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It's not my source but one Analog Scott was using to make some point or other.

I caught Analog Scott out on two things.

One is an blind amplifier test published in Stereo Review which he kept saying was published in 1985. I quickly found out that it was published in 1987, which meant that he was discussing an article which he did not have in front of him. We both managed to find the text on line and he then admitted the point. I did not defend the results in any way, shape or form.

You are correct that the article in question has been superseded, but not for the reasons you suggest. In Stereo Review for June 1991, there is an article by E. Brad Meyer, "The Amp/Speaker Interface: Are your loudspeakers turning your amplifier into a tone control?" In this article, an unspecified solid state amp and an unspecified tube amp were tested driving two unspecified speakers, one with a difficult load an the other with an easier one. Some FR measurements were shown. The blind tests revealed that the differences between both amps was audible on pink noise with both speakers. With two music selections, however, the differences were shown to be audible with the amps driving the difficult speaker load, but with the easier load, they failed to prove the difference between the two speakers was audible. Obviously, the program material used can affect the outcome of such tests, and it is possible that with other music, maybe the differences between the two amps would show positive results when the amps drove the easier load. In any case, the pink noise test was sufficient to show there were audible differences between those two amps when driving those two speakers.

Since I have seen the results of E. Brad Meyer's test and other tests, I do not ordinarily question whether a tube amp sounds different from a solid state amp since it is reasonably probable they do. I think E. Brad Meyer deserves credit for publishing why many tube amplifiers do not sound the same as many SS amplifiers. It is simply their high output impedances. Audio magazine began showing the responses of tested amplifiers into a dummy or simulated speaker load, and Stereophile started to do so a few years later.

To get to the second thing. In his OP, AS mentioned a couple of threads on other sites which he thought illustrated his view that at least some of those he calls "objectivists" make a biased selection of published test results and don't criticize the ones that achieve null results. He may or may not have a minor point, but the threads for which he provided URLs contained quite rational criticisms of a positive DBT and a systematic survey of the literature was not needed. When I pointed this out, AS decided the threads he used to try to illustrate his thesis were irrelevant!

I remarked in a post that if the differences in the frequency responses of two products differed by more than the limits shown in the ABX Matching Criteria on the ABX site were exceeded, a blind test would not be needed to convince me the differences were audible under some conditions because a threshold has been previously established. However, AS jumped in and asserted that he had already shown two examples of this in his OP, so I simply asked him what those differences were. He has not replied. So I caught him out again.
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"A fool and his money are soon parted." --- Thomas Tusser


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