Comparative Listening Tests

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PeterA

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We did not measure simply because we did not have a meter, so yes, there is no proof that this difference was real. We did not investigate because this, amongst other things, would have implied to ask the manufacturer questions about the precise nature of the grounding scheme of his preamp. For all of this we just were not motivated enough.

How to reconcile this? Without confirmation by measurement I wouldn’t try to. Had it been confirmed by the meter and properly investigated we probably would have found a sound technical reason, and I would have accepted that based on such reason cables can make a difference. But then the question should be asked: why would someone pay big bucks for a cable which only makes things louder, when a simple turn of the volume knob delivers the same result for free?

Klaus

I am more curious to know what you would have thought if you perceived a change in volume by listening but an SPL meter told you there was no level difference. Would you then conclude that your perception was imaginary, and that the difference was not real or that there was some reason other than volume, and which you can not explain, that demonstrated to your ear/brain that there was indeed a difference between the two cables? Because you did not take a measurement and because you believe cables do not sound different, there is no need for you to reconcile anything. You do not seem curious enough to ask yourself what it means. It is easier to simply assume that your perception of a volume difference was not real.

As I shared, I had a similar experience recently. I thought I noticed a volume change between two cables and my host told me that the levels were matched. Combined with my belief that cables do sound different, I now conclude that I heard differences in tone, dynamics, and clarity which I interpreted, in part, as differences in volume.
 

amirm

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Amir, when I stated on your forum that I heard a difference by using the Shakti's, I meant it! Now, I couldn't give a rats ass whether that happens to fit into somebody's idea that this could not possibly be true unless there was some kind of scientific paper behind my experience.
We do give rat's ass about the science on ASR Forum. Indeed, the purpose of ASR forum is to a) have fun and b) discussion audio science. It says so on its mission statement. Pure statements of I hear this and that belong to plethora of other forums including this one.

Your ear brain comment is something that makes little sense to me....you might as well have said that we cannot hear anything if we are dead...or that we have a hearing issue if we are deaf. Hello!! kind of obvious...no??
No, I made a distinct point that is not obvious to audiophiles all around or they would not keep saying they "hear" this and that difference when they did not disentangle a highly willing mind to manufacture differences as my simple test I presented earlier clearly shows. Run that test and if you don't hear a difference then we can talk. Otherwise, that should be a revelation to many here and elsehwere.

I have been a pro musician and a'phile for over 30 years, does this make me unable to hear something in music when I experience it...you tell me?
Of course. I tell you that. And I tell myself and everybody else. And so does the entire body of audio science (both medical and for pleasure). I lived that way for 20+ year until the harsh reality was drilled into me. I took tests where the outcome was known and I flunked them so badly that putting the tail between my legs would have not remotely sufficed. :)

You could be in this hobby for a thousand years and still not know what we are talking about. You have to at some pointer entertain the idea of such tests, take them and then make the realization that I and thousands of other researchers have. And not just in this science but elsewhere. This is so conclusive that is not even subject to debate outside of these forums.

Just FYI, my young daughters who have no "training" in any of the areas that you profess...BUT who I will wager have far better hearing than you...or I...easily heard the difference with the Shakti's in my room and without. Sure science is there to build tests, but it is also there to VERIFY something that is reliably experienced by humans. IMHO, if the science doesn't exist yet to validate the experience, then that is simply because the science has not yet caught up with the reality. To state that something that is being experienced by somebody in a reliable fashion ( and BTW, I am clearly not the only one to have the same experience) is bogus, because the white paper doesn't exist, or the current science doesn't explain it--is highly unscientific and closed-minded/arrogant, IMO!:D
No, the science does exist to assess their value.

First let me dispense with the argument that i must not have heard them. I have. Here is a picture at friend's house that has them:



I attributed nothing to them being there.

Here is how to validate things:

1. Apply science. In this case acoustics which we can easily model. Such an analysis will show that the effects of such a device in the room with respect to soundwaves that hit it, is minute. It acts as a diffuser of sorts but due to very short and small dimensions, its effect is infinitesimal. So the notion we have no means to evaluate the device is just wrong. We absolutely know how to evaluate objects in a room and their effects on the sound waves.

2. Apply measurements. We can make measurements of difference and apply psychoacoustics analysis -- i.e. how we hear -- and determine the difference being audible or not. I bet that such a difference will get lost in the noise.

