In Reply to: Subjectivists vs Objectivists, For Me The Battle Is Over! posted by thetubeguy1954 on October 23, 2006 at 13:45:06:
The belief that virtually all audio components sound different (the golden ear fantasy) has never been proven, except for speakers.Even the golden ear fantasy that a few audiophiles can differentiate among electronic components & wires MUCH BETTER than other audiophiles seems to be an ego-boosting illusion.
The belief that audiophiles who try blind auditions and those who don't have significantly different hearing abilities is just an idle claim. Sort of like people who claim to have a high IQ but never take an IQ test!
Three decades of blind audio component comparisons have had surprisingly consistent results: The huge difference between blind and sighted "hearing ability" (excluding speakers where results are similar) can only be explained in two ways:
- Small A-B SPL differences are easily mistaken as "sound quality" differences
- Expectations that virtually all components sound different, and "real audiophiles can hear these differences, leads to audiophiles imagining they hear differences. This hypothesis is confirmed by tests where audiophiles compare a component with itself (thinking there are really two different audio components in use) and then claim to "hear differences" 50% to 75% of the time when no differences are possible!
The difference between blind and sighted listening is greatest when wires are the components in use.
No audiophile has yet proven to witnesses his ability to differentiate among wires of normal lengths intended for audio use while listening to music with the brand names hidden.
Many audiophiles HAVE heard SPL differences among speaker wires, but those differences are not meaningful sound quality differences.
Claims that "I can really hear wire differences" can only be taken seriously when blind auditions are used.
There have been consistent "null results" in blind wire tests -- too many over three decades to give someone the benefit of the doubt.
I have first hand experienece with both double-blind and single-blind wire comparisons -- my experiences match other tests I've read about.
If speaker wires are compared, A-B volume matching is needed to avoid small SPL differences that could easily be misinterpreted as sound quality differences.
The key to wire comparisons is to do them, not just argue about them.
The claim that you WOULD demonstrate positive results to anyone who comes to your house is nothing more than boasting!
Boasting about what you could do is not objective science.
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Richard BassNut Greene
My Stereo is MUCH BETTER than Your Stereo
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Follow Ups
- people who do objective experiments find they can't hear as well as they previously assumed - Richard BassNut Greene 07:52:53 10/24/06 (6)
- The Nut loves his 'parlor tricks'.- "they're proof"...LOL!..(nt) - mkuller 10:58:40 10/24/06 (1)
- Taunt All You Want - thetubeguy1954 12:51:31 10/24/06 (0)
- Re: people who do objective experiments find they can't hear as well as they previously assumed - thetubeguy1954 08:00:04 10/24/06 (3)
- You "walk away" from a debate on wires = you lose the debate - Richard BassNut Greene 08:25:47 10/24/06 (2)
- Re: You "walk away" from a debate on wires = you lose the debate - kerr 08:48:33 10/24/06 (1)
- What does that mean, don't go away mad, just go away? There's plenty more to argue with where he came from - Soundmind 08:52:39 10/24/06 (0)