In Reply to: John Atkinson's Rebuttal of Ben Goldacre's "Bad Science" posted by bjh on April 22, 2006 at 10:49:11:
When Stereophile's reviewers actually prove they can hear the difference between 3 foot interconnects and 12 foot speaker cables, I'll pay attention to those kinds of reviews. They seldom even bother to measure their performance. Some magazines have done blind tests with some controls and also some of the audio clubs.Stereophile measures the performance of products given full reviews, but they don't bother to establish that their reviewers can actually hear the difference between most CDPs, amplifiers, and so on.
Speakers will sound different, not needing a blind test to establish that, and John Atkinson does a good set of measurements those given a full review. Subjective reviews depend on the tastes of the reviewer, which may differ from those of the reader, and on the reviewers ability to say something intelligent about them. Even so the results are likely to differ under blind conditions.
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Follow Ups
- Well, blind tests have it all over sighted listening for reliability. - Pat D 04/23/0614:01:25 04/23/06 (52)
- Pat, here's a bone... - mkuller 13:46:08 04/26/06 (0)
- OK but they are never used, Makes them irellevent for us don't you think??? - Robert Hamel 10:03:31 04/24/06 (1)
- Re: OK but they are never used, Makes them irellevent for us don't you think??? - Pat D 17:11:57 04/24/06 (0)
- Reliability for determining what? - E-Stat 19:14:08 04/23/06 (22)
- Re: Reliability for determining what? - old2randr 06:23:56 04/24/06 (21)
- How do you know you have "reliably" measured the results? - E-Stat 06:40:08 04/24/06 (20)
- Use a large sample size like drug trials n/t - old2randr 07:03:36 04/24/06 (19)
- bad comparison - Bruce from DC 07:48:47 04/24/06 (14)
- Re: bad comparison - old2randr 15:57:38 04/24/06 (10)
- Re: "scientific comparisons must be repeatable" - Bruce from DC 15:59:46 04/25/06 (0)
- :) - E-Stat 19:48:19 04/24/06 (3)
- Re: :) - old2randr 21:37:59 04/24/06 (2)
- You answered your own question - E-Stat 04:40:34 04/25/06 (0)
- Re: :) - bjh 23:02:08 04/24/06 (0)
- This is a rather one sided - bjh 17:25:24 04/24/06 (3)
- Re: This is a rather one sided - Ozzie 20:52:23 05/5/06 (0)
- Re: This is a rather one sided - old2randr 21:52:13 04/24/06 (1)
- Re: This is a rather one sided - bjh 22:50:11 04/24/06 (0)
- Yep! - Pat D 17:01:45 04/24/06 (0)
- Re: bad comparison - LarryB 08:45:19 04/24/06 (1)
- jeez, that's a broad statement - Bruce from DC 10:05:47 04/24/06 (0)
- There is another reason for the comparison being ill suited - bjh 08:11:45 04/24/06 (0)
- I'll say it again - E-Stat 07:21:44 04/24/06 (3)
- Agreed. - old2randr 15:42:33 04/24/06 (2)
- And hence to make claims - bjh 16:09:15 04/24/06 (1)
- That is quite wrong ... - old2randr 21:59:39 04/24/06 (0)
- Make a claim - provide the evidence... - mkuller 15:06:34 04/23/06 (16)
- I just accept the science in the field. - Pat D 18:17:18 04/23/06 (15)
- So you have no evidence - where's the comparative data? (nt) - mkuller 13:14:13 04/25/06 (14)
- I don't tell the pharmacists about pharmacy . . . - Pat D 13:56:57 04/25/06 (13)
- This is an audio hobbyist group. . . - mkuller 14:12:40 04/25/06 (12)
- If your DBTs are SO reliable... - Ozzie 18:36:01 04/27/06 (0)
- Re: This is an audio hobbyist group. . . - Pat D 18:33:00 04/25/06 (10)
- Four out of five dentists recommend Crest. . . - mkuller 22:37:38 04/25/06 (5)
- You misunderstand totally. - Pat D 05:57:30 04/26/06 (4)
- the blind men and the elephant - Bruce from DC 11:10:52 04/26/06 (1)
- Re: the blind men and the elephant - Pat D 20:09:22 04/26/06 (0)
- Expert shmexpert - show me the comparative data...(nt) - mkuller 10:08:50 04/26/06 (1)
- If you want to place your views on the same level as that of respected researchers, that's fine, but . . . - Pat D 15:41:40 04/26/06 (0)
- " I have been able to show how silly ...." - bjh 18:39:55 04/25/06 (3)
- Re: " I have been able to show how silly ...." - Ozzie 21:08:58 05/5/06 (0)
- So audio hobbyists need not be constrained by truth or evidence? - Pat D 19:26:08 04/25/06 (1)
- So audio hobbyists need not be constrained by truth or evidence? - Ozzie 21:12:31 05/5/06 (0)
- What care you for listening evaluations? After all - bjh 14:32:38 04/23/06 (8)
- You don't know what you are talking about. - Pat D 18:05:20 04/23/06 (7)
- Measurements, "reliability ... WAF", great! But again, what care you for listening evaluations? nt - bjh 18:39:55 04/23/06 (6)
- As I said, you don't know what your are talking about. - Pat D 18:45:06 04/23/06 (5)
- wow, the only thing missing here is - hifitommy 06:24:36 04/24/06 (0)
- "I expect the thing measures well enough to be audibly transparent." Would listening in such a case be necessary? LOL nt - bjh 18:50:48 04/23/06 (3)
- So? Why wouldn't I listen to it? Come on, tell us. - Pat D 19:07:26 04/23/06 (2)
- It's only logical that given two preamplifiers that measured - bjh 20:13:56 04/23/06 (0)
- Good heavens, man! You don't call that 'logic' do you? - Pat D 16:39:05 04/24/06 (0)