opaqueice Wrote: > It seems to me the color analogy is rather better than your medical > analogy... But then you seem to go on and cement my medical 'analogy' in the > two quotes below!
> First, because it's of paramount importance in medical tests that the > test be blind (because it's almost universally recognized that > otherwise the results are essentially useless due to bias). That's the > starting point - the test MUST be blind - and the rest comes after. > In any case, my personal opinion here is that, because preconception and > bias is demonstrably a very powerful force in human perception, the only > reliable tests of this sort are blind. That should be the starting > point, as it is in your example of medicine. > Second, because the necessity for long tests in medicine is due to the > fact that the timescale for most medical illnesses/conditions is weeks > or months or years. This is not the case for music, where the > timescale is minutes or seconds, and differences in sound quality can > reveal themselves immediately.I disagree. When you are listening to an audio > system and seeking to evalate it, surely you must listen to it using a selection of music that covers your musical taste. How can you possibly evaualte a system based on say a solo guitar, and then expect that evaluation to follow for say opera? > If you believe the test should be long, then the onus is on you to find > a way to do a blind test with a long duration, but if it isn't blind I > (and this of course is simply my opinion) will not take it very > seriously.Why is the onus on me? Are you going to pay me to do this research > or something? The difficulty is that a 'proper' piece of research would be expensive to conduct, so people (like you) who don't really think we can hear the differences would rather shortcut the whole process by doing a quick A/B. I'd suggest something valid might be along the lines of taking two groups of people (control and test) and monitoring their listening over a period of several weeks. An increase in the time they spent listening to music might indicate more enjoyment and therefore that the audio system was better (more enjoyably) conveying the music. Alternatively, you may be able to monitor brain activity whilst listening to music, and make draw some conclusions that way. Much more difficult than a 10 second A/B though ... and not worth bothering when you already 'know' the answer. -- Patrick Dixon www.at-tunes.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Patrick Dixon's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=90 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22273 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
