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Why Do So Many Audiophiles Reject Blind Testing Of Audio Components?

Because it was scientifically proven to be useless more than 60 years ago.

A speech scientist by the name of Irwin Pollack have conducted an experiment in the early 1950s. In a blind ABX listening test, he asked people to distinguish minimal pairs of consonants (like “r” and “l”, or “t” and “p”).

He found out that listeners had no problem telling these consonants apart when they were played back immediately one after the other. But as he increased the pause between the playbacks, the listener’s ability to distinguish between them diminished. Once the time separating the sounds exceeded 10-15 milliseconds (approximately 1/100th of a second), people had a really hard time telling obviously different sounds apart. Their answers became statistically no better than a random guess.

If you are interested in the science of these things, here’s a nice summary:

Categorical and noncategorical modes of speech perception along the voicing continuum

Since then, the experiment was repeated many times (last major update in 2000, Reliability of a dichotic consonant-vowel pairs task using an ABX procedure.)

So reliably recognizing the difference between similar sounds in an ABX environment is impossible. 15ms playback gap, and the listener’s guess becomes no better than random. This happens because humans don't have any meaningful waveform memory. We cannot exactly recall the sound itself, and rely on various mental models for comparison. It takes time and effort to develop these models, thus making us really bad at playing "spot the sonic difference right now and here" game.

Also, please note that the experimenters were using the sounds of speech. Human ears have significantly better resolution and discrimination in the speech spectrum. If a comparison method is not working well with speech, it would not work at all with music.

So the “double blind testing” crowd is worshiping an ABX protocol that was scientifically proven more than 60 years ago to be completely unsuitable for telling similar sounds apart. And they insist all the other methods are “unscientific.”

The irony seems to be lost on them.

Why do so many audiophiles reject blind testing of audio components? - Quora
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Showing 4 responses by perkri

perkri
891 posts
 
It's not possible to look for accuracy in a recording when reproducing what was created in the studio.

Who knows how they wanted a voice to sound, a piano, a saxophone or guitar etc.

The room is going to color the sound matter what you do.

Sure, you can aim for a base line using tones, sweeps and measurements, Who knows how good the pressing of the record is.

Too many unknowns to be able to perfectly reproduce what was recorded.

My system has an audience of one. My senses are different than others, it would be silly to think that we all hear and perceive frequencies the same.No more than we taste, smell, see or register touch the same. What is pleasant to me, may be annoying to someone else. Have a friend who likes bright speakers. I don't.
perkri
891 posts
 
Blind tests would need to happen instantly. 
But not in a backhand forth manner. Rather, after having listened to something for days, it would need to be switched instantly to something else. 
If there was a difference, you would know it. That is if, you had the experience to listen critically.

Thats why I live with things for a while, see what I like and what I don’t. Then I change back after a while. I make notes of what I hear.

When tuning a speaker, I listen to multiple amps. Each will impart a different tone and will showcase different issues. 
I also listen with bass dialed all the way down, treble all the way up and vice versa. Bit of a stress test.

And blind tests can not be done alone. They require someone else to be there obviously. If you were to listen to the same track over and over again, and listen carefully to particular instruments at particular times, if there is a difference, you will be able to hear it.

I repeat, if there is a difference, you will be able to hear it if you know how to listen. Especially when there is no “forcing” one thing to sound better than another. It’s just about listening for differences and what works and what doesn’t. 

Spend some time tuning DIY speakers, and you will learn how to listen. And yes, you will listen to something for a while, like it, put it away, come back to it later and wonder what the hell did I like about it?

So, measure why that happens?

Being open minded to other possibilities does not negate science. 
perkri
891 posts
 
Measurements have real value, of that there is no doubt. I want to know how much power my speakers can handle, so I don’t destroy them. I want to know the sensitivity of my speaker to get an idea of how much power I’m going to need to drive them to a volume I would like to listen to them at. I like to know what the impedance curves are like, so I know the amp isn’t going to be too stressed by the load. I want to know what the input impedance is of my preamp or amp so I know they will get along. I want to know the damping factor so I can understand how well the amp can control the speaker. Lots of measurements matter. 
These measurements are specifications that tell you how well the components will get along, but very little about how good something will sound. That can not be measured. 
Period.

Sonic bliss, is in the ear of the beholder.

Does the system resonate with you emotionally, or not. 
Measure me that...
perkri
891 posts
 
@jssmith    
Doesn’t surprise me to hear that was their findings.

Would think that the most familiar “sounds” coming from speakers would be the ones people would connect to. Wonder if they were “civilians” in the tests?


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