3. Use controlled listening tests. That means do an AB test and see if the person when using only their ear can detect they are even in the room let alone have a positive difference. Such tests will surely results in a negative outcome. It is like expecting one to know the dimensions of a room have changed after painting it, by just walking the room using one's feet.

Now you could challenge me to say these tests have not been done. But you can do them. Use your daughters as testers and do an AB test. You can take the test or they can. See if you can tell the difference and then we will all listen, pun intended. :)

In summary, there are no unknowns here. We know how acoustics of rooms work and can measure and simulate them. If no one wants to put any data forward to show their effectiveness, that is cool but that is the end of discussion. You can't keep stomping your feet saying folks who believe in proper analysis of such devices to accept your statement at face value. How would we ever find ineffective devices that way???

BTW, I hope after all of these discussions we walk away as friends. :) It is only audio. The level of animosity is just through roof on these topics. Passion is fine but let's just discuss the topic or abandon it if it becomes uncomfortable.
 

the sound of Tao

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Whoops... Accidentally posted in wrong thread... Content deleted and reposted in the right thread.
 
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stehno

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What is this supposed to mean? You do know that I am the co-founder of this forum, yes? Have you seen Steve's post count?

Amir, I'm well aware of you being one of the founders. I'm also aware you used to be the site administrator. I've not noticed Steve's 24,000 posts until you mentioned it. Yikes!!! But it seems many of Steve's posts are 1 or 2 liners (good, bad, or ugly) and rarely if ever having the appearance of ulterior motive. I could never say that about most of your posts which I try to avoid.

I pointed out your 15,000+ posts for at least the following reasons:

1. Because of your view and version of "science" for which you obviously are empassioned and because of the uncompromising view you have of its importance in perhaps all things related to high-end audio. IMO, often times to a great fault.

2. I've noticed (I could be wrong cuz I actually try to avoid you not track you) that you seem to remain mum while a thread is moving along at an enjoyable pace with members gently bantering ideas, concepts, products, technologies, etc. perhaps gathering steam and popularity. And then you enter the discussion at some might speculate an opportune time, maybe the bottom of the 8th inning when it's most popular with your version of science interjected (often times with many graphs, equations, dissertations, strange humor, etc) which also seems to be the beginning of the end of that thread. Perhaps it's just coincidence. But at the very least, it seems the thread's original topic and whatever enjoyment seems to cease when you or another science type intervenes. And with 15,000+ posts that seems like a lot of potential interventions.

3. I know your buddy Ethan's views all too well, with his Crown amplifier too. And I find everything about Ethan pertaining to "high-end" audio repulsive to say the least. I mean, here's a guy who claims all cables and all components sound the same and retain the original fidelity of the input signal. And if that ain't repulsive enough, somewhere in time past he authored a book entitled "The Audio Expert". Think about it. A guy who essentially admits he has a tin-ear is The Audio Expert and along with his many white papers wrote "The Audio Expert". When I consider the logic of this crap, the only thought that comes to my mind is, the end of time must be closer than it's ever been.​

If somebody is unable to hear audible distinctions in high-end audio, what is their possible motive for having anything to do with high-end audio-only forums in an industry where one's ability to hear distinctions means everything? I can think of several possible motives and they ain't got nothing to do with high-end audio.

I'm not sure anybody’s asked you so I’ll do so now. Ethan can't. Klaus can't. Have you ever heard audible distinctions between cables?
 

DaveyF

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I'm not sure anybody’s asked you so I’ll do so now. Ethan can't. Klaus can't. Have you ever heard audible distinctions between cables?

I'll answer that for Amir:eek:..... NO. Not unless, that is, the cables in question have a scientific white paper attached to them, and said white paper is acceptable to whomever believes themselves to be scientifically educated!

Here's another question for Amir....IF we are to simply trust all of the current science that we have in regards to sound, does this not assume that someone is able to hear the sound under test in the first place??
Or are we simply relying on a machine to tell us that the sound is there..or not, as the case may be??? Inquiring minds and all that.:rolleyes:

Amir, as to you attributing nothing to the Shakti's being there, one could postulate that you blindly dismissed the Shakti's as being beneficial as you assumed ( wrongly so, IMHO) that the look of these things couldn't possibly bring anything to the acoustics of the room. OTOH, the owner of that system, had them placed in his system and apparently did so for a reason....could that have possibly been because they in fact were beneficial to his sound field?? I will assume that you did not AB the sound of this guys room, with the Shakti's in place and without them. Which IF so, ( and I am pretty sure you didn't do this) would lead one to comment that your statement is .......closed minded, no??

