Well the dbt's seem impotent in matters of emotional realism as
discussed in the faq to this group. Yet everyone with another
idea get beat over the head endlessly by the dbt results.

They have their place, and I don't mind some of them.

But something is amiss. Too many components long term
will give satisfaction that others supposedly sounding the
same don't. Or too many that supposedly are more accurate
are less enjoyable to listen to long term. I have read all the
arguments about why this is so, and don't with to go thru it
again.

Those touting the dbt route as the only rational route to take
consider there is nothing real to investigate otherwise. I
find that hard to believe myself. And this difference of long
term satisfaction is what initially differentiated real 'high-end'
equipment (as defined by all the rest of the world not on this
newsgroup) from everything else. Yes, some commercial
high end stuff is snake oil. Most of the supposedly technical
explanations are bogus or worse made up. Yet some of the
better of that equipment seems to satisfy in ways the supposedly
accurate just as good equipment often doesn't.

And currently any meaningful discussion about that is not
possible here.

The way some people prove or disprove things is more of an
emotional feeling they have. Why is this, I don't know, but
it seems certain if there is anything to it, it won't show up in
double blind testing. How do you test for it? Even if it is nothing
more than self delusion, it is real in listening to music. And I
don't for a minute think you can take part in tests blind without
it so utterly destroying your emotional reactions that those tests
would only be expected to return to results but random.

Maybe if you had two things in sealed boxes, let people live with
them, and say they were more or less satisfied than the month
before you could. Do the switching blind, switch no more often
than monthly and see where the results took you. I don't see
that as likely to happen.

Dennis

If you don't want to see threads containing dbt discussions, why not
create your own newsgroup, like rec.audio.dbt-free, or
rec.audio.subjectivist? Or simply frequent those sections of Audio
Asylum where dbt's are banned?

A unique and very valuable feature of rec.audio.high-end is the
debunking of high-end myths, and dbt's, unfortunately for some, are a
necessary part of the debunking process. How else can you prove or
disprove the audible differences among cables, for instance, without
mentioning dbt's?