PhilNYC;177853 Wrote: > Btw - with all the discussion about testing methods for listening, I > thought I'd post something here that I posted on AudioAsylum.com a few > months ago. Would love to get thoughts from folks here as to whether a > test as described below would be enough to convince you that a real > difference was being heard: > > > I had a dozen audiophiles listen to my system this weekend. It is a > highly resolving system in a well-treated listening room. I played the > first 45 seconds a track of music to this group of people a couple of > times so they could become familiar with the track. I then had everyone > close their eyes, and asked them to raise their hands if they heard > something change in the system. I did not tell anyone what tweak I was > going to employ, nor did I mention anything about what kinds of changes > (if any) they would be hearing. The tweak could be employed "on the fly" > (no need to stop the music or reconnect anything). > > At the moment I employed the tweak (about 20 seconds into the track), 6 > people immediately raised their hands...and 3-4 additional people slowly > raised their hands in the 4-5 seconds following the implementation of > the tweak. This test was repeated 3 times (at different times into the > track), and the results were pretty similar each time. > > I know this doesn't qualify as a "double-blind" test because the > participants knew something was being done...but they didn't know what > was being done or when it was being done, nor did they have any visual > indication of what other participants were responding (unless they were > peaking!)...
It is not unlikely that the participants could percieve that others were raising their hands. Group dynamics and the psycology of it is a very complex matter. I wouldn't take it as too much of a proof of anything. To strengthen the proof I would have liked each one to individually (with no-one but you hearing) describe the change they heard. Out of curiosity, what kind of change was it that you could apply without interrupting anything? BTW, I'm pretty sure one can imagine very large changes that are not real. If I may digress just a little, what really ticks me off is reviewing very expensive stuff with doubtful scientific fundament on a purely subjective basis. I'm reading one such review about Transparent cables right now in HiFi News (a UK publication. £15.660 for one 8 ft pair of speaker cables! Rgds -- P Floding No, I didn't ABX it. And I won't even if you ask me. (Especially not if you ask me.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ P Floding's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2932 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32466
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