Lastly you state: "BTW, I hope after all of these discussions we walk away as friends".
I agree 100% with this statement...:cool::D
 
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ddk

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It is a question of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The "high-end" is intrinsically a loose definition, built essentially around the result - a great subjective sound quality.

Everyone will agree that overpriced junk exists, it is part of the package, but fortunately it is globally acceptable. Audio forums should point the junk, not systematically attack the whole high-end.

For me modern high-end died a slow death in the 90's at the hands of HP & co., the wrong person had way too much influence. I lost my gear lust years ago too what remains important to me is the social aspect of this hobby which thanks to sites like WBF is thriving :)! Call me a cynic, snob or whatever but I just don't get turned on by most of what I hear these days :(...

david
 

ddk

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When food or beverage industry develops new products, controlled test are the standard. I even found publications investigating the crispiness of potato chips, under controlled test conditions.

I don't see the relevance with food Klaus and audio publications are probably least trusted of any industry!

I agree, without a solid definition high-end is meaningless, everything can be labelled high-end. But numbers alone can have a meaning provided they are based on solid research, Harman is a good example, where the ultimate goal is a single number reflecting the quality of a loudspeaker.

Klaus

For one I certainly don't care for Harman's scoring system nor do I buy into only numbers provide meaning when so much can't be measured and data can be manipulated, misrepresented or misinterpreted as often as it is in audio.

david
 

amirm

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For one I certainly don't care for Harman's scoring system nor do I buy into only numbers provide meaning when so much can't be measured and data can be manipulated, misrepresented or misinterpreted as often as it is in audio.

david
What scoring system? Ask Sean Olive to sit through their blind listening tests and you will use your ears, and only your ears to determine the best sound. Hundreds of people have sat through those tests. I have done this twice. And try as I might :), my preference scores matched that of majority -- both of the dealers in the same group and their larger studies.
 

ddk

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What scoring system? Ask Sean Olive to sit through their blind listening tests and you will use your ears, and only your ears to determine the best sound. Hundreds of people have sat through those tests. I have done this twice. And try as I might :), my preference scores matched that of majority -- both of the dealers in the same group and their larger studies.

Okay, they got you & others to score a certain way to support SO's hypothesis so what?

david
 

amirm

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I'll answer that for Amir:eek:..... NO. Not unless, that is, the cables in question have a scientific white paper attached to them, and said white paper is acceptable to whomever believes themselves to be scientifically educated!
My #1 belief basis is on controlled listening tests where we use our ears. Failing that, I resort to engineering, measurement and science. Since none of the audio tweaks come with controlled listening tests where only the ear was used, I am forced to interpret the efficacy of their product using other methods.

By the way, I had my hearing checked by an audiologist last year. He ran large number of tests (much more than the first time I had it done 20-30 years ago). All the tests were single blind. You think I would get as accurate of a result if I were looking at his monitor while he was presenting the tests?

Here's another question for Amir....IF we are to simply trust all of the current science that we have in regards to sound, does this not assume that someone is able to hear the sound under test in the first place?? Or are we simply relying on a machine to tell us that the sound is there..or not, as the case may be??? Inquiring minds and all that.:rolleyes:
The only science you need to believe is this: your brain easily, happily and routinely manufactures audible differences.

Again, I presented a test earlier where you listen to the same song over and over again and hear differences. There are countless proofs like this. If you don't believe in this, let's discuss it more. If you do believe in it, then you need to conduct tests that take this into account. Per above, medical science does this. Why is audio an exception?

As to your comment, no machine is telling you anything. We are simply observing that when a human is used as an audio measurement system, it comes with good and bad characteristics. We need to take advantage of good without the bad.

