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

There are rigorous classes for Somms as well and most just can't cut it. With wine I've learned a few things but could never reach the heights of perception as my Somm friends no matter how much I try. 

One could memorize all the different cues on those wheels and still not be able to match them to what one's tasting on a consistent basis.  There's way too many factors at play. I've even seen Somms blow it on blind tastings while I got it right (only on two occasions).  Everyone does. What I taste is rarely what others do and vice versa. Sure, there's overlap in some broad areas but the nuances are always different. 

Here's a study on single malts and blends that the author disputes but the comments section leaves open the possibility that most simply cannot tell the difference between the two unless they know beforehand what they're drinking, like the study concluded. Not everyone can do it.

All the best,
Nonoise

Post removed 

@nonoise 


Four single malts Scotches:

  1. Cardhu 12 
  2. Mortlach (Flora & Fauna 16 yo)
  3. Glenlivet 18
  4. Glenmorangie (10 - although erroneously stated as 12)

Four blended Scotches:

  1. Chivas Gold 18
  2. Ballantine's 17
  3. Johnnie Walker Black 12
  4. Johnnie Walker Platinum 18

They really picked the cream of the crop here. This comparison is equivalent of comparing Mogami, BlueJeans, Benchmark StarQuad, bottom of the line Audioquest and some other garbage on that level. 

Like all these blind test aficionados, they only select and include all similarly bad quality garbage that no one can pick apart. Balantine’s 17. Johnnie Walker Black. 

Once again this is why all these blind tests are 🐂 💩. 
Compare Glenlivet 18 to Macallan 18. Then we can have a conversation.