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OTL, Output Transformerless Amplifier User Group.

RE: Hold it!!!

The "Tweakers" have two responses to the clamor for double-blind or even single-blind testing:
(1) The switch or switching mechanism itself used in A/B/A or A/B/X testing is obscuring the differences one is trying to discern. It's typically impossible to convince extreme Tweakers that this issue can be overcome, because then they would have to give up or modify some cherished prejudices.
(2) Short term listening, as is typically done in this sort of testing, is insufficient to reveal subtle differences; you have to have the gear in your system for many days/weeks/months to do the comparison properly. This of course usually interdicts the possibility of true blinding of the participant(s). Actually, I am not so sure I disagree with this position.

I would add that IMO, the amplifier/speaker work as a unit. The "sound" of the amplifier will have more to do with how well its operating characteristics suit the speaker's impedance, efficiency, and phase anomalies, and the room acoustics, than anything else. Thus it is folly to test two very different types of amplifiers (solid state vs OTL vs SE) in this manner. Which is why I am an agnostic when it comes to testing and how to do it. I just know what I like, after 40 years as an audiophile.


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