Amir, as to you attributing nothing to the Shakti's being there, one could postulate that you blindly dismissed the Shakti's as being beneficial as you assumed ( wrongly so, IMHO) that the look of these things couldn't possibly bring anything to the acoustics of the room. OTOH, the owner of that system, had them placed in his system and apparently did so for a reason....could that have possibly been because they in fact were beneficial to his sound field?? I will assume that you did not AB the sound of this guys room, with the Shakti's in place and without them. Which IF so, ( and I am pretty sure you didn't do this) would lead one to comment that your statement is .......closed minded, no??
I asked my friend about it and he said it made a positive difference. Wanting to remain friends, I did not challenge him on that and instead, enjoyed tape after tape. :) There certainly was no harm introduced there so no reason to jump up and down about it.

Now what I described is the conclusion in my friend's mind based on faulty audio evaluation. I am confident that based on proper evaluation the effect of this device on audible soundwaves that we perceive is zero. And no, this is not being closed minded. If I told my doctor that someone online says taking massive amount of vitamins cured his cancer, should he be open minded and go and chase that? Or should he say that such stories do not follow accepted protocols and hence there is no reason to chase them?

Personally I am open minded even to a fault. To wit, I am happy to participate at my expense to evaluate this and any other tweak using our ears and only our ears to see if they are effective. Are you game? Are you open minded to experiments that do this and would potentially show zero value?

Sitting here I have next to me a $300 AC outlet that I am confident will do zero to improve audio performance. Yet, I still bought the thing to test. Who here has done such things in reverse? Jkenny? Stehno? Anyone else? How come you all are not open minded that your audio beliefs and methods of evaluation may be horrifically wrong? I don't even know if anyone has run my simple exercise that takes a few seconds and costs nothing. So why am I being asked to be open minded?
 

amirm

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Okay, they got you & others to score a certain way to support SO's hypothesis so what?

david

That assumes pretty low audio IQ on my part if the managed to get me this way. :D

BTW, you know the low cost Ching Cheng power audio cable brand you were talking about in the other thread? My Mark Levinson monoblock amplifiers came with those cables!!!



So maybe you have more ideas in common with them. :)
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
That assumes pretty low audio IQ on my part if the managed to get me this way. :D

BTW, you know the low cost Ching Cheng power audio cable brand you were talking about in the other thread? My Mark Levinson monoblock amplifiers came with those cables!!!



So maybe you have more ideas in common with them. :)

Actually that's not the one David uses

Search their site. They make over 100 power cords.

Just another big yawn.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
That assumes pretty low audio IQ on my part if the managed to get me this way. :D

BTW, you know the low cost Ching Cheng power audio cable brand you were talking about in the other thread? My Mark Levinson monoblock amplifiers came with those cables!!!



So maybe you have more ideas in common with them. :)

Actually that's not the one David uses

Search their site. They make over 100 power cords.

Just another big yawn.
 

853guy

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Aug 14, 2013
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Personally I am open minded even to a fault. To wit, I am happy to participate at my expense to evaluate this and any other tweak using our ears and only our ears to see if they are effective. Are you game? Are you open minded to experiments that do this and would potentially show zero value?

Sitting here I have next to me a $300 AC outlet that I am confident will do zero to improve audio performance. Yet, I still bought the thing to test. Who here has done such things in reverse? Jkenny? Stehno? Anyone else? How come you all are not open minded that your audio beliefs and methods of evaluation may be horrifically wrong? I don't even know if anyone has run my simple exercise that takes a few seconds and costs nothing. So why am I being asked to be open minded?

Hi Amir,

"Being open minded" and purchasing an object to test while declaring you are confident it will do zero to improve audio performance is not only indicative of selective exposure on your part, but at best, a form of confirmation bias that renders your self-described "open-mindedness" to be completely questionable, and at worst, a flagrant display of experimenter bias suggesting a deficiency of robustness in your ability to design and conduct experiments with any scientific credibility.

Hope you are well.

853guy
 

jkeny

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Hi Amir,

"Being open minded" and purchasing an object to test while declaring you are confident it will do zero to improve audio performance is not only indicative of selective exposure on your part, but at best, a form of confirmation bias that renders your self-described "open-mindedness" to be completely questionable, and at worst, a flagrant display of experimenter bias suggesting a deficiency of robustness in your ability to design and conduct experiments with any scientific credibility.

Hope you are well.

853guy

I too have mentioned, many times Ron Party's phrase of "intellectual dishonesty" in regard to this & other claims from Amir - I find that people who have to claim open-mindedness have an obvious issue that their actions don't match their claim.
 

