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wrote:
We see all manner of rhetorical and "what if" objections to controlled
listening alone testing. What is the alternative?

The question simply lacks perspective. It all depends on who is doing
the "testing" and why. If we are talking about reviewers doing
subjective reviews or prospective buyers making purchase decisions the
alternative is obvous and widely used to the satisfaction of many
audiophiles. Just use the component in question for an extended period
in your system and decide for yourself what you think about it.

If the controlled
testing is so flawed, as claimed to rationalize results disturbing to
dearly held beliefs, then the "audition" silliness done by the hifi mags
must be a couple of orders of magnitude so completely useless as to ignore
them is the only charitable thing to do.

1. "controlled testing" is a pretty broad catagory.
2. No one from the subjective magazines that I can see are suggesting
their subjective impressions are bullt proof or universal. I'm not sure
just how much "use" you want from a review. If you want to skip the
auditioning and just be told what to buy you will likely get as much
out as you put in for your efforts.

Let's face it, the subjective enterprise folk haven't a leg to stand on,
that is the bottom line until or unless evidence to the contrary can be
provided to the current benchmark that reported differences during
listening alone blind tests don't rise above random guessing.

That's ridiculous. They have years of listening enjoyment by a many
many audiophiles. That is the bottom line for subjectivists. Lets face
this, the objectivists have no alternative to offer subjectivists that
will satisfy subjectivists. telling people their perceptions are wrong
is ultimately the most silly thing of all and hat does seem to be the
answer objectivists wish to ofer subjectivists.

It is quickly becoming
apparent that this is rejected not for reasons of validity used in all
areas of human research, but because the outcomes are painful and because
to some there are no conditions under which it can be confirmed to them.

What outcomes would that be? Do you believe that there are really that
many DBTs being done by audiophiles and then being rejected because of
some sort of pain?

It
is a suspension of belief that such can be known and/or the flip of that
coin that like esp and astrology we know it is true because one chooses it
to be so.

Unfotunately so many objectivists never have the courage to suspend
their belief system. As someone who once bought into the findings of
the objectivist mantra I can tell you the suspension of belief can be
quite satisfying in the long run no matter how frustrating and
disturbing it may be in the short term.

Scott