What's your view on blind testing?

if a double blind test performed correctly (10-20 participants or more, suitable long listening sessions, properly administered questions, etc.)reveals no statistical difference in sound in a comparison between, power cords, cables, etc. --- then any perceived "improvement" of one cord or cable over another by an individual is some combination of that individuals imagination, desire to justify a purchase, liking one esthetically over the other, some preconceived notion that they hold that "A" should be better than "B," and/or buying into the hype (directly from a salesman or indirectly from a review). Tell them what difference they "should" hear and they likely hear it --- tell them nothing and let them assess (again, proper double blind)... and if no statistical difference is observed... then that means no difference is there to be heard. Now... that is not to say that one will not like one over the other... but if so... it is because of other reasons.

One cautionary note... system synergy is paramount --- a given item in one system shown not to have a statistical difference relative to another item may, in fact, be statistically different in a different system.

Every poster who has reported that their jaw dropped, a veil was lifted, whole 'nother reality, etc, whatever nonsense audiophool jargon should be made to do double blind testing and see just how effective the placebo effect is.

The OP's original claim that the "scientific group" supports negligible differences between components is a misrepresentation of scientific perspective. The purpose of blind testing is to remove the variable of personal bias and/or expectation, not to remove or eliminate sensory differences. If upon blind testing, differences are heard at greater than chance levels, then so be it. Assuming that all components are the same, save the one component being compared, then the differences heard are perceptible for that individual.

It can take weeks of listening to tease out subtle differences of even relatively significant differences between components.

However, if someone writes that their jaw dropped when component or wire or tweak X was inserted into their system, that person should be able to identify X in a blind test.

I think that reviewers should participate in a well designed blind test every couple of years just for fun, for bragging rights, just to see what the pros can and can't hear. A lighthearted mood should be maintained during the test and no one's job should be dependent on the results.

The "of" after the word "differences" in the first line of my post above should read "or."