Finally, I'd like to add a few thoughts about the A/B/X testing method. Not knowing what I was hearing made for a very intense listening session. During the A/B part, obviously we knew there were two different cables being heard, and we simply described the differences, if any, between the two. That part was fairly easy. The test changed when we heard the third X part. We did not know if you switched cables again or not. Now we were being asked to remember the sound of the previous two cables while listening to unfamiliar music and identify if the third cable was the same as the first or the second. I found this test to be fundamentally different from the first test. We were not listening for differences, but instead testing our recall ability. I thought I correctly identified it, but was clearly wrong. That knowledge of failing the test then influenced my listening for the rest of the evening and contributed to an overall very confusing listening session. I don't know much about blind testing. The fact that I failed it and that you are clearly certain which cable you prefer means either that this kind of testing is somehow flawed, that I am not a good testing subject and poor listener, or that bias may enter into your decision, or something else entirely. I don't really know.
Peter,
you a "poor listener"? it is obvious to me that you are an excellent listener. You always make astute observations, which also have helped me many times to improve my system.
The problem seems to lie more in blind tests. ABX proponents view humans as scientific objects, as lab rats, as it were. We aren't. As has been observed by others, these tests induce psychological stress, as well as expectations, which can be detrimental to our cognitive abilities.
Also sighted tests can be problematic, even when you are certain that there is little bias against an expected improvement. I once did a test of a well regarded power cable on my CD transport, and was perfectly willing to spend the extra grand for it. I did rigorous testing, one parameter at a time (e.g., tone, detail, dynamics, rhythm & timing etc.), and a number of times I thought there was a difference. Only, switching back there just wasn't. Due to all these false positive flags It took me a long time to decide there indeed was no difference. It was exhausting. Towards the end, when I had already concluded that if there was any difference it was not significant enough to buy the cable, and I was just simply curious to hear any difference at all, the false positives still kept creeping up here and there.
The best thing, as several here at WBF have suggested, may be to take your time with one component in a stress-free manner, get to live with it for a while, and then switch back to assess if there was any meaningful difference to you.