Propeller Head Plaza

Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics.

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RE: The relevant point is that both of them rely upon switch boxes -nt

Posted by tomservo on June 22, 2010 at 09:00:02:
Sadly, it in not possible to conduct a comparative test without switching between the two things under comparison.

While It is possible to have a person at each end to switch the physical cables, this is not as fast and as others doing blind testing have found, the people doing the switching can intentionally or more often unintentionally affect the test consistence with what they belive.
For example(s) cold fusion the conclusions from the Princeton University paranormal research (pear) work.

To remove that operator effect, a mechanical switcher was used, which from an engineering view would have added an insignificant alteration in the “in vs out” signals or amplifier loading.

One cannot make such a switch that has no effect in the most skeptical view, all one can do in the engineering view is make that alteration a very very small effect relative to the differences (between cable properties in this case) one is looking for.

Thus, having a switch which represented a few inches of the best cable under consideration, when that cable is 10 to 30 feet long, represents an insignificant effect.

Insignificant especially when compared to what the test (and other similar tests) generally revealed about how terribly strong the automatic “filling in the blanks” part of our conscious experience of “hearing” is, compared to what one can honestly draw from the acoustic signal alone.
This was generally humbling to the attendees, maybe like realizing one’s own “response curve” more or less followed the equal loudness contours instead of being FLAT. But, hey, that’s the only thing we are aware of, what we experience and like many things we know no differently until someone actually measures it.
Best,
Tom