On Sun, 5 Sep 2004 05:08:52 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

"Robert Morein" wrote in message

"John Atkinson" wrote in message
om...
"Michael McKelvy" wrote in message
link.net...
This is excerpted from a thread on the diyaudio.com website
I thought Arny might wish to weigh in either here or there on
the matter.

You didn't include the link to the Stereophile article on
double-blind testing. It is http://www.stereophile.com/features/141 .

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

John,
Good article.

It's a biased misleading POS designed to appeal to people who want to
believe in magic, not science.

From the article:

The ABX Comparator system, which I helped develop, has been refined
during the 10 years of its existence by the suggestions of many
audiophiles and scientists. Some hardware improvements of this system
can even be traced to the pages of this magazine (Vol.5 No.5). Other
inputs have resulted in the development of double-blind listening
tests which require no switching. The reason for perfecting listening
tests is to develop the ability to hear sonic improvements when they
exist as sound, rather than as mere claims. To quote the esteemed J.
Gordon Holt on the subject of double-blind testing, "The losers will
be the dissemblers, the frauds, and those skilled in the art of
autohype. The winners, ultimately, will be music and the rest of us
who are interested in the maximal fidelity of reproduced music."—David
Clark
--------------------
Does Mr. Clark now consider you a turncoat, since you've in essence
called him a POS?

Then of course, there's this bit of POS:

"The human brain is best at making sense out of nonsense. Humans tend
to find differences and distinctions whether they exist or not. The
research of Richard M. Warren, Diana Deutsch, and others, confirms
that humans can decipher a word obscured by noise as much as a minute
after a sentence was spoken (footnote 8). This same potential can, at
times, create the wrong word. We can misunderstand and still believe
firmly we heard a word different than the one spoken. This is not a
defect. It allowed our ancestors to survive by detecting threats
through noise. Sometimes they overreacted and called out defences when
no mastodon approached. This did no harm".
---------------------

Totally absurd, innit, Arnold? Taling about prehistoric mammals and
all. What does *that* have to do with audio? Plus, everyone knows how
short the auditory memory is. Who does this guy think he is, going
against conventional wisdom like that?

Once again, RAO should applaud you for alerting it to the horribly
misleading POS that Mr. Atkinson has attempted to foist upon it.