AudioBanter.com - View Single Post - Comments regarding: Cables, Hearing, Stuff!!

Bruce Abrams wrote:

"Michael Scarpitti" wrote in message
news:xVLac.47343$gA5.602175@attbi_s03...
(Nousaine) wrote in message
news:aAsac.142981$_w.1631847@attbi_s53...

Absolute nonsense! Repetitive reinforcement is one of the mosty basic
psychological precepts.

We have been over this. I listened to several amplifiers several
months apart. If there was no 'real' difference between them, why was
the same sound character present that I had heard before? I mean, you
have to give an account that shows how I could manage such a
sophisticated feat...

Obviously, you can't...

That would be most likely due to hindsight bias a known bias effect in
medical
analysis. When you already 'know; the expected effect it most assuredly
will
reappear when bias mechanisms are noy controlled. Why not try this for
yourself?

Why don't you try listening to two different cables under sighted
conditions and see what happens?

I did. That's how I became a proponent of blind testing in the first place.
I had been auditioning cables and forget which one I left in the system.
Thinking I was listening to cable A, I heard the 'characteristics' of cable
A. When I went to switch back to cable B I saw that I was actually
listening to cable B. So I asked my wife to do the switching without
telling me which was which. At that point I could no longer identify which
cable I was listening to. (FWIW, the cables under test at the time were
Kimber 8TC and Music Metre Signature.)

I became interested in bias-controls when I had the same experience with
capacitors. For enthusiasts this kind of thing seems inevitable. After the 2nd
or 3rd 'mistake' I think one has to decide if he's going to investigate true
audibility or not or just ignore contrary evidence.