posts, I have no desire to spend more than necessary for good sound. I have always tried to point out good value type of products. I don't own the most expensive cables. For a long time I used my own DIY. But I cannot deny that they sound different. They just do. I can't say the grass is orange just because I would like it to be so. Facts are facts and that's all there is to it.
Regarding my blind testing percentage, it was not just me, but also my fellow salesmen at the audio store I used to work in. Perhaps it was the familiarity level that we had with all the equipment that we demoed. But it was no problem to identify any of the pieces substituted into the reference system, and do it rather quickly and accurately. We knew the sound of the gear, and it showed, blindfolded or otherwise. Now, when you can walk into a room blindfolded and know that there's a Threshold 400 amp playing, when nobody told you what gear was hooked up, then that is no accident. Walk back out of the room, come back in blindfolded and know that a Naim 250 was now playing, and be right. I'm not talking about simply hearing that there is a difference. I'm talking about being able to identify the differences clearly enough to name the amp, blindfolded. And all the guys in the shop could do it with repeatable accuracy, so I don't go with this "golden ear" idea at all. In fact, I wonder why so many people doubt their hearing so much.
But anyway, what I want to point out is that there are clear audible differences between many products of all types, and that normal people are quite capable of hearing these differences on a decent resolution audio system. No blindfold required. Some things may not have much difference or even any hearable difference, but most do. If this was not the case, then people wouldn't be buying different things. There is no way in the world that anyone is going to convince me that the entire audiophile population is "hypnotized" into buying all different kinds of gear, claiming it sounds different when it didn't. That premise is totally ludicrous. I cannot even believe that anyone would propound such an idea.
Again, I think it comes down to a financial rationalization being made when people don't want to spend huge sums of money on cables or other audio gear. I don't have the most expensive pieces anywhere in my system. I can't afford them. But I don't run around telling everybody that I can't hear the difference between my system and a $200k system. I just have made a financial decision on the items I have and am satisfied that I have gotten the best for my money. Maybe my system may sound better to me than some other more costly systems, and maybe not. But they sound different.
I do abhor buying products simply on the premise that "if they cost more they must be better". I don't subscribe to that theory at all. I think that is just as bad as saying that there is no difference in sound, because they are both fallacious. In my mind, the products that come closest to sounding the best, at the most reasonable prices, are the good value products and that is where I try to spend my money. I use my ears, and sometimes, yes, I even will use certain technical specifications in my decision making.
In the end it is the user that has to live with his decisions. If they are happy with the sound, then that is all that matters, regardless of the methods they used to come to the final selection. After all, this is audio, and the sound is what matters.
Regarding my blind testing percentage, it was not just me, but also my fellow salesmen at the audio store I used to work in. Perhaps it was the familiarity level that we had with all the equipment that we demoed. But it was no problem to identify any of the pieces substituted into the reference system, and do it rather quickly and accurately. We knew the sound of the gear, and it showed, blindfolded or otherwise. Now, when you can walk into a room blindfolded and know that there's a Threshold 400 amp playing, when nobody told you what gear was hooked up, then that is no accident. Walk back out of the room, come back in blindfolded and know that a Naim 250 was now playing, and be right. I'm not talking about simply hearing that there is a difference. I'm talking about being able to identify the differences clearly enough to name the amp, blindfolded. And all the guys in the shop could do it with repeatable accuracy, so I don't go with this "golden ear" idea at all. In fact, I wonder why so many people doubt their hearing so much.
But anyway, what I want to point out is that there are clear audible differences between many products of all types, and that normal people are quite capable of hearing these differences on a decent resolution audio system. No blindfold required. Some things may not have much difference or even any hearable difference, but most do. If this was not the case, then people wouldn't be buying different things. There is no way in the world that anyone is going to convince me that the entire audiophile population is "hypnotized" into buying all different kinds of gear, claiming it sounds different when it didn't. That premise is totally ludicrous. I cannot even believe that anyone would propound such an idea.
Again, I think it comes down to a financial rationalization being made when people don't want to spend huge sums of money on cables or other audio gear. I don't have the most expensive pieces anywhere in my system. I can't afford them. But I don't run around telling everybody that I can't hear the difference between my system and a $200k system. I just have made a financial decision on the items I have and am satisfied that I have gotten the best for my money. Maybe my system may sound better to me than some other more costly systems, and maybe not. But they sound different.
I do abhor buying products simply on the premise that "if they cost more they must be better". I don't subscribe to that theory at all. I think that is just as bad as saying that there is no difference in sound, because they are both fallacious. In my mind, the products that come closest to sounding the best, at the most reasonable prices, are the good value products and that is where I try to spend my money. I use my ears, and sometimes, yes, I even will use certain technical specifications in my decision making.
In the end it is the user that has to live with his decisions. If they are happy with the sound, then that is all that matters, regardless of the methods they used to come to the final selection. After all, this is audio, and the sound is what matters.