DaveyF

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Amir, before we go any further, let me state that I completely agree that there are far too many bogus concepts and far too much 'BS' in this hobby. I have heard a lot of them, and have heard no difference whatsoever in the presentation with the piece under question, in or out of the system. ( Mine or someone else's).
However, I have always done one thing with the gear presented....listened with my own ears- and preferably in either a system I am very familiar with, or my own system. I have never just assumed that because the piece in question LOOKS suspicious that it cannot work as advertised. You stated that you attributed nothing to this piece of gear...NOTHING. This without any back ground as far as I can tell. What I strongly object to is posters at your forum trying to ridicule me ( and my hearing ability) along with the Shakti's, and yet they have absolutely NO experience whatsoever with this piece of gear. NONE. You want to justify that position--which to me is an untenable position. If, for no other reason, than the fact that you have not heard your friends room with the Shakti's- and without. To say nothing about having them in your system. Instead you want to state that they cannot work, because IYHO they are "unscientific"!! Now, if that is not closed minded, I don't know what is.....:confused:
 

DaveyF

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Jul 31, 2010
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Hi Amir,

"Being open minded" and purchasing an object to test while declaring you are confident it will do zero to improve audio performance is not only indicative of selective exposure on your part, but at best, a form of confirmation bias that renders your self-described "open-mindedness" to be completely questionable, and at worst, a flagrant display of experimenter bias suggesting a deficiency of robustness in your ability to design and conduct experiments with any scientific credibility.

Hope you are well.

853guy

+1000
 

cjfrbw

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i really like Amir's ASR site. It is so full of INFORMATION that will take me a long time to digest even a portion.

My problem with hard core objectivists is that they have a few measuring instruments that they think account for everything, and they have a tendency ignore brain processing and brain/perceptual plasticity.

I actually enjoy the hard core subjectivists because they are poetic and look for inspiration, freshness, and new vistas. That doesn't mean I want to go where they go or the fantasies that they indulge, however exotic. Art is important because it is a major feature of music and the hobby, and that will always have an element of the phantasmagoric. There is also the "chasing the dragon" element of wishing to recreate the euphoric recall of peak experiences routinely. Unfortunately, they tend to be random and not so easily summoned, even with great systems.

Amir's comment that the brain manufactures differences even when the external data feed remains the same says a lot.

It doesn't matter how good your system is, you ear brain system will eventually acclimate to it and perhaps grow bored. You will hear something that sounds slightly different, your attention will be drawn, you will concentrate and hear something in a different way, and you will believe you have discovered a new audio talisman in the outside world and run naked down the street screaming "Eureka"!

I think a system can benefit from having ways to challenge the brain's plasticity without necessarily endorsing magic. Some guys do it with different cartridges and TTs, some do it by throwing money at components, I do it by changing around tubes and component arrangements mostly.

I "think" I have heard cable differences, too. My own speculation is that if an audiophile were really devoted, they would hard wire their system with solder joints from wall through speakers with no interfaces. Displacing a particular run of wire would then probably be perceptually insignificant. The myriad of interfaces themselves present variability problems.

Also, along the lines of perceptual plasticity, I think cable differences are quickly relegated to insignificance by brain accommodation. With vision, that would be like stepping from a somewhat lighter room into a somewhat darker room. After a few minutes, brain processing would make them more or less equivalent. With cables, the initial thrill of hearing a difference in a cable is probably drowned in the processing milieu after a minute or two, assuming it existed in the first place.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
To carry Amir's comments one step further about him and his gifted ears a case in point is his review of the Ultra 11 new flagship speaker by VSA. Every reviewer who heard that room stated it to be the best in show and another reviewer said it was the best in show ever. Now along comes Amir who trashes the sound and once again craps on MB cables. He faulted the setup by placing the speakers along the width rather than the length of the room. Now isn't he smart when the room was 30 x 30 foot square. He commented about faulty placement of tube traps whereas in reality these were designed and set up by Art Noxon. And finally when we talk about intellectual dishonesty let us not forget the thread 3 weeks ago when Amir was so sure of himself only to get proved wrong over and over by jkeny and opus112. Rather than saying to them that he understands their point and admits he was wrong, instead he does what he always does when he's wrong and disappears off the site for 2 weeks hoping it would blow over.

DaveyF makes strong points

So let's talk about intellectual dishonesty when the person who preaches it is himself more guilty than the rest of us.
 
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