and I will assume for the sake of this conversation that Amir is well intended and professes what he believes to be true. I will assume that his forum is his pet project meant to “debunk” years of supremacist audiophile unobtanium. The happy few will continue to revel in the performance of their true to life systems while ASR fans will take great pleasure in sharing the critical opinion of their oscilloscope guru, Matrix references and all.
Amir and Blind Testing
Let me start by saying I like watching Amir from ASR, so please let’s not get harsh or the thread will be deleted. Many times, Amir has noted that when we’re inserting a new component in our system, our brains go into (to paraphrase) “analytical mode” and we start hearing imaginary improvements. He has reiterated this many times, saying that when he switched to an expensive cable he heard improvements, but when he switched back to the cheap one, he also heard improvements because the brain switches from “music enjoyment mode” to “analytical mode.” Following this logic, which I agree with, wouldn’t blind testing, or any A/B testing be compromised because our brains are always in analytical mode and therefore feeding us inaccurate data? Seems to me you need to relax for a few hours at least and listen to a variety of music before your brain can accurately assess whether something is an actual improvement. Perhaps A/B testing is a strawman argument, because the human brain is not a spectrum analyzer. We are too affected by our biases to come up with any valid data. Maybe.
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@mapman +1 |
This is focusing on tools, and ignoring another variable - preferences. An analogy. Two people like red cars - same preferences. One will investigate the properties (measurements) of the paint and say it is a red that is OK. The other will use their eyes and say that it is a red that is OK. Now - let’s change things a bit. The first person now likes silver cars, and the second still likes red cars. Different preferences, *and* different methods of arriving at their preferred solution. I would say with some certainty that the second person who likes red could also use properties (measurements). Examples - the recent Carver amp. Nelson Pass’s kit (? camp) amp. Some other things that Amir places in the red corner of his rankings - useful information! |
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