Amir and Blind Testing

Blind testing works for components that have a wider spread of differentiation. It works for "preferences" as in which spaghetti sauce do you like. You can tell that immediately.

The trouble w extended listening is audio memory is the shortest memory we have and differences are more nuanced. There, "preferential comparison" (flavor of presentation over weeks or months) might be harder to assess except to say "I never noticed that before" in terms of sound articulation.

Even this cannot be written in stone as everyone’s brain is different.

What we hear is often compelled by desire of what we want to hear (expectation bias).

There is an aspect that adds further confusion to the process...chance.  What would be an interesting experiment is if the aspect of "gamble" or "skin in the game" or "taking a chance" was eliminated because spending larger amounts of money on higher end stuff creates conflict of interest in my mind.

I cannot tell you the amount of times people coming into our salons, agonized over a decision when A/B (or C and D etc,) comparison differences were not as stand out between what they were listening to. Even taking things home for try out did not completely eliminate this conflict between money spent and objective/subjective auditory acquisition as the listener could not escape that big money was about to be spent at some point.

For the well healed, this aspect did not loom as large.

Earlier on this thread I mentioned a couple of the issues that I have with those who base their judgments almost exclusively on measurements, and what I consider to be some limitations of A/B testing as it is typically performed.

But as to Amir and ASR, I think that in many cases his work is both valuable and practical. As a current example, on Friday he tested a "Hi-Res" download recording from PS Audio. He tested both DSD and PCM. What he found, and clearly demonstrated, is that the recording is flawed, and that there were dubious decisions made during the process.

As one who is not well-versed in the intricacies of streaming, I learned some interesting things from his brief video. Beyond that, and this is typically the case, I learned even more by reading the many comments, as they included insights from very sharp, highly experienced people, some of whom are electrical engineers.

Take a look at the thread, and, if you’re in the same boat as me, you will be surprised at what you may learn (e.g. that DSD files are of dubious value!).

PS Audio DSD review

Reading through this I was agreeing with the original question, in that if we are testing gear then we are listening with our brain not heart, so of course everything would sound good. However, @whipsaw then made a great point about a component we went in expecting to like and it not delivering. I wanted and expected to like the Michi X3, I had a great deal available on it, and I couldn’t connect with it. So now I’m back thinking that going in paying attention to how you feel listening to the component rather than listening is likely a better way to test gear. 

Please supply a link to this video review.  I'd enjoy watching it, not least because I've not witnessed Amir bringing his wife in for a hearing experiment - was it an A/B blind test?

Sorry Noske, this was probably about a year ago. Not a regular on their forum and not a big fan. His Matrix borrowed “there is no spoon” mantra and all his psycho babble about expectation bias is in fact a business. He is probably making good money (YouTube + Google) telling people with limited funds what they want to hear: money doesn’t make one happy. The expensive conditioner is a con. Expensive cables are a con. Expensive DACs are a con. Expensive headphones are a con. And so it goes. You don’t actually have to read or watch any of his reviews because you know exactly what his conclusion is going to be. Singxer and Topping are awesome. Audiophile is a synonym for a fool.

If you enjoy this rhetoric do live your life in oblivion (to quote his favourite movie), learn nothing, keep your RME and Singxer with the conviction, no the certainty, that you have the best money can buy. And be happy. If however you ever want to try the red pill, I suggest you actually demo a power plant, a good DAC, a Melco S100. You don’t need an Amir to tell you how to hear and what to think. It’s easy enough to make up your own mind. You just have to have an open mind and be ready to embrace the new.

In my book spoons do exist. Otherwise we would eat like dogs. 

So now I’m back thinking that going in paying attention to how you feel listening to the component rather than listening is likely a better way to test gear. 

And so we are back to square one.  This is exactly what audiophiles often do, and what blind testing is designed to eliminate.