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RE: Stereo vs. multichannel: what are your thoughts on this statement (inside).

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, Scott. I don't think Olive is trying to manipulate his results. He may inadvertently BE manipulating his results. To some degree, everyone does. The objective of good methodology is to minimize it.

I think two things have contributed to his testing in mono:

1) He, or someone at Harman, has invented an effective way to blind A/B speakers (the speaker mover); INDIVIDUAL speakers. He tests what he has the tools to test.

2) Lack of personal belief in the importance of imaging. This comes through in Sean's writing, particularly casual responses. Soundstaging is just not something that seems to be important to him as a listener, so testing in mono serves him well enough. And it does serve him well. While it may leave imaging untested, his speaker testing methodology seem to test everything else pretty well, including dispersion. Will this result in Harman speakers with great tonal balance that don't image well? I don't know.

Majority rules? Of course. We're talking about research that will ultimately be used to develop and market products. The ultimate goal is to please more listeners and capture greater market share. But as long as his quest for the preferences of the majority keep leading him to greater accuracy, his "majority rules" will even serve audiophiles who couldn't care less about the preferences of the majority. Or at least they'll serve this one. So far I almost always find the more accurate to be the more musical. But I am also one of Sean's "image obsessed," listeners, so I'll have to keep an ear out for that. Where I really disagree with him is in the notion that there is something wrong with the center image of a stereo pair. If there is, there is something wrong with the system.

P

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