I see the issue with ABX blind testing


I’ve followed many of the cable discussions over the years with interest. I’ve never tested cables & compared the sound other than when I bought an LFD amp & the vendor said that it was best paired with the LFD power cord. That was $450 US and he offered to ship it to me to try & if I didn’t notice a difference I could send it back. I got it, tried it & sent it back. To me there was no difference at all.

Fast forward to today & I have a new system & the issue of cables arises again. I have Mogami cables made by Take Five Audio in Canada. The speaker wire are Mogami 3104, XLRs are Mogami 2549 & the power cords are Powerline 10 with Furutech connectors. All cables are quite well made and I’ve been using them for about 5 years. The vendor that sold me the new equipment insisted that I needed "better" cables and sent along some Transparent Super speaker & XLR cables to try. If I like them I can pay for them.

In every discussion about cables the question is always asked, why don’t you do an ABX blind test? So I was figuring out how I’d do that. I know the reason few do it. It’s not easy to accomplish. I have no problem having a friend come over & swap cables without telling me what he’s done, whether he swapped any at all etc. But from what I can see the benefit, if there is one, will be most noticeable system wide. In other words, just switching one power cable the way I did before won’t be sufficient for you to tell a difference... again, assuming there is one. So I need my friend to swap power cables for my amp/preamp & streamer, XLR cables from my streamer to my preamp, preamp to amp & speakers cables. That takes a good 5-10 minutes. There is no way my brain is retaining what I previously heard and then comparing it to what I currently hear.

The alternative is to connect all of the new cables, listen for a week or so & then switch back & see if you feel you’re missing anything. But then your brain takes over & your biases will have as much impact as any potential change in sound quality.

So I’m stumped as to how to proceed.

A photo of my new setup. McIntosh MC462, C2700, Pure Fidelity Harmony TT, Lumin T3 & Sonus Faber Amati G5 & Gravis V speakers.

dwcda

Perception is reality.  I don‘t totally buy into that, especially with today‘s technology and its ability to affect our perception.  But then magicians have been amazing and delighting us with their sleight of hand since the beginning of time.  W. Shakespeare said, “My wife doth lie, but I believe her anyway.“  That‘s how I take technology.  If I hear a difference between components or cables and I judge it to be worthwhile then I will buy it.  Some people might need ABX testing to be sure they are spending their money wisely.  I do not.

I notice in this video that the speaker concluded what he already knew through ABX testing.  Interesting that he never mentioned which he like better- oversampling or no oversampling.

The days of high pressure salesmen in audio shops is over- or so I believe.  Those types certainly existed in past decades pushing people to spend beyond their means convincing them that their speakers, amps, turntables were the best for the money.  But nowadays it is possible in many cases to bring something home to try and return it if it doesn‘t meet expectations.  If under no pressure, why the uncertainty that something sounds better or not?  

If the shoe fits, wear it.

@tonywinga Then enjoy. The point being our brain is a bias machine. That is what it does as it is a survival mechanism. Realize the placebo affect can be so strong that people believing that a sugar pill is the strongest opioid in the world, will say their pain is gone. This has been demonstrated over and over. Everything is affected as well. I mean everything we do is affected by it.

If you don’t want to understand, enjoy.

@botrytis With that much anxiety I‘m wondering how you sleep at night.

I know all about bias.  I once was sure I had a kidney stone.  The pain was real.  I got an x-ray and as soon as the doctor told me I didn‘t have a kidney stone the pain  was gone.  No idea why the pain ever started.

And if doctor told you that it was a huge awful stone, it would of hurt worse…odd how these things all work in both directions 

@tonywinga I have no anxiety at all. In fact, I have none.

I was just saying much of what audiophiles actually hear is this bias. I care less what people spend their money on.