"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...

I seriously doubt that many of them will take responsibility for their
actions any more than their no-nothing leader. There are at least two SP
reviewers who are reasonbly factual. But the vast majority of them *listen*
with their eyes, and would be hard pressed if confined to using just their
ears in a level-matched, time-synched test. A DBT shoot-out would be a
slaughter. Note that they've all had many years of free chances to train
their ears how to do DBTs at their own convenience.

The real problem is not being tested under pressure. The real problem is the
amount of time it can take to distinguish subtleties. It's not at all uncommon,
for example, to have things around you that look the same, even though your
eyesight is good enough to distinguish differences between them. Then after
time you notice something you never noticed before, because of the lighting, or
your mood, or whatever. This might take minutes, hours, or years. Then you can
notice it quite clearly. Maybe you try on 2 pairs of shoes in the store, and
they both feel comfortable. You buy them both. Over time you realize you start
favoring one over the other. A small problem in one that you didn't notice at
first starts to get your attention and annoy you over time.

The same can be true with music. So the real problem is the length of time it
would take to do a real-world double blind test. It is pretty impractical. Of
course, this relates to subtle differences. If someone is saying there are
"dramatic" differences but can't hear them in a DBT then we have a problem.