In article ,
ScottW wrote:
On Monday, September 30, 2013 4:01:53 PM UTC-7, Audio_Empire wrote:
On Monday, September 30, 2013 10:17:32 AM UTC-7, ScottW wrote:
I do agree that reviewers should commit to a higher standard. I've long
suggested that it makes great sense for reviewers to include DBT results
in their reviews for items that it would be relatively easy to do (amps,
preamps cables, DACs come to mind. Speakers and sources (due to sync
difficulties) would not be easy).
With a PC controlled DBT switch box....it would be fairly easy to setup a
DBT test system that could be self executed with reviewer never having
access to the results until published. Only simple honesty required by
the reviewer in setup.
Few seem willing and even fewer publishers.
The claim has been their readers aren't interested. I think it's more
their advertisers "lack of interest".
It would be interesting. I wonder if such a computer program actually
exists?
Not that I'm aware of. I bounced it off an audiophile test engineer where I
used to work many years ago. He said if all you want is a zipped raw data
file e-mailed, he could write that code in an hour. The DBT box with
digital interface might take a few days to design...a few weeks to proto,
another day to debug.
I agree with you that the magazines' advertisers would certainly not like
DBTs. If, indeed,
DBTs don't work and always give a null result for everything, then the
inclusion of a DBT would tend to show that a $40,000 MSB DAC sounds
exactly like $50 Chinese DAC. That wouldn't do, would it? If, on the
other hand, the DBT did show varying degrees of difference
between components, makers of amps. preamps and digital appliances costing
tens of thousands of dollars might find that their products are bested by
similar components costing an order
of magnitude less than their products. That wouldn't be too good either.
I'm not sure how that would happen. I'm assuming the reviewer would DBT
against their personal references (whatever they are...megabuck and
economy)...so the DBT would only show if the item under review was same or
audibly different to the reference. Once that's established, which is
preferred, I suppose could be done blind. I wouldn't be surprised if many
reviewers can identify a difference in an A B test...but can't identify which
one in ABX test. Makes it hard to establish a reliable preference.
Reliable preference requires a significant enough difference to be
established in memory. Subtle differences that can be detected in quick
switch tests might not establish a reliable preference which than begs the
question....do they matter?
ScottW
"do they matter?" Well, that's a different can of worms altogether.
Once it can be established that audible differences between amps,
preamps, DACs, CD players, etc., do, actually, scientifically, exist,
the questions then become, do those differences actually matter, and
which sounds better (as opposed to just "different") and then who
arbitrates the concept of what constitutes "better"? Do we go for
"accurate" being better (which would be my criterion, but as we've seen
in other debates here, 'accurate' may have no meaning to many listeners,
since the kinds of music to which they almost exclusively listen,
doesn't really exist in real space. Not only is accuracy not possible in
these circumstances, it's also not important. The only thing that is
important, it seems, is that the equipment sounds good to the individual
listener. Also, most of the differences I've heard between components
(speakers and record playing equipment excepted) are extremely small,
and frankly, in the absence of a direct comparison, tend to fade into
obscurity as soon as the comparison is removed. IOW, these differences
are picayune at worst and only the most neurotic and
obsessive-compulsive of audiophiles would really care. No modern
equipment that I have come in contact with actually sounds bad. Even the
cheapest amps and DACs and CD players sound fine. All have wide
frequency response, vanishingly low audible distortion, and decent
dynamic range. So, I'd say that for the most part, the answer is no, for
the great majority of listeners, they don't really matter.
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