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The problem is the wrong question

Some observations about this thread:

I think you are right that the issue is in study design. I wonder how the ABX bigots will attack your statistical analysis?

However, I don't think the people who refuse to acknowledge the value of ABX testing feel that they are at odds with science. In my case I feel at odds with something closer to the Spanish Inquisition, or the establishment that imprisoned Galileo for daring to question the accepted order.....

In my opinion, the ABX discussions/debates/circle jerks tend to be polarized in part because the tests were designed (and are used) to "prove" the absence of a difference. It's absolutely pointless. It would be like running clinical trials to prove that no drugs help Cancer treatment. Why do it?

What we need are tools to help understand differences and what causes them. There is very little discussion of better ways to identify subjective effects and correlate them with engineering choices. In practice, designers like John do this all the time; they develop a sense of the likely sound of a component that will result from a given design. The fact that large numbers of people can describe the "house sound" of an amp manufacturer certainly supports this, unless of course even that is simply mass hysteria...

There is also the problem that we are trying to measure an emotional response, but asking ABX test subjects to make an analytical distinction. Listening to music is fundamentally different from listening for differences in reproduction.

ABX testing is designed to test the audibility of differences. I don't see any way it could be claimed to help identify "better".

For me, the bottom line on system improvements is the level of emotional involvement that the system can evoke.

Peter



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