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What Scott says may be true, but when you do it blind you remove all of
those prejudices. But remember there are (at least) two kinds of blind
tests, difference tests and preference tests. For a wine tasting, you could
either ask them their reactions and preference toward two unknown samples
(preference testing), or you could simply ask them if they can tell ANY
difference between the two.

HOWEVER, it is not sufficient that they tell you whether they can tell a
difference, they must prove it in a statistically significant manner by
doing it at least 16 times, because if they only guessed one time it could
be luck. So, for example, if they can tell the white from the red, or the
fancy from the table wine, at least 12 out of 16 times (95% level of
confidence) then they would have proven that there is a difference, but not
a preference. If they can't even do THAT, then not only could they not have
a preference, but they cannot even tell under blind conditions whether there
is any difference between the two at all.

The obvious connection to audio is if someone is trying to sell me a $15,000
set of speaker cables, the easiest way for him to prove that he can hear an
improvement with his own product would be to test his ability to tell a
difference between them under blind conditions. If he can't even do that,
then he cannot convince me that he hears an improvement with his fancy
wires. Of course I could take the same test, but if I flunked it he would
just give the standard phrase, well you can't hear it but I can. So you make
him put his ears where his mouth is.

The subjectivist audio press comes out with endless prose and poetry about
what they hear in the latest products, but it is totally meaningless if it
is done under sighted conditions. They will never say "well, this new
$50,000 amplifier is certainly the same as all other decent amplifiers."
That wouldn't show the fineness of their hearing or advance their magazine
sales.

But most of us know all that. Just saying for the benefit of the newbies
lurking in.

Gary Eickmeier