Dear Mr. Olive,
Incredibly today Nyob confesses: "I didn't use your name when I
sent him the quote of what you said"
The "quote" was his lie about a moronic statement that "a
preson" was supposed to have made.
He then he prints your comments on that idiocy naming me as its
author.
If this is not libellous abuse of your confidence then I don't
know what is.
I'm sure that by now you're feeling snowed under by unwanted
exchanges but for the sake of clarity I want to add this: As a former
full time employee-medical researcher of the Medical Research Ccil. Of
Great Britain at the very time when DBTs first saw the light of day I
feel especially strongly about the outright lie that I am foolish
enough to object to blind testing.
Not only I do not but I think them an obvious sensible
precaution against bias in medicine and in audio and I stated this view
repeatedly in the audio forums discussions.*
What I argued about was the particular ABX protocol
which I feel is unsuitable for comparing audio components as worse or
better reproducers of music. I always stated that research on things
such as phase or codecs is another matter entirely that I have neither
expertise nor interest in. I am and was talking as a simple audio
amateur who strives to get as close to "live" as humanly possible.
Regards Ludovic Mirabel
* I could look up dozens of my quotes to this but right now
I exceeded my quota on your patience.
And one quote fromcorrespondence with NYOB 3 days ago in the
same rec.audio.opinion: "NYOB, I wish you'd stop sending me to speak to
Sean Olive. Answering one query of yours does not make him your pal to
send people to without his authorization. A) Stupid move B) Bad
manners" End of quote
All of the above will appear in the forum. L.M.
__________________________________________________ ______________

Addendum: My first letter to S. Olive:


Dear Mr. Olive,
Your remarks have been published with this heading:
"Guess what Sean Olive had to say about Ludovic's remarks"
"Ludovic" is yours truly Ludovic Mirabel
I have been tempted to write to you before for your opinion on this old

controversy but felt that you had better things to do than to be drawn
into the parochial web forum disputes that must strike anyone looking
from the outside as juvenile- to say the least..
I was very appreciative of your sending me your collected papers,
unasked , with an undeserved compliment about my "scientific
attitude".
However these strange views were ascribed to me by NYOB :
The preson making the above statement also concludes that your tests

on speakers revealed that people were not able to distinguish better
quality speakers from lesser ones when doing so blind . You will
note that he does not quote. He fantasises about what "that person"
is supposed to have "said" and "concluded"

. The view he puts in my mouth is such a distortion of what I did say
about your pioneering paper on comparing loudspeakers that I feel not
only my good name is at stake but also the debt of gratitude I owe you
for this unique and excellent source. You may remember that I was the
first to summarize it 2 years ago in the RAHE forum and sent you a copy

of it about which I gather you had no complaints since you sent me your

papers soon after.
I do not know if NYOB had your authorization to quote your opinion of
what he put in my mouth.. If he did you are willy-nilly in the thick of

it and I hope that you will not leave me to deal with it alone.
This is one representative quote of what I really said (I referred to
your work more than once): "A couple of years ago I challenged Arny
Krueger to prove that ABX will work testing loudspeakers. He could not
contain his hilarity: ""No point in testing. They are so obviously
different that it would be a waste of time" (I'm paraphrasing from
memory but if challenged will find the exact quote)
And now Sean Olive did exactly that using DBT. Lo and behold- the
majority of panelists had problems with recognizing difference but when

not bothered with that knew what they liked.The chapel does not like
the result. No doubt they would do better using ABX- instead of the
simple unsophisticated DBT. Go to it fellows- improve on poor, lost
Sean Olive"
You may remember that one year ago I emailed you asking for your
comment about this divergence in your panel between the poor
"performance" in differentiating loudspeakers while plumping
unerringly for the better ones. Did I misunderstand your introductory
summary where you say? " Significant differences in performance
expressed in terms of the magnitude of the loudspeaker F statistic Fl
were found among the different categories of listeners..... Performance

differences aside, loudspeaker preferences were generally
consistent...." On p. 808 you further define "performance*:"This
metric accounts for the listeners ability to discriminate between
loudspeakers as well as their ability to repeat their ratings."
I should say at this point that I am delighted to hear that you ask
people for preference rather than for differentiating one speaker from
another. That is the way I make my choices I will indulge in
speculation (admittedly) that human grey matter copes more easily with
"I like, I don't like" than with "This is different from the
other" when coping with a complex musical signal. In my amateurish
ignorance I may be completely wrong- if so I'll appreciate your
straightening me out..
But the view propagated by ABXers on the internet is that you listen to

A, then to B, then to X and then you're asked if X was more like A or
B. To me it seems to be standing research on its head when it comes to
comparing the musical performance of the audio components. If I
understand you correctly this is your view as well. You did DBT but not

ABX.. To demonstrate that I'm not ascribing views please look up the
typical posting by A. Krueger in the "Life and soul at a party"
thread in the rec.audio.opinion where NYOB put his "Guess what Sean
Olive..." thread
In conclusion I appreciate that DBT listening tests in your wonderful
and expensive facility- completely out of the reach of an average
audiophile- are invaluable. From that to recommending ABX testing for
use by every Tom Dick and Harry is a vast gulf. I can't help but
remind you boastfully that sight unseen, I identified from internal
evidence in your paper the worst speaker you tested . All I did was
to listen to it
I apologise for wasting your time on this storm in a teacup but I feel
I have no choice.
Regards Ludovic Mirabel


Reply

wrote in message
ups.com...
Dear Mr. Olive,
Incredibly today Nyob confesses: "I didn't use your name when I
sent him the quote of what you said"
The "quote" was his lie about a moronic statement that "a
preson" was supposed to have made.
He then he prints your comments on that idiocy naming me as its
author.
If this is not libellous abuse of your confidence then I don't
know what is.


Arny, it's about time for you to separate yourself from Mikey.
I have always credited you with possession of considerable intelligence, but
the same is not true of Mikey.
In choosing allies, choose wisely.
Noussaine is one of your better choices.