"Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!"
wrote in message
ups.com


If all amps sound the same, and all CD players sound the
same, and all preamps sound the same, and all wire sounds
the same, why would one even bother to test them?

Not all of them do.

If the
measurements are within 'audible limits' as has been
discussed in other threads, it seems very pointless for
hobbyists to bother with. Just read the spec sheet.

Common spec sheets are far from sufficient to determine from measurements
that the piece of equipment is sonically blameless.

We know that tubes and LP can sound different from SS and
CD.

So say the least.

We know that some people have preferences both ways.

Currently its about 99.99% prefer SS, and the rest either don't know or
prefer toobs.

We know that speakers sound different. We know that
speaker selection is a preference. There is no need to
blind test.

Not so fast. Even though hearing differences between speakers is generally
pretty easy, there's still the matter of preference. Preferences can be
affected by sight. For example, if you know that a certain speaker is highly
regarded and another is unknown, will your evaluation be guided by just
sound quality or will it be affected by the reputation of the
highly-regarded speaker?

I do not claim to be an 'audio researcher' or a
manufacturer. Are you? And if you are, I think that you
should use whatever test protocol suits your purposes as
an audio researcher or manufacturer. Personally, I get
the impression that most of us here are hobbyists, and
NOT 'audio researchers' or 'manufacturers.'

It's all about how badly you want to reliably know which audio products
sound best.

If you want an evaluation that is colored by your preconceived notions, or
the appearance or reputation of the products being compared, then by all
means do sighted evaluations.

If you want to know which is best based solely on sound quality, then do
bias-controlled evaluations.

It's a matter of personal choice - the means to achieve either outcome are
well-known and can be used with only a reasonable amount of difficulty.