"John Richards" wrote in message
...
I'm not a scientist or a mathematician, nor am I a "golden eared"
audiophile. I'm sure my comments will be dismissed and/or ridculed by
most of you but since this is a public discussion forum I will jump in.

The crux of most of the arguments that I have read seem to be the ability
or inability to hear differences in certain audio components. For the
sake of this discussion, I'll direct my comments to amplifiers only.

The "objectivists" have already *proven* that *all* competently designed
amplifiers sound alike.

**Not quite. The flaw in this argument is what constitutes "competently
designed".

They proved this many years ago by having test
subjects listen for short periods of time to different amplifiers without
knowing the identity of the amplifiers, and concluded that because
statistics tell them that the listeners could not reliably distinguish
between the two, then there cannot be and will never be a difference.

**And again, not quite. Most of the tests were flawed, in some critical
ways. Here are a few which spring to mind:

* The ancilliary equipment was of poor quality.
* Many of the listeners were of poor quality (there is no point having
uneducated listeners in any audio trial).
* The condictions may not have been conducive for low stress testing for
listeners.


The "subjectivists" (primarily those with a vested interest in the
"high-end") claim that these tests are flawed and that an individual
component has to be listened to for an extended period of time in a
familiar environment to identify differences.

What about a test where the subjects are the actual reviewers who claim
there are differences. Let them actually *review* each amplifier
independently, without knowing the identity of the amplifiers, as they
would normally do and see if they come up with consistent comments
regarding any similarities and/or differences between the amplifiers.
Have them write a short review after each listening session describing the
sound. If all the reviews are consistent among the reviewers, identifying
similar sound characteristics for the same amplifier and different sound
characteristic for different amplifiers, then I think it would be safe to
say that *these* subjects could hear a difference.

**There is nothing wrong with ABX testing, per se. It is an excllent method
of determining if there is a difference between products. The problems creep
in, when typical test methods are used. A better method would be (say): To
allow a listener to keep two (or three) products in his/her own system, for
an extended period, switching between competing products and identifying the
preferred product. Nothing in ABX testing precludes this procedure.


--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au