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General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories.

RE: It doesn't have to be.

I don't disagree - I am not against blind level matched listening. You don't want to be buying something entirely on name brand. Marketing issues are huge and they are getting to kids at very early ages. And with audio you don't want to buy something that is deemed better because it is 3db louder when a turn of the volume could have helped out the other product.

Ideally a test is highly valid not just highly reliable. The audio testing done that I have seen is highly reliable, in a way, but validity is more important and it is highly questionable. You want the listening to be as close to the normal way a person listens to music. A Test in these audio discussions or in education is not a representative indication of ability except within the confines of the test. The test itself is a form of bias.

The human brain generally dislikes tests and seeks the fastest route to solve a problem even by producing wrong answers.

The analogy is clouds. The eye and brain react to formless globs of white and your brain is set-up to "draw a picture" from past experience, seeing a rabbit where non exists, to fill in the puzzle so that it can move on.

I digress
I go back to Hi-Fi Choice because while not an AES approved (who cares they're not psychologists) they're on a better track because they have removed the "test" stumbling block. They have a level matched blind listening panel - that panel of many people go in and listen blind and if one speaker is preferred to the others, or shock horror a cable, then you can say that most if not everyone in the panel chose product X and they chose it blind level matched. Problem is that even if 19/20 chose A over B that still means 1 person likes B over A and how does any reader know they would not have sided with the 1 person over the other 19. Just playing percentages which if it's your money is not very helpful.


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  • RE: It doesn't have to be. - RGA 06/6/0815:15:38 06/6/08 (0)

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