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RE: Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and WAV files

Not a single person making this claim has actually proven it using a blind test. Which is shocking (and a bit sad) . . .

I agree with you that much "subjectivist" talk is voodoo but pretty much everything relating to perception that claims to be "objective" in audio is IMHO worse. Trials performed under the "objective" banner almost never follow any half-way credible experimental procedure, however basic, rarely report test design, even more rarely use any form of control or assess the statistical significance of their results, never ever have a strategy for selecting subjects (except when guaranting unreliability by selecting only visitors to one's stand at a trade show), etc etc. In short, people can bleat for hours about "blind" and "ABX" and "objective" and sneer at critics to their hearts content but almost every "objective" test in audio has failure built in. By the same token, those that don't are rarely appreciated. What's sad is that proponents of "objectivism" do not grasp that basic (objective, even) fact.

The typical "blind" flac v wav test that doesn't reveal a difference tells you nothing. Think about it. OTOH, one that does show a repeatable difference shows only that the differences in the setup used are so gross that even a DIY experiment reveals them; I could easily design an experiment that would "prove" just that. As could you if you wanted to but your results would be as meaningless as mine.

I see very few "objective" audio-related tests with any objective worth, however stridently their merits are proclaimed (that silly Meyer-Moran trial a case in point). There is nothing wrong in asking the wife to participate in informal trials (I do it all the time) but I at least am clear that it's a parlour game, about as "objective" as a UFO report and as reliable as those picture of crop circles. Do not delude yourself that there is anything remotely "objective" about them.

Reliable experiments for testing the limits of perception are very difficult to perform and need apparatus way beyond any DIY experimenter. For all the faults of "subjectivism" and for all it opens the door to charlatans, its more thoughtful advocates have at least grasped that much.

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