James Randi vs. Anjou Pear - once and for all

Personally I think it would be easy to distinguish Pear Anjou from Monster in a high resolution setup (the Anjou's have ultra low inductance numbers while keeping capacitance in check).

Then why do you think John Atkinson and Dave Clark do not take up the challenge?

If it is "easy to distinguish" then surely the time/effort would be worth a million bucks?

I mean these people do audio listening tests and measurements for a living...it should be a simple matter for a respected & highly discerning reviewer.

After all, the challenge is not about "inductance" or other measurable differences - it appears to be about the ability to demonstrate being able to hear better performance; simply to support the claims, made with ease, in the reviewers articles, which are published in the media and influence a great many buyers. That is the jist of it in the way I understand it. I don't see a trick or impossible challenge as you do. I mean what is impossible about something that can be done with ease?

There are many things about this challenge that make it difficult, if not impossible, to obtain the natural result that anyone would hear in their own system if they tried the same cable comparison under normal circumstances.

Leaving aside the exclusion of anyone who isn't famous, the number of unusual requirements for a valid experiment make the listening situation an unnatural one. Things like wearing a blindfold, or having an acoustically transparent curtain between you and your speakers, along with the stress of being on camera and under the scrutiny of strangers who will act as scientific observers to determine if you win $1 Million, all insure that the listener will be unable to relax and hear the way he would on any given night when enjoying music at home

What this could be called is an experiment to see how much distraction and stress a listener can undergo and still be able to hear differences that are otherwise obvious.

I can think of lots of things that are easy to do under regular circumstances, but become very difficult to perform with cameras, an audience, blindfolds, and a cool million dollars at stake.

BTW, Shadorn, have you ever tried comparing something like original Monster cable (or some other basic fat stranded cable) to any solid-core speaker cable (like Audioquest)? Without regard to which is better, are you saying that you are unable to detect any difference?

Shardone:
"Then why do you think John Atkinson and Dave Clark do not take up the challenge?

If it is "easy to distinguish" then surely the time/effort would be worth a million bucks?"

If the challenge to be able distinguish one from the other in a listening test I think it would be VERY easy indeed! But the challenge is to prove that Pear Anjou "perform better" than the equivalent Monster which is the catch. Since we are talking about listening here, isn't "better" in the ear of the beholder?

BTW, the Pear Anjou cable already does "perform better" in its ultra low inductance measurements. On that count alone they ARE better. But Randi seems to to think properties such as capacitance and inductance matter only to nut cases (read the writeup in his website).

Dave,

No I have not tried solid core so my experience is limited to ordinary stranded cables of several types (including extension cord cable, lamp cord, monster etc.) and none have made a wit of differece to my tin ears except that I felt much better about using thicker (higher AWG) cables for long runs (as per JBL table). I have not tried difficult load speakers or amps with high output impedance - so I have been in the situation of using gear that is likely to be only very modestly affected by a change in impedance - slight enough that it is inaudible to my tin ears.

Shadorne,

I think you are selling your ears short. Without getting in to exotic expensive cables, just try a set of some of the least expensive solid core cables in your system. I can't say that you will surely like them better, but I think you will easily hear a difference.

Years ago I used to keep a pair of original Monster speaker cable around along with the entry level Audioquest solid core wire. I would do comparisons for people who were sure that they couldn't tell the difference between any cables. To simplify the comparison I would take a single speaker and play about one minute on one cable and then switch to the other. The difference was so obvious that many of the listeners would start giggling.

The interesting thing was that some of these listeners were not audiophiles and had no idea what a Monster Cable or an AQ cable was. They had no "horse" in the race. For these people the listening comparison was tantamount to a blind listening test, just minus the stress that would normally accompany such a test for an audiophile who is concened about the outcome.