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Arny Krueger ) wrote:
: "Lou Anschuetz" wrote in message
: news:u2PYa.97353$uu5.14034@sccrnsc04

: Amen and amen. My wife is a musician (acoustic instruments only
: please) and a CPA and she could care less about technology. She
: typically doesn't know when I've switched something and yet can tell
: you that I have if it makes a difference (some things don't). This has
: been true for over 20 years. She will also usually verbalize what I
: believe to be the change.

: "She will also usually verbalize what I believe to be the change."

: There are a number of possible interpretations/explanations of that
: statement. I'm hoping that just mentioning that fact will prompt some deeper
: thought.

See below.

: Amazingly to the amps is amps/cables is cables crowd, she has spotted
: both amp and cable changes in sound without any prompting.

: This statement indicates a state of mind for which there appears to be
: nothing but counter-evidence.

Which would be?

: To clarify, amps is amps/cables is cables crowd finds nothing surprising
: about a household member spotting, as it was said, changes in (perceived)
: sound quality without (verbal) prompting.

: The following course appears on the Carnegie Mellon University Fall 2003
: class schedule:

: "36309 Experimental Design for Behavioral and Social Sciences".

: Perhaps some auditing might be possible?
Actually, I already hold advanced degrees in Psychology (with
emphasis on experimental), as well as computing.

I am (painfully) aware of pschological bias. My comments were made
as there have been occassions when observations are made without
any predisposing evidence (e.g. no recent packages of equipment,
no obvious time spent tweaking, and so on).

I'm also (painfully!) aware that many of my colleagues from both
the analog and digital side of the world have disagreed in
principle with assertions that these things (especially cables)
would sound different. But for those who have listened (often
with negative bias), the evidence is observed.

The problems typically come down to one of an Occam's Razor issues.
In theory all things should be the same that measure the same,
but there are areas where this becomes fuzzy. Field effects,
semi-electrically permeable insulators, etc. These explanations
soon grow to the point where they collapse of their own weight
(often rightly so).

Is this stuff hard to quantify/identify/repeatedly observe? You
bet. Are there differences - IMHO yes. But much of this argument
is simply mental masturbation. I like sorbet, some folks don't.
Are they wrong? Well sure ;-
--
Lou Anschuetz,
Network Manager, ECE, Carnegie Mellon University