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wrote:
wrote:

Whereas I ask, not how the ear/brain "performs," but simply: do the
different sounds A & B produce different experiences? And then I
investigate how one might go about determining if they do or do not.

Discrimination tasks that are based either on quick switching, or on
the need to conceptualize the qualities of the sound, are IMO not good
ways to investigate this question.

But conscious discrimination is exactly what subjectivist audiophiles
do, every time they report or discuss a difference between two
components. How can it be that they can discriminate so easily, and yet
a test involving discrimination is somehow flawed?

Three points:

(1) I don't claim that all sighted discriminations are valid.

(2) Monadic listening---listening to decide what you think of
something---is not necessarily a discrimination task. It turns out you
can compare notes on two different listening sessions, so A & B can be
"compared" -- but in a very different context than asking oneself how A
& B are "different".

(3) IMO context affects the discrimination function. It's the
context--quick switching or the need to conceptualize sound qualities--
that I claim (or hypothesize) affects perception.

Mike