Martyn Miles
pfm Member
‘It’s about time we had another cable thread’
I think not...
I think not...
nobody isAnd you are bias-free??
Nic P
Personally I have tried blind listening tests and I hate them, I get listening fatigue very quickly and cannot tell any differences reliably.
What took you so long? I VERY strongly disagree with you and have comprehensively proved you very wrong on this several times before, so unless you wish to go back to a circular argument, in which I tell you that you are wrong in every post, I suggest we leave it at that...
I listen to the new piece of equipment or cable for a week and then swap back for a week, and then swap back again and decide if there is any improvement, and if there is whether it is worth the investment.So what method do you use to avoid the effects of confirmation bias?
I listen to the new piece of equipment or cable for a week and then swap back for a week, and then swap back again and decide if there is any improvement, and if there is whether it is worth the investment.
How does that avoid being affected by confirmation bias?
There is in my (expert) opinion no way of avoiding any expectation bias.
I don't want new equipment to sound better, I am just deciding on how to spend my money to give me more listening pleasure. New equipment frequently fails my test, so this supports my view that my subjective test method may be flawed but not by expectation bias.
Blind tests based on shortish test passages of music are I think very flawed.
Double blind tests are used for that specific purpose in many fields, not only in audio.
Unfortunately your method totally fails to account for the possibility that there actually isn't any difference, but your expectation is that there is one.
Nothing limits the length of the tests or the choice of material in double blind testing.
Have you ever seen a double blind test with more than 10 minute test passages? Of course not, it isn't practical.
Yes, I have seen many. My best example is the number of upsampled "hi res" albums off several on-line shops, where a lot of people reported the "hi res" versions sounding "soo much better than plain CD", until people doing spectral analysis showed there was no difference.
Double blind tests are used for that specific purpose in many fields, not only in audio.
I will try harder for a couple of weeks, but right now, I have to really try to hear differences and I dont. they basically sound exactly the same. bit dissapointing.
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That's expectation bias!and see if they also sound exactly like the high ends one, I bet most will.
trying to hear a difference is already telling me that any differences are so minimal as to being irrelevant.Trying harder is the wrong method IMO. I couldn't care less which cables in my collection I use but over a long period of time I always gravitate back to the same ones - mains, phono and speaker cables.
That's expectation bias!
And yet few if any in other fields are conducted in a way that resembles double-blind ABX testing in audio.
"Here, take this drug. Now, take this placebo. Now, take this unidentified pill, and tell us if it's the drug or the placebo."
the last resource for cable believers: to dismiss blind test.
go right ahead and believe that you are unbiased when it comes to hearing differences between cables. who cares?
this was my unscientific test:
DAC is Schiit yggdrasil. it has two separate outputs so I get to connect two different IC's into my headphone amp, the Pro Ican which has 3 inputs. by the turn of a switch, I can A-B test, so in half a second, I can switch between cable A and cable B.
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Honestly, im scratching my head here.
I have 6 interconnects here, ranging from 500$ to 100$ retail value.
Cardas quadlink 200$
Cardas neutral ref 300$
Audioquest Water 500$
Analysis plus one oval 100$
Kimber hero 100$
MIT2 100$
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I cannot distinguish any of them accurately.
they sound so close to each other that its a bit ridiculous to try to describe the difference.
I will try harder for a couple of weeks, but right now, I have to really try to hear differences and I dont. they basically sound exactly the same. bit dissapointing.
just for fun, ill throw in couple of 1$ IC's and see if they also sound exactly like the high ends one, I bet most will.